Part 2

But this locality is associated in history not only with war’s alarms, but with religious and political divisions. From Falkener’s History of Brentford, we learn that “Not long after the death of seven godly martyrs that suffered in Smithfield were six other faithful witnesses of the Lord’s true Testament, martyred at Brainford, the 14th day of July, 1558, which said six were of that Company, that were apprehended in a close, hard by Islington, and sent to prison. Whose names hereafter follow: Robert Miles, Stephen Cotton, Robert Dynes, Stephen Wright, John Slade, William Pikes. The six forenamed martyrs (gentle reader) had their articles ministered to them by Thomas Darbyshire, Bonner’s Chancellor, at sundry times, when though they were severally examined, yet had they all one manner of articles ministered unto them, and they had made answer unto the same, in the end the Chancellor commanded them to appear before him again, the 11th day of July, after in the said place at St. Paul’s. When they came he required of them, whether they would turn their opinions to the mother holy church, and, if not that, then whether there were any excuse to the contrary, but that he might proceed with the sentence of excommunication. Whereunto they all answered that they would not go from the truth, nor retreat from the same while they lived. Then he charged them to appear before him again the next day to hear the definitive sentence read against them, according to the ecclesiastical law then in force. At which time he, sitting in judgment, talking with these godly and virtuous men, at last came unto the same place Sir Edward Hastings, and Sir Thomas Cornwall, Knights, two of Queen Mary’s officers of her house, and being there they sat down over against the Chancellor, in whose presence the said Chancellor condemned these good poor lambs, and delivered them over to the secular power, who received and carried them to prison immediately, and there kept them in safety to the day of their death. In the meantime, the naughty Chancellor slept not, I warrant you, but that day in which they were condemned, he made certificate into the Lord Chancellor’s offices, from whence the next day after was sent a writ to burn them at Brentford aforesaid, which accordingly was accomplished in the same place, the said 12th day of July. Whereunto they being brought, made their laudable prayers unto the Lord Jesus, undressed themselves, went joyfully to the stake, whereunto they were bound, and the fire flaming about them, they yielded their souls, bodies, and lives, into the hands of the omnipotent Lord, for whose cause they did suffer, to whose protection I recommend thee, gentle reader. Amen.” Why the martyrdom was at Brentford does not appear, though presumably it owes that unhappy distinction to its status as County town of Middlesex, and there it was that in former days the poll was taken for the election of Knight’s of the shire.

~Wilkes At Brentford.~

Readers of Constitutional history are familiar with the struggle between the House of Commons and the people for the freedom of election, contests identified curiously enough in the last century with the names of Wilkes and in this of Mr. Charles Bradlaugh. In the early part of the century Brentford was the scene of much rioting and disorder and even bloodshed, and the route from Charing Cross to Brentford was often lined with eager partisans cheering or hooting the freeholders as they made their way to record their votes for or against the man whom the irony of fate had made the champion of the national liberties.

~The Plague.~

But if Ealing has seen but little of the horrors of war it has groaned under a visitation more terrible still, the hideous hand of the Plague of 1665 and 1666. It is said to have been brought to the neighbourhood by two soldiers who were quartered at the Half-way House at Old Brentford, and the Parish Register bears sad testimony to its ravages. It raged for more than twelve months, and claimed for its own more than two hundred and fifty victims.

June 24. --A souldier dyed at the Half-way House at Old Brentford, at Don’s. July 1. --A souldier that dyed at James Garraway’s. July 10. --John White and a son of Richard were buried of the plague, from Don’s. July 12. --Richard Don the master of the house. July 13. --Two children of Richard Don, a maid, and a maid of James Garraway’s, all buried in one grave, in Old Brentford field, of the plague. ,, 22. --Sarah, a child of James Garraway’s, died of the plague.

,, 26. --One that dyed in the Burrow at Old Brentford of the plague. ,, One that wrought at Robert Monday’s of the plague.

