Sunday 9 August 2009

Guisborough Parish Church 1

Parish church


A card to rector Tom Longworth from Mrs FE Charlton of the Westgarth) 28 Novr 1933
(Ch Vestry Papers). (She comments favourably on a recent sermon!) “... In my husband’s wardenship Pierpoint Morgan’s agent wanted to purchase the whole of our Church Plate for the sum of £2000. What a bargain he would have secured had he bee allowed to buy it, as the then rector wished in order to build a Parish Hall. Fortunately the idea was objected to by high authorities.
(FEC’s deportment that of a minor royal ‘personage’!)
Saw this card in 1960.

Archbishop Herring’s Visitation Returns 1743
Yorks Arch. Soc. Record Series Vols 71, 72, 75.
Gisbrough Vol 72, p89. Kildale Vol 72 p128. Upleatham Vol 75 p176.

Five Quaker families: “They usually assemble once in the week in very small numbers. They are taught by their Quaker speakers."
Hospital in our parish. Two Feoffefs and two Wardens have the direction.
“I reside personally and constantly upon my cure. There is no Parsonage house belonging to the Curate – I live in a house for which I pay rent to Mr Chaloner the Impropriator. I have no Curate at Guisbrough.
Betwixt 6 and 700 communicants.
William Hide, Curate of Guisbrough.
I read prayers in the Church twice every day in the week and preach every Sundayin the year except the second Sunday in the month when I preach at Upleatham Chapel of Ease of Guisbrough.”
KILDALE. “The Rector seides at Guisbrough (within 3 miles of Kildale) where he has a large cure. The late Archbishop was so good as to grant him a dispensation from non-residence at Kildale. He preaches several times in the year at Kildale. The Curate resides at Gt Ayton, 2 miles from Kildale. He receives £16 yearly in money and has all the surplice fees, mortuaries and Easter offerings. Kildale is one of the discharged livings. Abt 68 communicants.
William Hide, rector of Kildale
Ralph Jackson, Curate of Kildale.
UPLEATHAM. 34 families. “I reside at Guisbrough. Upleatham is a Chapel of Ease, Guisbrough is the Mother Church.”
No Curate. 70-80 communicants. William Hide, Curate of Upleatham.
No meeting house (1 family of Quakers). No school.
GUISBOROUGH. Summary.
Above 300 families. 6 papist families. 1 Presbyterian family. 5 Quaker families. A Quaker meeting house. Prayers in church twice daily – Lumley Bequest? 20‑30 children being educated at the public grammar school. (well-endowed). Several other private schools. No parsonage: incumbent living in a rented house (owned by Mr Chaloner who held rectorial tithes.)

Baptisms

1722 (13 Sept) Abigail, daughter of Mr Wm Danby, Mercer.

1726 ? daughter of Wm Jones, Dealer to Holland.




The Bruce Cenotaph in Guisborough Parish Church
Picture from Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum (1684)
in ‘Northern Echo’ article. Check Gents’ Mag. July 1847, p56

Tudor rose: Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII; Eng by birth, Scottish by marriage to Jas. IV of Scotland

The Bruce Cenotaph removed from the Priory after the Dissolution. Placed in church. 1894/5 (Yks Arch. Journal Vol. 13, 1895): 6 slabs: base slab lies in the floor of chancel nr S wall and to W of chancel door. It appears to have been reduced in size ..now partly covered by modern seats. Top now used as top of communion table ..two side slabs now fixed on either side of church porch…..VCH NR Yks: 9’ x 3’ x 8” thick. Moulded top 9” thick. In 2nd edition of Dugdale’s “Monasticon” (1661) engraved by Hollar. c1718 John Warburton the herald made rough drawing of N side. Reassembled and placed in present position W end of S aisle during the 1903-1908 Restoration of church. W end of cenotaph missing: thought to be at Hardwick Hall* nr Sedgefield: in 1754 John Burdon constructed sham ruins there and took two ends of cen: Admiral Chaloner brought E end back in 1865. W end still missing.



N Skelton and Danby side:
Robert II ( d 1151) founder of Priory

Large figures of the family of de Brus
Adam I, son of founder, d 1143

Adam II, d 1180

Peter I, buried Guisborough Priory, 1211. (d 1222? Son paid a fine)

Peter II, died at Marseilles, on pilgrimage to Holy Land, 1241. Body brought back by servants, buried Guisboro'

Peter III mutilated figure, d 1272, last of Skelton line. No issue: his four sisters inherited:
1. Agnes, wife of Walter de Fauconberg of Skelton
2. Lucia, wife of Marmaduke de Thweng
3. Margaret, wife of Robert de Ros
4.Laderina, wife of John de Bellew.

