< Previous | Contents | Next >
Arnold Worthies and Notables.
Where no effort has been made by the churches or schools to preserve a remembrance of men and women who have endeavoured to be of service to their fellows it is difficult to complete a satisfactory list, as some will be omitted who ought to be included, and others of less note may be unduly magnified. Still such a list ought to be attempted, for men are of more importance than buildings. Some of the persons here named may be regarded as notable only.
Dr. Wright Allen, Surgeon, was a very useful man, always active and cheerful, delighting to be of use to anybody. He died in 1887, aged 83.
Luke Barton, hosier, of Arnold, is mentioned in Felkin's "History of Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace," as having in 1838 patented the first wide rotary frame in which the stitches were shifted automatically, and all the other operations of the frame performed without the stoppage of the machine. It had also other ingenious contrivances.
Richard Parkes Bonington was born in Arnold on October 25th, 1802, tradition says in the large house in High Street, south of Bond Street. His mother (nee Miss Parkes) kept an academy for girls, and she was a woman of great ability, refinement, and high qualities, well fitted to train a son who became distinguished; the father, however, although an artist of some ability, was too fond of company, the public-house parlour, and politics, to accomplish any good. The son, in his leisure time, was always sketching, and afterwards by incessant industry and study in France and Italy became a distinguished artist, so that his pictures sold for as much as three thousand guineas. He died in 1828, and a beautiful statue of him has been erected by Mr. Watson Fothergill by the side of the Nottingham School of Art. A paper on his life was read by Mr. R. Mellors before the Thoroton (Antiquarian) Society in 1909, and appeared in their Transactions. A number of his pictures may be seen in the Wallace Collection in London, one or two in the Nottingham Castle Museum, and a few at the "Louvre" at Paris.
Richard Parkes Bonnington was baptised as an infant at the High Pavement Chapel at Nottingham.
In a notice sent recently (July, 1913) to the "Nottingham Guardian Literary Supplement," Mr. John Lane says Bonington's "drawings in the Victoria and Albert Museum are of a very high order," and among his pictures are mentioned "Le Grand Canal a Venise," "Bologne," "An Albanian," " Peveril of the Peak."
Francis Burton was a Solicitor, who lived at and largely rebuilt and improved Red Hill Lodge. Mr. Burton died in 1892, aged 78. His daughter was married to the Rev. E. M. Vaughan, then Vicar of St. Paul's, Daybrook, afterwards of Old Basford, and now Rector of Clifton.
The Rev. Daniel Chadwicke, afterwards Vicar of Arnold, is believed to be the same gentleman as the Incumbent of Tollerton.
The Parliamentary Commissioners of 1650 reported:—"Alsoe the Rectory or Parsonage of Tollerton which is worth fower-score and tenne pounds per Annum Philip Pendocke Esquier the now Patron Daniel Chadwicke Clerke the present Incumbent who receives the Tythes of the said Parsonage to his own vse there being allowed unto Gervase Pendocke Clerke from whome the same is sequestred the Glebe lands as a fifth part for his wife and children the said Mr Chadwicke haveing Cure of soules there diligently supplies the Cure in his owne person being a godly preachinge Minister."
According to the minutes of the meetings of Presbyterian Ministers held in Nottingham, Mr. Chadwicke attended on Sept. 22nd, 1658, and on Jan. 25th, 1658-9, he offered prayer at the ordination of a minister. It appears probable that he continued at Tollerton until 1662, the Restoration having taken place in 1660, for the Rev. Cuthbert Stote was instituted Vicar of Tollerton on 4th Feb., 1662, whereas the Uniformity Act was not passed until the 19th May following. When the five mile act came in force, 1665, Mr. Chadwicke conformed. In 1666, he was Curate in charge of Arnold, and Sequestrator of the living, apparently to continue till 1683, when he was presented to the Vicarage by the Earl of Devon, which office he held until his death.
In July, 1669, the Rev. Dr. Harcourt, Archdeacon of Nottingham, issued a letter to his clergy, by special direction from His Majesty, and the Privy Council, signified through the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York, in which he desired them "to make enquiry after conventicles, or unlawful meetings, under pretence of religion and the worship of God, by such as separate themselves from the unitie and uniformitie" of the church. This enquiry was made under the Conventicle Act, 1664, which forbade more than five persons to assemble under colour or pretence of any exercise of religion in other manner than is allowed by the liturgy or practice of the Church of England.
