'No singing, no sermon' Edward Pellew's last orders ?

[nodbear]

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

Comments

[amaraal]

I would love to see that little church with my own eyes one day and even visiting his final resting place.
But it is great that those registers still exist. I love their neat hand writing and everything about it.

Fine conclusion: His own last man...

[nodbear]

I expect we can arrange that -after all now that you have done some of the sights of London and the south east and so on we should branch out into the countryside
I very much want to go there I owe the old boy a visit and maybe a few flowers - and hope that anteros_lmc and I will manage it sometime too.
the clerks writing is very neat isn't it

[amaraal]

That would be great! I second the idea of bringing him flowers :) Especially you of all naval fangirls should visit his final resting place. It will be an honour to accompany you :)

I always had a knack for hand writings. And yes, the 'ancient' ones look very well educated. If you think about it - only the rich and the churchmen were able to write back then. I'm fatally in love with Renessaince Capitals :)
You must show me more in September.

[nodbear]

Will try to do so :)

[anteros_lmc]

I love this document. It speaks volumes about Ned. He really was his own man to the last. That stubborn streak never left him. It's very much in marked contrast to the celebrations and processions that marked his return from Algiers, though of course he had no control over that. I suspect however that he wouldn't have objected to folk raising a glass or two in his memory!

[nodbear]

There is a sense in which there was a' fashion' for low key funerals around that time but I am sure it is genuine in Ned's case - he had lived long enough to see through all the honours and stuff and the deaths of Israel and Julia in his own last year had profoundly affected him.
But I think over the years he has smiled often at the glasses raised in his honour !
This document is great isn't 'it

[eglantine_br]

Such a kindness to those of us who cannot sing. I have a musical ability of Horation proportions! It never fails to surprise me that the most ordinary people can just make music come out of their mouths. I must have been in the wrong line when that ability was handed out!

So what would they have done? Something brief and modest and dignified?

He is so real to me-- you have made him real. Certainly not perfect, but his faults are ones that make sense. And somehow they make me like him more.

[nodbear]

Make me like him more -- ah yes he does have that effect :) Stephen Taylor his biographer was got at for 'falling for the Pellew charm' and was happy to admit to being guilty .He grows as a person in memory because he was so human and full of faults and no plaster saint I think.

thinking on your question what would they have done woke me up to something important about the form of his funeral and what would have been included. I Am now going to have to do a mini post extra about this!
The short answer is the service for the burial of the dead as in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer a book which has shaped the English language in its turn with Shakespeare and the 1611 Bible etc
https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/book-of-common-prayer.aspx

and yes you are spot on dignified and brief and in its own way modest....but an addendum follows !

[mylodon]

He is truly charismatic. (Note the is rather than was!)

[nodbear]

Yes indeed 'is'

*nods*

[mylodon]

Lovely, thank you. It's so great to find ways of touching the past.

[nodbear]

its a pleasure as ever