Devonshire Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Devonshire Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England) -- Biography; Devon (England) -- History
It is stated also that the clergyman of the parish had been appointed
by the Bishop (Hall) to enquire into the truth of these particulars,
and that a monument, made by Edward Marshall, of Fleet Street, had been
put up with his approbation, with the names of the witnesses of each
apparition.
[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE TO “A TRUE RELATION OF AN APPARITION,”
ETC., BY JAMES OXENHAM]
“Another proof that Howell’s letter must have been written from memory
is, that most of the Christian names are erroneous. The pamphlet adds,
that those of the family who had been sick and recovered never saw
the apparition.” The pamphlet to which the brothers Lysons refer is
entitled: “A True Relation of an Apparition in the likeness of a Bird
with a white brest that appeared hovering over the Death-Beds of some
of the children of Mr. James Oxenham, of Sale Monachorum, Devon, Gent.
Confirmed by sundry witnesses as followeth in the ensuing Treatise.
London, printed by I. O. for Richard Clutterbuck, and are to be sold
at the signe of the Gun, in Little Britain, neere St. Botolph’s Church,
1641.”
Now in the first place it is well to observe that the name of the
place is wrong. The Oxenhams did not live at Zeal Monachorum, but at
South Zeal in South Tawton. No Oxenham entries are to be found in the
registers of Zeal Monachorum, no monuments of the family are in the
church. The brothers Lysons examined the registers there, and certified
to this. The Devon volume of the _Magna Britannia_ was published in
1822. Since that date a portion of the page in the Burial Register,
containing the entries of burials in 1635, has been cut out by some
person who has by this means destroyed the evidence that no such
Oxenhams were buried at Zeal Monachorum. Now the pamphlet states that
John, son of James Oxenham, aged twenty-two, died on 5 September, 1635.
The register of South Tawton informs us that John Oxenham was buried on
20 May, 1635, i.e. four months, two weeks, and two days before he died,
according to the tract. He was born in 1613 and baptized 17 October in
that year. His father, James Oxenham, was married to Elizabeth Hellier
in 1608. In 1614, a John Oxenham and his wife Mary had a son John as
well. Others reported to have had the white-breasted bird appear on
their deaths in the same year, were Thomasine, wife of James Oxenham
the younger, Thomasine, their babe, and Rebecca Oxenham, aged eight
years.
There is no entry in the register of the baptism of either Thomasine or
Rebecca, nor of the burial of Thomasine the elder, Thomasine the babe,
or of Rebecca.
The second John Oxenham, son of John and Mary, was buried 31 July,
1636, at least we presume it was he; the registers do not state in
either case whose son each of the Johns was.
There is no trace of the younger James to be found in the register, nor
of any of the Oxenhams in North Tawton registers at or about the time
of the supposed apparition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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