The Rev. Daniel Chadwicke, in reference to Arnold, reported "There is a private meeting, or conventicle, kept once a week, and sometimes at the house of Robert Walker, sometimes at that of Mr. Fillingham. The number of persons as far as I can learn is about ten or a dozen."
There were two Chadwicke weddings in 1685,—(a) Master William Griffith, of Grays Inne, and Mistress Elizabeth Chadwicke, April 5th, 1685; and (b) Thomas Mansfield, Gent., and Mistress Rebeckah Chadwicke, August 27th, 1685. These were possibly daughters of the Vicar. The title Mistress, not generally used in the Register, appears to indicate not widowhood, but a lady of quality.
Mr. Chadwicke died at Arnold and was buried in the Church 22nd Nov., 1701. A copy of the will of Daniel Chadwicke, of Arnhall, is in the Church safe, and was proved in the Consistory Court at York. It was dated 12th August, 1701. He apparently held freehold and copyhold estates in Arnhall, which he gave and devised to his "dear and loving wife Mary Chadwicke." He gave £5to the poor of Arnhall, and £210s. 0d. to the poor of Bulwell. His mind and will was that his Executrix should, within three months of his decease, pay out of his personal estate "the sume of fifty pounds to be lay'd out in some Charitable Act, or Acts, as she in her own discretion, or by ye advice and direction of my Nephew Charles Chadwicke, of ye Towne of Nottm., Gent., shall be thought most Charitable and convenient, which Sume I owne as a Debt rather than a Guift, that if I have injured anyone to whom I cannot make restitution, the same may in some measure be an amends therefore and may be accepted of Almighty God as such. And therefore I desire and request that great care may be taken of ye fulling this part of my will and that if ye sd moneys be not speedily so layd out by myne exetrix that she wthin the time aforesd secure ye sd Sume in some faithful Trustees hands to be layd out for that purpose." He requested Charles Chadwicke to be Overseer of his will, and to aid his Executrix. Probably he advised the widow to spend the bequest on a Free School as the best form of charity.
On the chancel floor of the Church, near to the Vestry door, is a stone inscribed to the memory of the wife of the Rev. Daniel Chadwick. She was buried January 9gth, 1714. Close by there is also buried the Rev. Joseph Chadwick, Vicar (July 24th, 1744).
John Clay was a Hosiery Manufacturer. He served on the School Board, and later as one of the School Managers. He also served on the Urban District Council, the Burial Board, and as an Overseer of the Parish. A tablet to his memory is erected in the Lecture Hall of the Liberal Club. He died in 1911, aged 67.
Edward Cludd, Esquire, of Norwood Park, near Southwell, represented Nottinghamshire in the "Barebones" Parliament of 1653, and again in the Parliament of 1656-9. He was a native of Arnold, and was baptised at Arnold Church in 1603—the entry in the Register, being translated, is:—
The day and month are undecipherable.
The family is noticed by Thoroton (1677), who, after describing the principal Manor in Arnold as belonging to Mr. William Stanhope, half brother to Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield, says:— "Another Mannor was Sir Thomas Rempstons, and came after to the Lord Ferrers, of Chartley, and was late the inheritance of Samuel Cludd, gent."
Thomas Cludd, of Arnold, Gent., married Alice, daughter of Thomas Sulley, of Arnold, on the 22nd April, 1583. There were born to them Edward Cludd, Martha (who was baptised in 1602), Samuel (who is stated to have been 17 years old in 1614), and probably other children. In the Arnold Register of Marriages appears "Robert Noddell and Anne Cludd lic(ence) 17 Jan., 1611."
In the "History of Newark" the progress of the siege during the Civil War is described, and the terrible difficulties of the adherents to the Royal cause. "While the town was thus holding out, with its traditional courage, supplying its needs of money and provisions in the best way that ingenuity and loyalty could devise, news was secretly conveyed from Oxford to Lord Bellasyse of His Majesty's intention to come to the Scots' army. Early in April, 1646, there arrived at the King's Arms Inn (now the Saracen's Head), Southwell, Monsieur Montrevil, the French agent, who had been sent to assist the King in his difficulties, and was deputed by his Majesty to arrange terms. Montrevil took up his abode in the large apartment of the Inn to the left of the gateway, while the Scots, on the instigation, it is said, of Mr. Edward Cludd, a leading Parliamentarian, made the Palace their headquarters."