,, The wife of Joseph Grant of the plague. ,, 31. --A child of Ben Watts of the plague. Aug. 23. --Annie, wife of Robert Rendell, of the plague. ,, 24. --A girl buried of the plague, from Walter’s House in the town. ,, 26. --Three children from Brentford of the plague. ,, 27. --Two from Mr. Walter’s house. ,, 28. --Robert Randall. ,, Francis Potter. ,, 29. --A child named John Mason. ,, Goodman Carter’s wife. Nov. 10. --Robert Cromwell’s maid. ,, Barbarietta, the daughter of John Welbro’ Gent.

In the months of November and December the plague increased in violence, and as many as seven died in one day. Most of the dead were interred in holes dug in the fields to the south of the village, which to this day are called “Dead Men’s Graves.”

Ealing is rich in noble buildings dedicated to the service of God. The parish church, St. Mary’s, stands on the site of a former structure, which was built in 1729, under Act of Parliament and by the Authority of a “brief,” replacing the original church that had begun to sink. The present edifice is of brick, and consists of a nave and chancel, organ chamber, ambulatories and a square tower, designed after the Romanesque style, a corruption of the Doric and Ionic. It is basilican in its internal and external appearance, and a baptisty stands in lieu of the southern transept. The monuments from the walls of the former structure are mostly collected in recesses at the west end. The Church is subject to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, in whom is the advowson. Robert De Balmers, Bishop of London, we learn from Falkner, gave the tithes of Ealing, in the reign of Henry I, to augment the salary of an officer in the Church of St. Paul’s, called the Master of the Schools. But on the office of Mastership of the Schools merging in that of Chancellor, it is probable that the tithes of Ealing reverted to the Bishop of London, for in 1308 the Church of Ealing was appropriated by Bishop Baldeck to the Chancellor, subject to the payment of £10 per annum to the Vicar of Ealing, and to the reading of lectures in divinity, either in his own person, or by a sufficient deputy, on penalty of forfeiting the whole profits of the rectory, a third of which in that case was allotted to a lecturer, a third to the repairs of St. Paul’s Cathedral, and a third for the maintenance of the Church. In the taxation of 1327, the Church of Ealing was rated at 25 marks. In the reign of Edward VI the vicarage was valued at £13 6s. 8d. The present value of the living, according to the Clergy List is £800.

Ealing has numbered among its vicars many divines who have been celebrated for their learning, their piety, and their zeal, and it is the merest justice to say that in the attributes that adorned his predecessors, in lofty and stately eloquence, in moving pathos, in chastened declamation, and in all the graces of cultured speech glowing in poetic imagery, Dr. Oliver, the present incumbent, has amply sustained the traditions of his benefice. The following is the list of the Vicars of Ealing:--

Roger de Thorlaston. 1372, April 8. Robert de Haytfield. Resigned. 1386, Nov. 12. William Semley. Ob. 1386, Feb. 11. John Dames. Ob. 1390, Oct. 25. David Bagator. Resig. 1398, Dec. 7. Nic. Bowne. ,, 1399, Oct. 18. Will. Wright. ,, 1400, Sep. 15. John Duffield. ,, 1407, Dec. 21. Baldwin Bagatour. 1437, Aug. 2. John Mallony. ,, 1443, July 18. Joh. Smith. ,, Ric. Burton. 1451, Nov. 26. Thos. Curteys, LL.B. 1478, May 28. Will. Tournour, A.M. Ob. 1503, Sep. 15. Thos. Everard. ,, 1513, Dec. 9. Sim. King. Resig. 1537, Jan. 19. Will. Havard. Ob. 1566, Feb. I. Oliver Stoning, S.T.B. ,, 1571, Nov. 26. Thos. Rycroft. ,, 1582, April 7. Thos. Knight, A.M. ,, 1591, Nov. 26. Ric. Smart. Resig. 1602, October. Joh. Bromfield, A.M. Ob. 1610, Jan. 29. Edwd. Abbot, A.M. ,, 1615, Jan, 19. Rec. Tavernor, A.M. Resig. 1638, Oct. 13. Rob. Cooper, LL.B. Ob.

