St Thomas à Becket Memorials

310 Pages·2016·4.58 MB·English

by  P J Bendall

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

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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

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St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association

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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
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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

,

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St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association

Figure 10 The locations of the church and its graveyards
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St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association

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St Thomas à Becket, Widcombe, Bath – Memorial Inscriptions Widcombe Association

Main Graveyard

Figure 11 Main Burial Ground
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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.

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