art

English - looking at memorials and epitaphs:

Averham, St Michael & All Angels

Memorial to Richard Sutton

 

Transcript of the memorial to Reverend Richard Sutton on the North wall in the vestry.

NEAR THIS PLACE
LIE THE REMAINS OF
THE REV’D RICH’D SUTTON DD
PREBENDARY
OF THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH OF CANTERBURY
RECTOR OF WHITWELL IN THE CON. OF DERBY
AND FIFTY-ONE YEARS RECTOR OF THIS PARISH
DURING WHICH TIME
HIS UNIFORM HUMANITY AND BENEVOLENCE
GAINED HIM THE ESTEEM AND AFFECTION
OF HIS NEIGHBOURS AND DEPENDANTS
WHILST HIS CHEERFUL AND SOCIAL DISPOSTION
AND GENEROUS HOSPITALITY
JOINED TO ELEGANCE OF MANNERS AND A TASTE
FOR THE POLITE ARTS
ENDEARED HIM TO NUMEROUS FRIENDS

HE MET THE LINGERING APPROACHES OF HIS DISSOLUTION
WITH EXEMPLARY FORTITUDE AND RESIGNATION
AND DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 14th DAY OF NOV’R 1785
AGED 76

 

 

Teaching and Learning activities:

Look at the language used in this epitaph. Check out the meaning of vocabulary used:

  • ‘Prebendary’
  • ‘Benevolence’
  • ‘Esteem’
  • ‘Social Disposition’
  • ‘Elegance of Manners’
  • ‘The polite arts’

When you have the meaning of the words and phrases used in the epitaph, consider:

  • What sort of person Reverend Richard Sutton was – what might he have done with his life on a day to day basis? How might he have responded to the needs of the people in his parish? What might he have done in the time when he wasn't at work in the parish? What vocabulary is used to suggest people's opinions of him?
  • A eulogy is the talk someone gives at the funeral of a person who has died. Using this epitaph as a starting point, write the eulogy someone might have given for Richard Sutton where you use the information in the epitaph as a starting point and write around that to say what he might have done with his life and what people thought of him.