Cooper’s lines did not lie in pleasant places. He was ejected by the Puritans, and from this circumstance no less than from his position, we may be sure he had not disguised his Royalist sympathies. It is not known how the erstwhile vicar of Ealing spent his interregnum, whether he had means apart from his calling, or lived on the goodwill of friends, or flitted about as so many of the deprived clergy did from the house of one cavalier to another’s, or followed the fallen fortunes of the young king _de jure_ at the foreign courts that gave a grudged shelter to the royal exile. During the period of his suspension, marriages assumed the character of a civil contract, and the Registrar acted much as a Registrar acts in our days in civil marriages. Here is a copy of an entry of the publication of intent to marry, 1653. “A publication of an intent of marriage betweene John Holliday, the sonne of Jo. Holliday, waterman, and Sarah Walker, spinster, and daughter of Richard Walker, of Old Brentford, mealman, was published in Yling church three several days, viz., November 6, 13, &c., 1653. By me Joseph Walker Register.”

During Cooper’s deprivation the pulpit of the Church was occupied by Daniel Carwarthen, and by Thomas Gilbert, the latter of whom was in possession at the Restoration. Just as Cooper had clung to Church and King, so did Gilbert refuse to recognize the new or restored polity. So Gilbert was removed from the Church, and as it happened that Gilbert was the first recusant, he desired to have it recorded on his tomb that he was the proto-martyr to the cause of non-conformity. Robert Cooper was reinstated in his old benefice, but died within a few months thereafter.

1660, January 4. William Beveridge, A.M. of St. John’s College. An excellent and a most learned divine. In his twentieth year he wrote a treatise on the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Samarian tongues. He resigned the Vicarage of Ealing for the rectory of St. Peter’s, Cornhill. In 1681 he was made Archdeacon of Colchester with a stall as Prebend in St. Paul’s. In 1691 he declined the see of Bath and Wells from conscientious motives, but subsequently became Bishop of St. Asaph. He died in 1708 and was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

1673, April 29. Seth Lamb, A.M. Resig. 1702, Jan. 26. William Hall, A.M. Ob. 1719, Feb. 9. Thomas Mangey, LL.D. prom.

The author of many theological works that attained considerable repute. Dr. Mangey was chaplain to Dr. Robinson, Bishop of London, and prebendary of the Cathedral of Durham. He married the daughter of Archbishop Sharp.

William Hall Resig. 1754, Sep. 29. John Botham, M.A. Resig. 1773, Dec. 10. Chas. Sturges, M.A. Ob.

The Rev. C. Sturges was Vicar of Ealing during the time Mrs. Trimmer was resident in the Parish and in her Memoirs he is described as in every part of his duty indefatigable, admonishing, persuading in season and out of season, exhorting his flock to walk in the path of duty, or to return to it if they had unhappily strayed. The sick were visited, the ignorant instructed, the distressed relieved, and all watched over with a regard almost paternal. It was in the time of Mr. Sturges that Sunday Schools were introduced into Ealing. The credit of establishing Sunday Schools is generally attributed to Robert Raikes who advocated them in the Gloucester Journal of which he was proprietor and Editor. The idea was communicated to Mr. Raikes by the Rev. Mr. Stock, curate of St. John’s, Gloucester. Mr. Stock secured the co-operation of Mr. Raikes and though the Schools inaugurated by the coadjutors were not in fact the first Schools which might properly be termed Sunday Schools, there is no doubt that to the publicity and prominence given to the subject by Raikes, we are indebted for the general and rapid adoption of the institution throughout the land, and Mr. Sturges welcomed and encourage the first Sunday Schools opened in Ealing.

1797, Sep. 21. Colston Carr, LL.B. Resig. 1822, June 1. Herbert Oakeley. ,, 1834, Mar. 19. John Smith, B.D. Edwd. Wm. Relton, M.A. W. E. Oliver, LL.D. Floreat.

