Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its PlacesThornbury, Walter
History
Old and New London, Volume I: A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places
Thornbury, Walter
London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
"I found," says Mr. Dix, "that Mrs. Stockwell, of Peter Street, wife of
Mr. Stockwell, a basket-maker, was the person who had communicated to
Sir R. Wilmot her grounds for believing Chatterton to have been so
interred; and on my requesting her to repeat to me what she knew of that
affair, she commenced by informing me that at ten years of age she was a
scholar of Mrs. Chatterton, his mother, where she was taught plain work,
and remained with her until she was near twenty years of age; that she
slept with her, and found her kind and motherly, insomuch that there
were many things which in moments of affliction Mrs. C. communicated to
her, that she would not have wished to have been generally known; and
among others, she often repeated how happy she was that her unfortunate
son lay buried in Redcliff, through the kind attention of a friend or
relation in London, who, after the body had been cased in a parish
shell, had it properly secured and sent to her by the waggon; that when
it arrived it was opened, and the corpse found to be black and half
putrid (having been burst with the motion of the carriage, or from some
other cause), so that it became necessary to inter it speedily; and that
it was early interred by Phillips, the sexton, who was of her family.
That the effect of the loss of her son was a nervous disorder, which
never quitted her, and she was often seen weeping at the bitter
remembrance of her misfortune. She described the poet as having been
sharp-tempered, but that it was soon over; and she often said he had
cost her many uneasy hours, from the apprehension she entertained of his
going mad, as he was accustomed to remain fixed for above an hour at a
time quite motionless, and then he would snatch up a pen and write
incessantly; but he was always, she added, affectionate....
"In addition to this, Mrs. Stockwell told the writer that the grave was
on the right-hand side of the lime-tree, middle paved walk, in Redcliff
Churchyard, about twenty feet from the father's grave, which is, she
says, in the paved walk, and where now Mrs. Chatterton and Mrs. Newton,
her daughter, also lie. Also, that Mrs. Chatterton gave a person leave
to bury his child over her son's coffin, and was much vexed to find that
he afterwards put the stone over it, which, when Chatterton was buried,
had been taken up for the purpose of digging the grave, and set against
the church-wall; that afterwards, when Mr. Hutchinson's or Mr. Taylor's
wife died, they buried her also in the same grave, and put this stone
over with a new inscription. (Query, did he erase the first, or turn the
stone?--as this might lead to a discovery of the spot.)....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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