'No singing, no sermon' Edward Pellew's last orders ?
A short historical post to accompany the newly available digitised image of the burial register of Christow church, Devon in which Edward Pellew shows himself to be his own man to the last.
Author: Nodbear
Summary :Images of the burial register of Christow church in Devon
St James Church,Christow
As the picture shows the church is in a beautiful setting in a tiny community on the very edge of Dartmoor in Devon.It is now much as it was in 1833 - remote and very ordinary, a typical English country church.It happens though, to be the parish in which Edward and Susan Pellew had grand house they named Canonteign built.They never really lived in it, giving it to their eldest son and his family to live in,but it was Lord Exmouth's official seat and it was to Christow that a solemn procession went on 30th January 1833 marking the admiral's last journey. He would have liked that journey to be seawards and to have been buried in the deep, but knew that his life and position both as the head of a large family and a peer of the realm would mean a funeral and a memorial marking his grave.
There is already quite a bit written in contemporary records and by his biographers about his wishes for a simple funeral and not a lot of heroic parade but the newly digitised Devon parish register sets give an insight which is at once poignant and funny and very characteristic somehow the man himself.
As you will see there are eight entries on the page, all for people buried in the year 1833, ranging from young Davies Davies who sadly was only a year old,to Joseph Potter, of Exeter who had reached the grand age of 80.
all the burial entries are signed either by the curate,Joseph Cuming, or the vicar,William Wollecombe.
That is except Edward Pellew's whose entry confirms that the vicar presided over the event but has been made by a much more clerkly hand and it is not the vicar's signature but rather someone has written his name in. It carries Ned's name and title and Teignmouth, his home and his age as all the entries do.But the best part is the note in the margin:
The instruction is labelled NB to make sure it is attended to and is very firmly and solidly in inverted comma quotation marks to make it clear that this is a quotation from someone and it seems overwhelmingly likely that it was an 'order' given by his Lordship for the vicar. It may seem strange that he wanted no singing and no sermon since he was a man of strong christian faith but it was probably because he was anxious that the sermon not turn into a eulogy and indeed wanted the whole event to be as quiet as possible.
There are a number of letters in the many which were sent to the family after Ned's
death where former officers write that they would have wanted very much to have been there to show their love and respect but understanding that simplicity had been his own request.
A last addition also is very typical = the extra annotation which is a reminder about the clergymans fee of £10. Always Pellew was concerned to see that people got their due reward -whether of prize money, pension or whatever and whether or not this instruction originated with him it would be in character.
A more different end than the absolute staged grandeur of Nelson's funeral there could not possibly be and with good reason since Pellew was not the hero of a grand battle cut down in his prime on his own quarterdeck but a white haired and stout old man who loved playing with his grandchildren, keeping an open table with his beloved wife and getting together with former middies to hear about their lives and families.Some of those same officers , the 'intrepid' Gerry Coghlan among them, had thought to be attending Westminster Abbey at least, but somehow that 'No singing, no sermon' shows Ned as anteros_lmc and I have come to admire him - his own man to the last.
Author: Nodbear
Summary :Images of the burial register of Christow church in Devon
St James Church,Christow
As the picture shows the church is in a beautiful setting in a tiny community on the very edge of Dartmoor in Devon.It is now much as it was in 1833 - remote and very ordinary, a typical English country church.It happens though, to be the parish in which Edward and Susan Pellew had grand house they named Canonteign built.They never really lived in it, giving it to their eldest son and his family to live in,but it was Lord Exmouth's official seat and it was to Christow that a solemn procession went on 30th January 1833 marking the admiral's last journey. He would have liked that journey to be seawards and to have been buried in the deep, but knew that his life and position both as the head of a large family and a peer of the realm would mean a funeral and a memorial marking his grave.
There is already quite a bit written in contemporary records and by his biographers about his wishes for a simple funeral and not a lot of heroic parade but the newly digitised Devon parish register sets give an insight which is at once poignant and funny and very characteristic somehow the man himself.
As you will see there are eight entries on the page, all for people buried in the year 1833, ranging from young Davies Davies who sadly was only a year old,to Joseph Potter, of Exeter who had reached the grand age of 80.
all the burial entries are signed either by the curate,Joseph Cuming, or the vicar,William Wollecombe.
That is except Edward Pellew's whose entry confirms that the vicar presided over the event but has been made by a much more clerkly hand and it is not the vicar's signature but rather someone has written his name in. It carries Ned's name and title and Teignmouth, his home and his age as all the entries do.But the best part is the note in the margin:
The instruction is labelled NB to make sure it is attended to and is very firmly and solidly in inverted comma quotation marks to make it clear that this is a quotation from someone and it seems overwhelmingly likely that it was an 'order' given by his Lordship for the vicar. It may seem strange that he wanted no singing and no sermon since he was a man of strong christian faith but it was probably because he was anxious that the sermon not turn into a eulogy and indeed wanted the whole event to be as quiet as possible.
There are a number of letters in the many which were sent to the family after Ned's
death where former officers write that they would have wanted very much to have been there to show their love and respect but understanding that simplicity had been his own request.
A last addition also is very typical = the extra annotation which is a reminder about the clergymans fee of £10. Always Pellew was concerned to see that people got their due reward -whether of prize money, pension or whatever and whether or not this instruction originated with him it would be in character.
A more different end than the absolute staged grandeur of Nelson's funeral there could not possibly be and with good reason since Pellew was not the hero of a grand battle cut down in his prime on his own quarterdeck but a white haired and stout old man who loved playing with his grandchildren, keeping an open table with his beloved wife and getting together with former middies to hear about their lives and families.Some of those same officers , the 'intrepid' Gerry Coghlan among them, had thought to be attending Westminster Abbey at least, but somehow that 'No singing, no sermon' shows Ned as anteros_lmc and I have come to admire him - his own man to the last.