WIDCOMBE ASSOCIATION 2016 St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association Copyright © 2013, 2016 Widcombe Association Authors: P J Bendall, A C Durie Date: August 2013, updated May 2016 ii St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association Contents Introduction .................................................................................. 1 Churchyard ........................................................................... 1 Old Burial Ground ................................................................... 1 Subsequent Burial Grounds ........................................................ 2 Burial Registers ...................................................................... 2 Main Graveyard .............................................................................. 5 Crypt ....................................................................................... 115 Vestry ...................................................................................... 119 Cremation Plots........................................................................... 121 Old Burial Ground ........................................................................ 159 Row A .............................................................................. 161 Row B .............................................................................. 165 Row C .............................................................................. 171 Row D .............................................................................. 193 Wall ................................................................................ 214 War Memorial ............................................................................. 229 Internal Monuments ...................................................................... 251 Plaques ............................................................................ 252 Ledger Stones .................................................................... 285 Windows ........................................................................... 290 Index ....................................................................................... 297 iii St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association iv St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association Introduction This document contains transcriptions of the memorials in the churchyard of St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath and memorials within the church. Churchyard Figure 2 Northern side of the church Figure 4 The southern side of the church Old Burial Ground The ‘Old Burial Ground’, the parish’s second burial ground, is in Church Lane. The land first appears as a ‘Bowling Alley’ in Thorp’s survey of 1741. This showed Ralph Allen’s landholdings in Widcombe. It had originally belonged to Bath Priory until the Dissolution when it was bought from the Crown by Edmund Colthurst. This mansion, the original Figure 3 Eastern section of the graveyard Widcombe House, stood on the site of Widcombe Crescent. Alderman Chapman, Allen’s executor, sold the land on behalf of Gertrude Tucker, Ralph Allen’s wife’s niece and heiress to all his property. The land was purchased by the parish in 1782. An account in the parish archive shows that Messrs Kingston and Bayly were paid £35.15.7½ to adapt it from a bowling alley to a place of burial. In 1784 row letters Figure 1 The location of the graveyard by the church. and plot numbers were inscribed on the walls. The main burial ground for the parish of Widcombe was around three sides of the church. There were also By 1825 the burial ground was full and was closed by the burials in the vault under the church. Bishop of Bath & Wells when he consecrated the new ground at Claverton Street next to the land on which St Mark’s church was subsequently built in 1832. Despite this, it continued to function as a secondary place of burial (charging lower fees) as it remained a valuable 1 St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association source of funds for the parish. The Burial Acts of 1856 eventually obliged the parish to lay out a properly-run cemetery which opened in 1861 on the Lower Bristol Road; now known as St James’s Cemetery but correctly ‘Lyncombe and Widcombe & St James’ Cemetery’. The Old Burial Ground was then finally closed by an Order in Council in 1870. Figure 7 View from the northern end Figure 9 Example of grave numbers on the wall Subsequent Burial Grounds The third burial ground is by St Mark’s Church and the fourth on the Lower Bristol Road. These are documented separately. Burial Registers Figure 5 The Gate in Church Lane The Register of the Parish of Widcombe Bath. No author or date. Typescript with surname indexes. Includes burials 1592-1772. Transcript of the Register of St Thomas à Becket, the Figure 8 View from the southern end Parish Church of Lyncombe & Widcombe 1813-1840. E S Jenkins (1983). St Mark’s Cemetery, Lyncombe Bath – Burial Register Index. Widcombe Association (2009). Includes entries from the St Thomas à Becket and St Mark’s registers from 1825. Figure 6 The Steps , 2 St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association Figure 10 The locations of the church and its graveyards 3 St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association 4 St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association Main Graveyard Figure 11 Main Burial Ground 5 St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association Names Inscriptions Notes 1 Sophia Douglas Ettrick sacred (1839-1840) TO THE Memory of SOPHIA DOUGLAS William Ettrick (1842- Daughter of 1844) Walter ETTRICK ESQ who died Sept 1st 1840 Walter Ettrick (-1856) Aged 13 months Also William Son of Walter ETRICK ESQ Died 6th March 1844 Aged 17 mths Small slab. The inscription is faint. The two spellings of the surname are as found. From The Bristol Mercury of Sat 28 Apr 1838 p4 in a list of marriages: “At Freshford, near Bath, Capt. L. H. Wray, R,N, to Charlotte Eliza; also,Walter Ettrick, Esq. to Sophia Cumberland; eldest and 3rd daughters of Capt. Edw. Burt, R.N.” The birth of Sophia Douglas Ettrick was registered 1839/Q3 Bath, mother’s maiden name: Burt. From the burial register: Sophia Douglas Etrick, aged 13 months, of Entry Hill, was buried on 4 Sep 1840. In the 1841 census at Gothic Cottage, Entry Hill, Bath: Walter Ettrick, aged 25, solicitor, not born in Somerset, Sophia Ettrick, aged 25, not born in Somerset, Bessie Ettrick, aged 3 months, born in Somerset, and two servants. From The Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser of Wed 28 Sep 1842 p7: “Sept. 18, near Bristol, the lady of Walter Ettrick, Esq., a son.” The birth of William Ettrick was registered 1842/Q4 Clifton. Baptised on 3 Mar 1843 at Clifton: William Ettrick, son of Walter & Sophia Cumberland Ettrick. From the burial register: William Ettrick, aged 17 months, of St Pauls, Bristol, was buried on 14 Mar 1844. 6