Thames Valley Villages, Volume 2 (of 2)Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
History
Thames Valley Villages, Volume 2 (of 2)
Harper, Charles G. (Charles George)
Thames Valley (England)
Few would give a second glance to the humble little church, with its
red-brick tower of typically seventeenth-century type, and with other
portions of the exterior quite horribly stuccoed; but to pass it by
would be to miss a great deal, for it contains a most curious family pew
and parish library. This library, originally containing between 500 and
600 volumes, was given by Sir John Kedermister, or Kederminster, under
his will of 1631, to “the town” of Langley Marish. The worthy knight was
also builder of one of the two groups of almshouses for four inmates, who
were appointed joint custodians of the books. An ancient deed, reciting
the gift, says: “The said Sir John Kedermister prepared a convenient
place for a library, adjoining to the west end of the said chapel, and
intended to furnish the same with books of divinity, as well for the
perpetual benefit of the vicar and curate of the parish of Langley as for
all other ministers and preachers of God’s Word that would resort thither
to make use of the books therein.”
The Kederminsters first settled at Langley in the middle of the sixteenth
century, when one John Kederminster, who appears to have been a kinsman
of Richard Kydermynster, Abbot of Winchcombe, became ranger of the then
royal park of Langley and “master of the games” to Henry the Eighth. He
died at the comparatively early age of thirty-eight, in 1558, leaving
two sons and three daughters. His son Edmund was father of the John
Kederminster who founded the library and initiated other works here. He
also was ranger of Langley Park, and was knighted by James the First in
1609, who also conferred upon him the Manor of Langley.
[Illustration: THE KEDERMINSTER PEW: EXTERIOR.]
This was a short-lived family, and Sir John died in 1634, a deeply
pious but much stricken man, who had lived to see his children, except
one daughter, predecease him, and his hopes thus disappointed of the
Kederminster name being continued.
As lord of the manor of Langley, and a knight, Sir John Kederminster
obviously felt it behoved him to establish himself in considerable state,
in the church as well as at his mansion. He therefore secured a faculty
granting him the right to construct an “Ile or Chappell”; otherwise, as
we may see to this day, a private family pew, in the south aisle, and a
parish library to the west of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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