Small figures Doctors of he Church
(Biog. notes from The Book of Saints, Ben Monks, S Aug Abbey, Ramsgate. A & C Black, London, 1966. And History and Doctrine of the Christian Church

S Augustine of Hippo in alb, dalmatic, cope and mitre, 354-430. Native of W Africa. In youth wild oats. Influenced by S Ambrose and bapt by Amb when 32 yo. Later kind of monastic life, then priest and Bp of Hippo. Augustinians followed the Rule of S. Aug of Hippo.
S Gregory, Pope and Dr. 540-604. b Rome. Mayor of City. Founded a monastery in his ancestral home. Papal nuncio to Constantinople. Pope 590. Sent S Augustine to England in 597. Alb, dalm, chasuble, Papal crown, tiara, dble cross. Encouraged monasticism.
S Jerome Cardinal and Dr. c.342-420. b Dalmatia. Studied Rome, classics partic. travelled extensively, Italy and Gaul. Lived as a hermit in Palestine. Returned to Rome. Ord. priest, acted as sec. to Pope. “On bad terms with those around him.” Back to Palestine and settled at Bethlehem; d. there. Translator, commentator, Biblical scholar. YAS Journal says animal is lion. Could it be a goat? Cardinal’s hat. Nat. Gal.. S J in Desert – Bellini.
S Ambrose Bp Dr. 340-397. B of Milan. Alb, dalmatic and cope. Square morse. Beehive legend: in cradle, swarm of bees flying in and out of his mouth – unharmed – bees fly off to heaven. Amb famous for his eloquence! b Gaul. Fr belonged to Roman nobility. Amb a barrister at Rome. Age 35 apptd governor of Liguria – HQ at Milan. Province rent by ARIAN controversy. 374 Bp of Milan d. Amb went to ? as gov to keep order. Amb only a catechumen: “A child suddenly cried out ‘Ambrose for Bishop’”. His objection overruled(!) and consec Bp 374.
The Hammer of Arianism. = Arius of Alexandria d 336. Denied divinity of Xt. Opposed by Athanasius at Council of Nicea 325. (Anti-Trinitarianism)

Notes on details: misericord = short dagger. Act of mercy to kill a wounded combatant.. English figures all carry Brus arms (in both hands). Scottish line heraldic shields (on left arms).
All on this sheet subject to scrutiny again.

Missing W end of tomb: according to Dugdale the figure of a king attired in a long robe and cloak and wearing a crown. A sceptre in right hand and his left hand supporting a shield charged with the royal arms of Scotland. Supported on either side by smaller figs. wearing crowns but clad in armour - ?Robert Brus, his fr and g/fr?


Scottish line on S side:
(1) Robert son of founder, (2) William d 1215, (3) Robert III d 1245, (4) Robert IV d 1295, (5)Robert V d 1304 buried Guisborough, (6) Robert VI the competitor.

Robert II not represented on tomb. Married 1183. Isabel nat. dr. of Wm the Lion. Dead before 1191 when his widow married Robert de Ros.

Smaller figures: the four Evangelists. All four at desks reading/writing.

S Matthew: Curious close-fitting cap, long cassock, short pleated tunic, wide tippet with brooch.
S Mark: Long cassock, tunic, scalloped hem, brooch, square wallet, flap and button
S Luke: Ear flap, escalloped hat, tippet.
S John: At desk and writing on a scroll, wearing Dr’s gown, hood drawn over head

SYMBOLS
Angel, lion, ox, eagle = 4 evang.
W to E: cock and reel, shield, eagle, chalice, winged lion, purse, awl and hand, winged lion, animal with nimbus, boot or foot, 3 castles or dice boxes

LEGEND: lion’s whelps born dead, roused to life on third day by roar of their sire = a natural type of resurrection!

Atkinson’s History: slab (top cover) used at altar and “undisguised by the paint” which disfigures the two sides, shows the character of the material employed – a fine-grained bluish limestone marble. Of Scottish design and completion … trace of resemblance to French work, purse and glove (hand). Pursglove and not Cockerell ??

Sharp’s History of Hartlepool – p33: seal of R de Brus – a bird?
Recent report of Mr Armfield upon the church – Atkinson p 35: “bird found sculptured at S Helen’s Hartlepool”. do.p34. Figures of knights coincide with obits.

De Brus Cenotaph. (from red file)
In 1661 Dugdale’s “Monasticon Anglicanum” speaks of the monument having being in the priory church very recently. It was probably moved to the parish church and the base is still there, near south chancel door. The top was used as the altar, and in the second half of the 18th cent. one (or both) ends went to Hardwick Hall near Sedgefield where John Burdon was erecting some sham ruins. Admiral Chaloner recovered the east end but the west end is still missing. (Vaulting stonework from the priory also went to Hardwick Hall.) The date on this postcard is incorrect: as stated on another page it is thought that it was erected in the priory during the time of Prior Cockerell (1519-34). See note about his rebus. Also thought to have been erected by Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII – she married James IV of Scotland and this fact would lend some significance to this theory – likewise the inclusion on the cenotaph of the Tudor rose. But the reader must decide for himself whether Margaret Tudor or James Cockerell caused the monument to be placed in the priory.
It is unquestionably the most important historical piece of architecture remaining in Cleveland and incorporates a wealth of pictorial information about the family of de Brus and the origins of church doctrine in the symbols of the Evangelists and the Doctors of the early Christian Church. Its reconstruction was possibly the best thing to come out of the 1904 “restoration” of the parish church.

*Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield. Sold by Auction 1969 to RE Coleman who turned it from an old maternity home into a luxury hotel, 1976. (Cuttings in Black Diary 2nd Dec ’82)

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