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OBITUARY.-Capt. G. M. Jones-Archdeacon Churton. [June,

Sir J. S. Yorke. He received his first commission in 1802, and was junior Lieutenant of the Amphion 32, when that frigate conveyed Lord Nelson from off Brest to the Mediterranean, on the renewal of hostilities with France, in 1803. He subsequently assisted at the capture of a Spanish squadron, laden with treasure, from South America bound to Cadiz. On the 8th Nov. 1808, he was severely wounded in a gallant but unsuccessful boat attack on the coast of Istria. On the 27th Aug. 1809, he again highly distinguished himself at the capture and destruction of six heavy gun vessels, seven trabacolas, and a land battery of four long 24-pounders, at the mouth of the Piavie, and in sight of the enemy's squadron at Venice. In Sir William Hoste's official letter on that occasion, "the prompt manner in which Lieut. Jones turned the guns of the battery on the enemy's vessels," was noticed as highly praiseworthy. He afterwards commanded the Tuscan brig, and was employed in co-operation with the defenders of Cadiz, during the siege of l'Isla de Leon, in the year 1811. His last appointment was, Jan. 23, 1817, to the Pandora of 18 guns, on the Irish station, where he remained for a period of nearly two years. He obtained post rank, Dec. 7, 1818.

In 1827, Capt. Jones published "Travels in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Turkey; also on the coast of the Sea of Azof and of the Black Sea, &c. &c." in 2 vols. 8vo. Previously to these travels, which were undertaken by him with a view to the acquisition of professional knowledge, he had already inspected all the naval arsenals and ports of France and Holland; and in this publication he relates the result of his examination of them, as well as of those of Russia, Sweden, and Denmark; thereby presenting his readers with a great store of accurate information, and much acute remark, on the amount and condition of the maritime force of most of the European powers. He received the greatest attention from the late and present Emperors of Russia, and from the Empress Mother.

Shortly after his travels, Capt. Jones was attacked by a paralysis of the limbs, and repaired to Italy for the recovery of his bealth. In a state of great debility, he had the misfortune to fall down a flight of steep stone steps at Malta; three of his ribs were broken, and his shoulder dislocated, and on the third day he expired. By this accident the naval service has lost a brave, skilful, and zealous officer; and his friends a man of enlightened mind, honourable conduct, and amiable manners.

ARCHDEACON CHURTON,

March 23. Aged 76, the Ven. Ralph Churton, M. A., Archdeacon of St. David's, Rector of Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire, and F.S.A.

He was born Dec. 8, 1754, as is correctly stated by Mr. Ormerod, the Historian of Cheshire," at an estate called the Snabb in the township of Bickley," and parish of Malpas, the younger of two sons of Thomas Churton and Sarab Clemson. His early demonstration of talents and piety, united to a frame of body naturally weak, appears to have suggested to a tender mother (of whom, though he lost her with his other parent in childhood, he always spoke in terms of the strongest affection,) the wish to have him educated for the Church. It was a bappy Providence that this wish was formed, and more happy that it was formed where the most amiable of men, and honoured son of the Church of England, the late Archdeacon Townson, was at hand to foster it. The circumstances attending his education were afterwards thus modestly detailed by himself in his Life of Townson:

"The writer of these memoirs was the younger son of one of Dr. Townson's parishioners, a yeoman. At a proper age he was put to the grammar school at Malpas, with wishes, I believe, rather than any just hopes, of bringing him up to the church. It pleased God that both his parents died; but he continued at school; and his worthy master, the Rev. Mr. Evaus, recommended him to Dr. Townson, who made him presents of books, and frequently assisted and directed his studies. By Dr. Townson's recommendation, he was entered at Brasenose in 1772; and the same generous hand contributed one half towards his academical expenses."

In a letter which he afterwards wrote to Bishop Heber on his appointment to the See of Calcutta, be tells this characteristic anecdote: "When I was left, more than fifty years ago, a fatherless and motherless boy,-an honest labourer on the farm suggested to me this natural source of consolation: You will now have the prayers of the Church for you. May you find in this thought the comfort which I then found: for you also will now remember, if your spirit should incline to sink under your arduous duties, that you have the prayers of the Church for you."

Among his schoolfellows at Malpas, was the late Thomas Crewe Dod, Esq. of Edge, near Malpas, whose death in May 1827 is noticed in our vol. xcvi. i. 475; and whose warmhearted friendship was continued from this time to his death, through a life often tried in battle-fields,

1831.]

OBITUARY.-Ven. Archdeacon Churton, F.S.A.

and passed in scenes frequently far distant and always far different from the retired occupations of a student.

