In him we lose an upright and honoured citizen, a faithful and
industrious friend, a most affectionate husband, a man who was just
and kind to all, and distinguished by the lustre of genuine religion.
His wife who survived him had this tomb erected to perpetuate the
memory of a beloved husband.
His arms are painted on the monument: “Or, on a chief azure, three
estoiles of eight points or. On an escutcheon of pretence, or, a lion
rampant sable debruised of a bend gules charged with three escallops,
or.”
He was probably born at Temple Hall, where his father, governor of the
colony from 1718 till 1722, introduced towards the close of his life, in
1728, the coffee plant into the island. His mother was a daughter of
Thomas Temple, of Francton, Warwickshire, and Temple Hall, in St.
Andrew, sister of “La Belle Temple,” of de Grammont (wife of Sir Charles
Lyttelton, governor of Jamaica), and widow of Samuel Bernard, speaker of
the Assembly. She was the fourth of Sir Nicholas Lawes’s five wives, all
widows when he married them.
Other interesting monuments in the church are those to Zachary Bayly,
uncle and patron of Bryan Edwards, the historian, who wrote his flowery
epitaph typical of the time; to Admiral Davers, who was one of the
principal actors in the quarrel between Sir Chaloner Ogle and the
governor, Trelawny, an echo of the jealousy of Wentworth and Vernon,
which was a factor in their deplorable failure at Cartagena; and to
General Villettes (by Sir Richard Westmacott), commander of the forces
and lieutenant-governor, to whom there is a mural tablet in Westminster
Abbey; and in the churchyard is the monument of Christopher Lipscomb,
first bishop of Jamaica.
The earliest dated tomb is that to Edward Harrison, of the year 1695.
The latest monuments of importance erected in the church are those in
memory of Sir James Fergusson, who was killed in Kingston by the
earthquake of 1907, and lies buried in the churchyard; and a brass
tablet to the memory of Sir Anthony Musgrave, a former governor.
The number of naval men buried here is somewhat remarkable for an inland
church: Admiral Davers (d. 1746), Dr. Charles Mackglashan, R.N. (d.
1834), Commodores Pring (d. 1846), Peter McQuhae (d. 1853) and Cracroft
(d. 1865), Admiral Holmes (d. 1761), Captains Renton (d. 1747–8),
Shortland (d. 1827) and Morrish (d. 1861).
Amongst military men are General William Anne Villettes (d. 1808),
Lieut.-Col. Augustus Frederick Ellis (d. 1841), Lieut.-Col. Charles
Markham (d. 1842), and Major-General Lambert (d. 1848).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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