Within the Church are many monuments and mural inscriptions, but not all of them are of so general interest as to call for record here. There are however exceptions. On the east end of the north aisle is placed an ancient plate to the memory of Richard Amondesham, merchant of the staple of Calais, with brass figures in the dresses of the fifteenth century. There is an oval tablet to the memory of some members of the family of John Oldmixon, a party writer in the days of Pope and Addison, and who secured the questionable honour of a niche in the Dunciad. A black marble table with gilt letters contains some particulars of the family of Sir Frederick Morton Eden, Bart; a pyramid with arms recalls the memory of Joseph Gulston, of Ealing Grove, five times M.P. for Poole, and one of the South Sea Directors, who died in 1766. A monument of white marble is sacred to the names of John Loving, of Little Ealing, one of the Tellers of the Exchequer in the reign of King Charles the Second, King James the Second, and King William the third. Other monuments there are to Major-General Sir James Lomond, C.B. and to Sir Frederick Wettherall, G.C.H., and a noble piece of ornamental statuary bears an eloquent inscription to the virtues of Dame Jane Rawlinson, who died in 1713, leaving £500 for teaching twenty poor girls of the parish of Ealing. A slab on the floor informs us that Elizabeth wife of John Maynard, Sergeant at Law, was buried here ye 4th day of January, 1664. Sir John Maynard’s remains are in the Churchyard. He died at Gunnersbury not long after the Restoration. His name will ever be associated with the prosecution of Strafford and Laud and other State Trials of the period. It is said that when he paid his duties at the Court of William of Orange, the King observed on his great age and asked if he had not survived all the lawyers of his youth? “Yes, sir; and if your highness had not come over here, I should have survived even the law itself,” was the diplomatic and perhaps the true reply. A character of very different type found, in the Churchyard of Ealing, rest. His vault bears the epitaph, “John Horne Tooke, late of Wimbledon, author of the Diversions of Purley, was born June, 1736, and died March 18th, 1812, contented and grateful.” Happy the demagogue and agitator who can close his life with such a message to posterity! John Horne Tooke, was born at Westminister, the son of John Horne, a poulterer, the surname Tooke being assumed in regard for a friend, William Tooke, on whose behalf he had resisted an inclosure bill for lands in Purley, near Goistone, in Surrey. Tooke was educated at Westminster and Eton Schools, and St. John’s College, Cambridge. He entered the Church in compliance with the wishes of his father, but against his own. That the duties of his sacred office were irksome and uncongenial he has left on record in a letter, in execrable taste, to his friend Wilkes. It was largely owing to the exertions of Tooke that Wilkes was elected for Middlesex in 1768, and he was closely allied with that agitator in the foundation of the society for supporting the Bill of Rights, and in the contests in which that politician engaged with Parliament. Tooke obtained his degree of M.A. though not without opposition, many members of the University resisting the conferment, Dr. Paley among others, and in his political strife Tooke drew upon him the bitter invective of Junius. On the breaking out of the American War of Independence, Tooke sympathized with the revolted colonists, and assualted the ministry so unguardedly that he was tried for libel, fined and imprisoned. On his release he sought to be called to the bar, but the Benchers rejected him as a clergyman. He unsuccessfully contested Westminster on more than one occasion, but in 1801 he was returned by Lord Camelford for the rotten borough of Old Sarum, an anomalous position for an advanced reformer. Tooke was the last clergyman to sit in the Commons, an act being passed in 1802 to disqualify clergymen in holy orders. Tooke’s chief claim to fame rests however on his “Diversions of Purley,” a sort of Grammatical and Philological Treatise couched in Dialogue. Tooke’s was a troubled life. What was the secret of the epitaph?

There are many charities, more noble monuments of the dead then ought ever graved by the sculptor’s art. The chief of these are John Bowman’s Charity (1612) for such goodly and charitable uses as the officers thereof for the time being shall deem meet and convenient; Richard and Mary Need’s, a Brentford Charity; Richard Taylor’s and Lady Capell’s Bequest, by which one-twelfth part of the income of an estate in Kent, called Perry-court Farm was given in 1721 by the will of the Rt. Hon. Dorothy Dowager Lady Capell, for the support of the Charity School of Ealing, and Dame Jane Rawlinson’s Bequest, by her will of October 7th, 1712, which has been already mentioned. Particulars of these and many others may be found in Falkner’s History of Ealing.

Fifty years ago there was but one Church in Ealing, there are now eight, besides Chapels; _Christ Church_ which was built in 1852 at a cost of £10,000. It is in the Geometrical Decorated style, was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and is of singular grace and beauty. _St. John’s Church_ in Ealing Dean was built in 1876 of brick, with stone and terra cotta facings in the Early English style of architecture. _St. Stephen’s Church_, near Castle Hill, erected in 1875 is of Gothic Style. There are also the Churches of _St. Matthew’s_ in the North Common Road, _St. Peter’s_ in the Mount Park Road, _St. James’s_ in the Alexandria Road, Ealing Dean, and _St. Saviour’s_ in Grove Place. There are moreover Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist and Primitive Methodist Chapels.