In 1778 Mr. Churton was elected a Fellow of his College; in 1785 he was chosen Bampton Lecturer; appointed Whiteball Preacher by Bp. Porteus in 1788; in 1792 bis kind friend and benefactor, Dr. Townson, lived to see him presented by his College to the living of Middleton Cheney;-he was collated to the Archdeaconry of St. David's, by Bishop Burgess, in 1805; and it is due to his memory, as well as to the honour of a distinguished statesman now living, to add, that the friendship of Viscount Sidmouth would have raised him to a still higher dignity, had not political changes frustrated his intention.

The protection of Townson, and his own rising merit, procured him, early in his academic life, many valued friends. Among those with whom he was on habits of intimacy, were the learned and pious Lewis Bagot, Bishop of St. Asaph, and Dean of Christ Church; Sir Roger Newdigate, Bart. a name now long endeared to the Oxford Muses; the excellent and learned Dr. Winchester, author of the "Dissertation on the XVIIth Article of the Church of England;" and the amiable Naturalist, and sincere Christian, Gilbert White, whose hospitable roof at Selborne, Hants, generally received him at Christmas to what its owner called a winter migration.

"For

if you cannot be as regular," said the rural Philosopher, " as a ring-ousel or a swallow, where is the use of all your knowledge, since it may be outdone by instinct?"

He was also at this period happy in the friendship of the memorable Richard Gough, to whom a kindred zeal in antiquarian researches could not fail to recommend him; of John Loveday, Esq. of Caversham, Berks, and his son John Loveday, D.C. L. of Williamscot, Oxon; to whose superior powers of mind, and exact judgment, be constantly expressed his obligations, and paid a feeling tribute to their memory in his Life of Townson and the preface to his Life of Nowell.

The friend of his youthful choice was however one whose career of honour was speedily shortened by the grave. This was Henry Edwards Davis, then of Balliol College, the author of "Remarks on Gibbon," the only one of his assailants to whom Gibbon replied. It was indeed one of those exploits which are consider. ed so peculiarly the province of maturer years, that a late biographer and relative*

563

of Bp. Douglas has with pardonable partiality, claimed for the Bishop the credit of having guided the pen of Henry Davis. It is no detraction from the fair fame of that

"-scourge of impostors, and terror of quacks," to state, on the certain authority of Archdeacon Churton, that, except in giving Henry Davis access to bis valuable library, Bp. Douglas had little or no literary share in the achievement.

The Archdeacon was the author of a numerous list of works, chiefly in divinity and ecclesiastical biography, bearing the impress of a conscientious devotedness to principle, under the guidance of a cultivated taste, and a sound understanding. The titles of the principal of

these are as follow:

1. Bampton Lectures; eight Sermons on the Prophecies relating to the Destruction of Jerusalem, preached before the University of Oxford, 1785, 8vo.

2. A Memoir of Thomas Townson, D.D. Archdeacon of Richmond, and Rector of Malpas, Cheshire, &c. prefixed to "a Discourse on the Evangelical History from the Interment to the Ascension," published after Dr. Townson's death by John Loveday, esq. D.C.L. Oxford, 1793. This memoir has been wholly or in part thrice reprinted; in 1810, prefixed to an edition of Townson's whole Works, 2 vols. 8vo. ; in 1828, with a private impression of "Practical Discourses," by the late Archdeacon Townson," edited by the present distinguished and venerated Bishop of Limerick; and in 1830, with the same Discourses published by Messrs. Cochran and Duncan. Bishop Jebb has characterized Archdeacon Churton's memoir of his friend as "an admirable biographical sketch, uniting the fine simplicity of Isaak Walton with the classical elegance of Lowth."

3. A Short Defence of the Church of England, &c. addressed to the inhabitants of Middleton Cheney, Northamptonshire. Oxford, 1795.

4. An Answer to a Letter from Francis Eyre, of Warkworth, Esq. on the "Short Defence," &c. Oxford, 1796.

5. A Postscript to an Answer to Francis Eyre, Esq. occasioned by his late publication entitled A Reply to the Rev. R. Churton, &c. Oxford, 1798.

6. Another Postscript to the same. 1801.

7. A Letter to the Bp. of Worcester, occasioned by his Strictures on Archbishop Secker and Bishop Lowth, in his Life of Bishop Warburton. Oxf. 1796.

8. The Lives of William Smyth, BiThe Rev. W. Macdonald, editor of shop of Lincoln, and Sir Richard Sutton, Knight, founders of Brazen Nose Col

Select Works of Bp. Douglas.

564

OBITUARY.-Ven. Archdeacon Churton, F.S.A.

lege, Oxford, 1800, 8vo.-To this work a Supplement was published in 1803.

9. The Life of Alexander Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, &c. Oxford, 1809, 8vo. (reviewed in our vol. LXXIX. 345, 948, and further noticed ibid. 796, 1200; LXXX. i. 24, 214, 503, ii. 3.)