Dickinson, in his "Antiquities of Southwell," says that Edward Cludd was "a very moderate, temperate man; by no means an enemy to Monarchy, though a strenuous opposer of the government as administered by Charles. He was the principal adviser of all the measures taken by the Parliament in this part of the world, and was the person by whose invitation, and under whose protection the Commissioners of Scotland resided, and held their consultations, in the archiepiscopal palace at Southwell."
"When the death of King Charles had dissolved both the monarchy and hierarchy the ruling powers ordered many cathedrals to be dismantled; among the rest Southwell became the object of their fury; and a warrant was issued to certain persons to take down the body or ante-choir, and all such other parts of the church as were not necessary for the purposes of the parish. Mr. Cludd, although he had no great veneration for the hierarchy, had a taste for antiquity, and by his great interest with Cromwell, who now directed everything, saved the venerable fabric and procured a revocation of the warrant for its demolition."
After the alienation of episcopal and church lands Mr. Cludd became the purchaser of Norwood Park, where he built what was at that time esteemed a good house, and lived with much magnificence and hospitality; being a Justice of the Peace, and Knight of the shire for the county of Nottingham in the Protector's parliament. Marriages being, by the establishment of that time, solemnized before the civil magistrate, Mr. Justice Cludd became very famous for the numberless rites of this kind, which were celebrated by his authority, under a remarkable oak in Norwood Park. The venerable tree was very lately standing, and retained its appellation of "Cludd's Oak."
Blackner visited this oak in 1815, and says, "the happiness of its former youthful visitants danced in his imagination, and he put up a silent prayer for its preservation," but Mr. Moore (1896) says:—"This tree has recently been felled, being in a very decayed state."
Mr. Cludd purchased, between 1647 and 1651, Parcel of the Manor of Southwell for £219 9s. 10d., Norwood Park £964; the Bishop's Palace in Southwell New Park, and Hexgrave Park £1666 7s. 31/2d.
Bailey's Annals says (p. 947): "It speaks but little for the liberality of the Chapter of Southwell, or the inhabitants generally, that they have never yet dedicated a monument to the memory of the man to whom, though a republican, they owe the preservation of their noble collegiate church." "No monumental record of any description marks the resting place of Edward Cludd."
Mr. Cludd was, in 1652, active as a magistrate at petty and quarter sessions, and some of the cases brought before him now read as peculiar; such as presentments of persons for not assisting the night-watch, refusing to carry "hue and cry"—that is to join in the pursuit of wrong-doers until they were arrested,—petty larceny, followed by an order to be set in the stocks for an hour, and then to be stripped, and whipped until blood comes, etc.
In an article appearing in the "Notts, and Derbyshire Notes and Queries," 1896, Mr. W. Moore, the Librarian at Bromley House, gives a pedigree of Cludd, from the "Visitation of Notts" (Harleian Society), tracing the family from Shropshire. He states that Edward Cludd was buried at Southwell, Sept. 28th, 1678, and by his will he bequeathed all his property to his nephew Bartholomew Fillingham, of the City of Westminster. He adds, "A few years ago a stone was found in the churchyard at Arnold on which was carved the arms of Cludd."
In a "Notts. Armory," by Captain A. E. Lawson Lowe, the arms of Cludd are given as follows:
Cludd (of Arnold, and of Norwood Park, descended through a younger branch from the Cludds of Orleton, in the County of Salop): argent, a bend double cotised sable, in chief a martlet of the last for difference—Crest: a hawk with wings expanded proper, belled or, preying on a coney argent, vulned on the head proper. Reliquary, vol. 16, p. 50. The arms appear in Thoroton, Throsby's edition, vol. II., sheet 4, No. 89.
We are informed by Thoroton that this gentleman continued after the Restoration in possession of his house and estate, but it was as lessee under the Archbishop of York.
William Cope, a native of Arnold, was a very poor lad, without shoes or stockings, or schooling. He learned the lace machine trade both in its construction and working. He made various improvements in the lace machine. He was the head of the firm of Cope & Ward, who had a large factory at New Basford. There was a singular fatality with regard to the two men. Mr. Cope wishing to do something for the poor boys of Arnold gave £300 towards the building of the British School, but died before it was opened, and Mr. Ward attended the opening as representing his partner. Alderman Ward, as Mayor of Nottingham, had vigorously promoted the Castle Museum scheme, but died three days before the opening. He would have been knighted had he lived a few days longer. Mr. Cope was a devoutly religious man. He deeply felt his lack of education, but made the best of it. He latterly lived at Elmshill Hall. He died May 28th, 1868, aged 57, and was buried in the Nottingham General Cemetery.