~Mansions.~

As might be expected, Ealing and its vicinity abound in noble mansions, large and stately dwellings, standing in rich and ornate grounds, surrounded by lofty walks, and sheltered by noble trees. Here for generations the great and noble have sought repose from the distractions of society, the studious have found quiet and serenity, the statesman calm, the gallant soldier peace, the merchant prince contentment, and all a sweet and healthful retirement. On Castlebar Hill stood formerly Castle-hill Lodge, which up to the year 1812 was the seat of the Duke of Kent, and at one time the residence of Mrs. Fizherbert. The Duke of Kent married in 1818 a princess of the House of Coburg, and our gracious Queen Victoria was issue of this alliance. At the eastern extremity of Ealing is Fordhook, where Fielding dwelt until he left England for Lisbon in the last desperate search for health. It was at Fordhook that “Tom Jones” and “Amelia” were written. His Journal under date Wednesday, June 16th, 1754, contains the following touching passage. “On this day, the most melancholy sun I ever beheld arose, and found me awake at my house at Fordhook. By the light of the sun I was, in my own opinion, last to behold, and take leave of some of those creatures on whom I doated with a mother-like fondness, guided by nature and passion, and uncured and unhardened by all the doctrine of that philosophical school, where I had learned to bear pains and despise death. In this situation, as I could not conquer nature, I submitted entirely to her, and she made as great a fool of me as she had ever done of any woman whatsoever; under pretence of giving me leave to enjoy, she drew me on to suffer the company of my little ones during eight hours; and I doubt not, whether in that time I did not undergo more than in all my distemper. At twelve o’clock precisely my coach was at the door, which was no sooner told me than I kissed my children round, and went into it with some little resolution. My wife, who behaved more like a heroine and a philosopher, though at the same time the tenderest mother in the world, and my eldest daughter followed me; some friends went with us, and others here took their leave; and I heard my behaviour applauded with many murmurs and praises, to which I knew I had no title; as all other such philosophers may, if they have any modesty, confess in the like occasion.” Fielding died at Lisbon in the following October. Fordhook was subsequently occupied by Lady Byron, the poet’s hapless wife, and here, in 1853, their daughter “Ada, sole daughter of my house and heart,” was married in the drawing room by special license to the Earl of Lovelace.

But novelists as great if not greater than Fielding have sojourned in Ealing. Thackeray was at school here, of which more anon. Dickens used often to ride over to visit his sister, Mrs. Hogarth, at Ealing Dean. Dibdin wrote many of his best songs at his house in Hanger Lane; and Edward Bulwer Lytton was at school in a house that stood in what was then called Love Lane. The school was kept by Mr. Wallington, and a correspondent of Lytton’s biographer furnishes us with an interesting sketch of school and pedagogue.

“We drew up in front of a massive old-fashioned arched door in a high brick wall, above which nothing but the chimneys and projecting gables of the attic windows of Mr. Wallington’s house were visible. It was a large, ancient, time-worn edifice, in which the lord of the manor or other great man of the parish, might be supposed to have lived in the time of William and Mary or Queen Anne, but it had been disfigured by a mean-looking brick building tacked to its northern side, possibly by its present proprietor.”

“I was not long in discovering that Mr. Wallington was not the scholar I had hoped to find him. Not only had he no objection to our preparing our lesson by the help of English translations, but at lessons he used a like ‘crib’ and, even with its assistance, failed as often as not, to explain the grammatical structure, or throw light upon the meaning of some passage in Sophodes or Thucydides, which had baffled Gore, by far the most advanced student of our lot. Nevertheless, by being always at his post, in cheerful readiness to take his share in our tasks, he kept us up so well to our work that there was no falling off in our previously acquired knowledge of Latin and Greek.”

“In Mr. Wallington, we had always before us the example of one who in principles, as well as manners, was a gentleman in the best sense of the word; courteous in bearing, pleasant in speech, with patience, fine temper, and a tender regard for the feelings of others.”