10. The Works of Thomas Townson, D.D. with an Account of the Author, an Introduction to the Discourses on the Gospels, and a Sermon on the Quotations in the Old Testament. 1810, 2 vols. 8vo. (reviewed in vol. LXXX. ii. 47-52.)

11. Several detached Sermons on various occasions; viz. The Will of God the ground and principle of civil as well as religious obedience, preached before the University of Oxford, 1789; A Fast Sermon, before the University, 1793; A Sermon at the Bishop of Peterborough's Visitation, at Towcester, 1798; Antichrist, the Man of Sin, before the University, 1802; The constitution and example of the Seven Apocalyptic Churches, at Lambeth, at the consecration of Thomas (Burgess) Bishop of St. David's, and John (Fisher) Bishop of Exeter, 1803; The reality of the Gunpowder Plot vindicated from some recent misrepresentations [of Bishop Milner], before the University, 1805; On the manner of our Lord's Preaching, 1819; The duty of maintaining primitive Truth, 1819.

The last publication from his pen was a short Memoir of his friend the classical and accomplished Dr. Richard Chandler, prefixed to a new edition of his "Travels in Asia Minor and Greece." 2 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1825.

In affording assistance to other authors, Mr. Churton was ever liberal and kind. He is enumerated by Mr. Gough among his most valuable correspondents; and that learned antiquary testified his regard for him, not only in a bequest of 1001., but by the solemn gift, not long before his death, of a few valuable books. Among these was a copy of Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, containing the manuscript notes of Bishop Kennett; and which, after Mr. Churton's decease, was to be placed with the bulk of Mr. Gough's books in the Bodleian Library. Immediately on receiving the announcement of the new edition of that great work, Mr. Churton anticipated the transmission of the volumes to the Bodleian, in order that the editor, Dr. Bliss, might have access to the information they contained. In the same way, and for a similar purpose, the Bishop's own copy of his "Parochial Antiqui

ties

was transmitted to Dr. Bandinel. Mr. Nichols, in his "Literary Anecdotes," was also materially assisted by

[June,

Mr. Archdeacon Churton; as was Mr. Chalmers, in his History of the University of Oxford.

Among the acknowledgments in the preface to the History of Cheshire is the following: "The name of Archdeacon Churton must follow that of his deceased friend (Dean Cholmondeley). To his communications the author is indebted for an ample account of the Rectors of Malpas, and other interesting particulars relative to that parish, and for a variety of notices extracted from his MS. collections, compiled from various sources during the time he was employed in his excellent Lives of the Founders of Brasenose."

To Mr. Baker's History of Northamptonshire, besides such information as it is in the power of every parochial clergyman to bestow on a county historian, and some literary notices of the rectors his predecessors, the Archdeacon contributed a fine engraving of the church at Middleton Cheney.

With his friends, Dr. Burgess, the present learned and pious Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Thos. Dunham Whitaker, the late elegant historian of Craven and of Yorkshire, the excellent Rev. J. B. Blakeway, one of the authors of the "History of Shrewsbury," of whom a beautiful and just Memoir is given in vol. xcvi. i. 369, and the Rev. H. J. Todd, author of many well-known theological and philological works, he was frequently in correspondence on the literary subjects in which they were engaged.

To the pages of this Miscellany the Archdeacon was for many years a frequent contributor; and his communications were always characterised by depth of learning, accuracy of judgment, and the warmest attachment to the constitution in church and state.

Archdeacon Churton married, July 11, 1796, Mary Calcot, of Stene in Northamptonshire, and had eight chil dren, of whom four only survive. His third son, William Ralph Churton, educated at Rugby, sometime of Lincoln College, afterwards on the Michel foundation at Queen's, and then Fellow of Oriel College, obtained in 1820 the Chancellor's prize for Latin verse, the subject of which was "Newtoni Systema," afterwards a First Class degree in 1892, and in 1824 the University prize for an English essay, on "Athens in the time of Pericles, and Rome in the time of Augustus." After these academical honours, having travelled a short time in Italy and other parts of the Continent, he was soon after his return appointed Domestic Chaplain to Dr. How

OBITUARY.-Robert Clutterbuck, Esq. F.S.A.

ley, then Bishop of London, now the accomplished Primate of the English Church. On the 29th of August, 1828, he died of a consumption at the age of 26, to the unspeakable sorrow of his family, and many friends distinguished for talents and character, whose esteem raised a monumental tablet in St. Mary's Oxford, with the following inscription :

"M. S. Gulielmi Radulphi Churton, Collegii Orielensis Socii, et per biennium Gulielmo Episcopo Londinensi a sacris domesticis, qui phthisi eheu præreptus, Middletonia in agro Northamptoniensi supremum diem obiit kal. Septemb. anno sacro M.DCCC.XXVIII. ætatis xxvII. Animo erat pio, candido, sereno, ingenio acri, doctrina elegauti, et, quod in illa ætate mireris, judicio subacto et limato. Τελειωθείς εν ολίγω επλήρωσε χρόνους μακρους, Juveni desideratissimo amici mœrentes.'

