SAMUEL PEATE,of Whittington Castle died,aged 84.“Here lies Governor PeateWhom no man did hate,At the age of four-scoreAnd four years more,He pretended to wrestleWith Death for his Castle;But was soon out of breathAnd surrender’d to Death,Who away did him take,At the eve of our wake,One morn about sevenTo keep wake in heaven.”ANDREW WILLIAMS,WASBorn A.D. 1690, and died April, 18, 1776,Aged 84.OF WHICH TIME HE LIVED UNDERThe Aston Family as Decoyman 60 Years.“Here lies the Decoyman who liv’d like an otter,Dividing his time betwixt land and water!His hide he oft soak’d in the waters of Perry,[39]Whilst Aston old beer his spirits kept cheery;Amphibious his trim, Death was puzzle’d they say,How to dust to reduce such well-moisten’d clay.So Death turned Decoyman and decoy’d him to land,Where he fix’d his abode ’till quite dried to the hand;He then found him fitting for crumbling to dust,And here he lies mouldering as you and I must.”“He retired to Whittington upon a freehold he had purchased with the perquisites of his place for a few years before his death.”1783.“A severe winter,—the frost set in the day before Christmas-day, and continued to introduce the new year.”“And I may here add, as there is a vacancy, that the frost continued till March, 1784.”“I sore forebode these frosty timesWill nip my nob; and then my rhymesIn puff complete, in richness big,And full and flowery as my wig,Will future bards and priests explore,Till Taste and Talent are no more.While dull, tho’ disembodied IJump up a Gnome ’twixt earth and sky;Perch on the pen of rhyming elf,And squat a squabby rhyme myself.A brat I boast, hight Pudding Billy,Whom tho’ the witless world calls silly,And tho’ but lame in hie hæc hoeIs a right chip of the old block.”W. Roberts,Rector.
SAMUEL PEATE,of Whittington Castle died,aged 84.
“Here lies Governor PeateWhom no man did hate,At the age of four-scoreAnd four years more,He pretended to wrestleWith Death for his Castle;But was soon out of breathAnd surrender’d to Death,Who away did him take,At the eve of our wake,One morn about sevenTo keep wake in heaven.”
ANDREW WILLIAMS,WASBorn A.D. 1690, and died April, 18, 1776,Aged 84.
OF WHICH TIME HE LIVED UNDER
The Aston Family as Decoyman 60 Years.
“Here lies the Decoyman who liv’d like an otter,Dividing his time betwixt land and water!His hide he oft soak’d in the waters of Perry,[39]Whilst Aston old beer his spirits kept cheery;Amphibious his trim, Death was puzzle’d they say,How to dust to reduce such well-moisten’d clay.So Death turned Decoyman and decoy’d him to land,Where he fix’d his abode ’till quite dried to the hand;He then found him fitting for crumbling to dust,And here he lies mouldering as you and I must.”
“He retired to Whittington upon a freehold he had purchased with the perquisites of his place for a few years before his death.”
1783.
“A severe winter,—the frost set in the day before Christmas-day, and continued to introduce the new year.”
“And I may here add, as there is a vacancy, that the frost continued till March, 1784.”
“I sore forebode these frosty timesWill nip my nob; and then my rhymesIn puff complete, in richness big,And full and flowery as my wig,Will future bards and priests explore,Till Taste and Talent are no more.While dull, tho’ disembodied IJump up a Gnome ’twixt earth and sky;Perch on the pen of rhyming elf,And squat a squabby rhyme myself.A brat I boast, hight Pudding Billy,Whom tho’ the witless world calls silly,And tho’ but lame in hie hæc hoeIs a right chip of the old block.”
W. Roberts,Rector.
N.B. Mr. Roberts died a few months after writing this epitaph on himself.
The Registers are quite complete from the year 1591, to the present time, with the exception of that of marriages, from the 1654, to 1659.
The following is a copy of the Terrier of 1630, mentioned by Mr. Pennant, excepting the part of it which relates to the glebe lands:
“We find all the tythes falling within the forest of Bafin’s Wood are * * * * * * * *[40]Itman English bible, a Welsh bible, a communion silver patara, aprayer-book in English, and a prayer-book in Welsh, a homely[41]book in English, and a homely book in Welsh,Itma linen cloth and napkin, two surplices, two chests, a velvet cushion and hangings for the pulpit, three pair of armour, two pikes and two head pieces, a flagon, a pewter plate, and a stone font.”(Signed)Edward Williams,Rector.Edward Edwards,John Rogers,Edward ap Thomas,Hugh ap John Lewis,John Benion,Richard ap Edd.
“We find all the tythes falling within the forest of Bafin’s Wood are * * * * * * * *[40]Itman English bible, a Welsh bible, a communion silver patara, aprayer-book in English, and a prayer-book in Welsh, a homely[41]book in English, and a homely book in Welsh,
Itma linen cloth and napkin, two surplices, two chests, a velvet cushion and hangings for the pulpit, three pair of armour, two pikes and two head pieces, a flagon, a pewter plate, and a stone font.”
(Signed)
Edward Williams,Rector.Edward Edwards,John Rogers,Edward ap Thomas,Hugh ap John Lewis,John Benion,Richard ap Edd.
FINIS.
Decorative graphic of crown
Edwards, Printer, Oswestry.
[4]The Welsh call it Dre Wen to this day; a certain proof that this is the place the poet speaks of.
[19]The reader cannot but admire the satyric and appropriate wit of Fielding, in his bestowing that title on Jonathan Wilde.
[32]There is no annexed plan in the edition transcribed.—DP.
[39]A river near Whittington so named.
[40]Here a few words have been torn off in the original.
[41]Homily.