Here, reader, stand awhile, and know Whose carcase ’tis that rots below; A man’s, who walk’d by Reason’s rule Yet sometimes err’d and play’d the fool; A man’s sincere in all his ways, And full of the Creator’s praise, Who laughed at priestcraft, pride and strife, And all the little tricks of life. He lov’d his king, his country more, And dreadful party-rage forbore: He told nobility the truth And winked at hasty slips of youth. The honest poor man’s steady friend. The villain’s sconce in hopes to mend. His father, mother, children, wife, His riches, honour, length of life, Concern not thee. Observe what’s here— He rests in hope and not in fear. His wife dying in May, 1756, he married for the second time in October the same year Mrs. Frances Bendish (sister to the Rev. Sir Richard Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, Bart.), who long survived him, dying December 24, 1798, at Froxfield, near Petersfield, in Hampshire, at a very advanced age. The learned doctor himself died March 6, 1760, with a return of the gout in his stomach, and his death was universally lamented by his tenants, who lost an indulgent landlord; by his servants, who lost a good master; but more by numbers of poor in the populous villages adjacent and at a distance, in grateful remembrance of the charitable advice and friendly assistance they had always enjoyed at his kindly hands. A somewhat eulogistic entry of his death appears in the Bilston Registers. As Dr. Wilkes left no issue, his property passed to the Unett family, the representatives of his aunt Anne who had married George Unett, of Wolverhampton. He was buried at Willenhall in his native soil, where a neat monument was erected to his memory near the family pew, by his heirs, Captain Richard Wilkes Unett, and Mr. John Wilkes Unett; the tablet was thus inscribed:— “Near this place Lie the remains of RICHARD WILKES, M.D. Formerly fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge; the last of an ancient and respectable family resident at this place 300 years and upwards. He married first, Rachel, eldest daughter of Rowland Manlove, of Lees Hill, in this county, esq.; secondly, Frances, daughter of Sir John, and sister of the late Sir Richard Wrottesly, of Wrottesly, Bart. and widow of Higham Bendish, Esq. He died March 6, 1760, aged 70 years. [Underneath is the following escutcheon:— (Wilkes) Paly of eight Or and Gules; on a chief Argent, three lozenges of the second: impaling, 1. (Manlove) Azure, a chevron Ermine, between three anchors Argent; 2. (Wrottesley) Or, three piles Sa. a canton Ermine]