566

OBITUARY.-Robert Clutterbuck, Esq. F.S.A.

married Marianne the eldest daughter of Colonel James Capper, of the Hon. East India Company's service; and, after a few years residence at the seat of his father-in-law, Cathays, near Cardiff in Glamorganshire, he took possession of his paternal estate at Watford, where he continued to reside until his death. He there succeeded his much-respected father as a magistrate; and the impartiality and integrity with which he executed the duties of that arduous office, will be long remembered and appreciated by the inhabitants of Watford and its vicinity.

During the intervals of these public duties, Mr. Clutterbuck employed his active and well-arranged mind in collecting materials for a new edition of Chauncy's History of Hertfordshire. These intentions he publicly announced in our Miscellany in 1809 (LXXIX. 693), but finding his manuscripts greatly accumulated, and having fortunately purchased in 1811 the genealogical collections for Hertfordshire, made by the late Thomas Blore, esq. F.S.A. (see vol. LXXXI. i. 207), he formed the resolution of publishing a completely new History of his native County, making such use only of Chauncy's materials as were to his purpose. In this object he steadily persevered for eighteen years, and the result was an elegant and complete History, in three folio volumes, which will hand down his name in honourable connection with his native county, to the latest posterity. The first volume was published in 1816 (see vol. LXXXVI. i. p. 425-431). The second appeared in 1821 (vol. xci. i. p. 521); and the third was published in 1827 (vol. XCVII. ii. p. 150). The plates in this work have never been surpassed in any similar publication, whether we consider the appropriateness of the embellishments, or the beauty and fidelity of their execution. Mr. Clutterbuck himself possessed as draughtsman the hand of a master; several of the plates were from sketches of his own; but his knowledge of art also enabled him to employ with great judgment the very first artists in their particular lines. Fortunately, he at that time found it possible to procure the assistance of Edward Blore, esq. F.S.A. one of our first antiquarian draughtsmen and engravers, but whose talents have since been devoted to that still higher and more creative department of the arts, the profession of architecture.

a

In 1823 Mr. Clutterbuck was, as a magistrate, called upon for an unusual sacrifice of time to the case of John Thurtell and his accomplices, the murderers of Wm. Weare, which at that

[June,

time attracted the interest of the whole country.

From the year 1817 to 1830, at intervals, Mr. Clutterbuck visited, in succession, France, Norway, Switzerland, and Italy. Few persons were able so bighly to enjoy and appreciate such an advantage. The numerous sketches made by him during his continental tours, would, it was naturally hoped, have formed abundant amusement during bis latter years; but it has pleased Providence at a comparatively early age to call him, quite suddenly, from a state of usefulness-we say of great usefulness; for, though disengaged from the trammels of a profession, yet he was always employed, either in bis magisterial duties, or in private business connected with his friends, or his late friends, many of whom had placed their affairs in his truly honourable hands (as executor or trustee).

Mr. Clutterbuck was suddenly attacked with inflammation in the stomach, and expired before medical aid could be obtained; but upon a post-mortem examination, it was evident that so rapid had been the progress of the disease, that no human assistance could have arrested its fatal termination. Thus died this excellent man. The deep and heartfelt sorrow of his relations and friends attest his private worth, and the unsolicited attendance at his funeral, accompanied with every mark of respect sbown to his memory by the inhabitants of bis native town, is the best evidence of his estimation as a public character.

He has left two sons and one daughter. His eldest son Robert was married Sept. 29, 1828, to Elizabeth-Anne, youngest daughter of the late H. Hulton, Esq. of Bevis Mount, near Southampton, by whom he has a son and daughter. The second son, the Rev. James-Charles Clutterbuck, has married a daughter of the Hon. and Rev. Wm. Capel, brother to the Earl of Essex.

WILLIAM HAMPER, ESQ. F.S.A.

May 3. At Highgate, near Birmingham, aged 54, William Hamper, Esq. F.S.A. Honorary Member of the Society of Antiquaries at Newcastle, and a Justice of the Peace for the Counties of Warwick and Worcester.

Mr. Hamper was descended from a family of that name at Hurstperpoint in the county of Sussex, who in the seventeenth century branched off from the parent stock, of considerable antiquity, at West Tarring in that county. His father, Thomas Hamper, whose death in 1811 is recorded in our vol. LXXXI. i. 403, and that of his widow, ibid. p. 605, settled early in life at Birmingham, and