The Monuments. |
Much To See
We hope you will come and explore the amazing collection of marble wall monuments in St Swithin’s, which might be said to be the main Georgian feature of the interior. As the Pevsner Architectural Guide for Bath notes, “innumerable monuments… urns in particular are many.”
Remarkable People
There are 163 monuments in the main part of the church, most of which date from the 1760s to the 1840s, with another 30 in the crypt. Some of the most prominent people memorialised are:
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Fanny Burney (1752-1840), the novelist, contemporary of Jane Austen, author of Evelina and other satirical novels.
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Sir Edward Berry (1768-1831), Rear Admiral, Nelson’s right-hand man at several engagements including Trafalgar, and the only officer in the fleet to be awarded three gold medals.
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Jerry Pierce FRS, (1695-1768), leading surgeon and colleague of Dr Oliver at the Mineral Water Hospital.
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William Hoare RA (1708-1792), portrait painter of high society and royalty.
Christopher Anstey (1725-1805), writer and poet, author of the must-read book for 18th Century visitors, the New Bath Guide.
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John Palmer (1738-1817) architect of St Swithin’s and many other Bath landmarks, including Lansdown Crescent, St James’s Square, Christchurch and the Pump Room.
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Thomas Pownall (1722-1805). Also known as Governor Pownall. Colonial administrator and pre-Revolutionary governor of New Jersey, Massachusetts Bay and South Carolina. Strong advocate of the rights of the American settlers.
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You can find further information and articles on specific people further down this page.
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Rich History
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The monuments range in style from late Baroque (heavy design with multi-coloured marbles) eg Paul Bertrand, fashionable jeweller (1688-1755); to a more restrained white-on-black classical format, eg Jenny Prideaux (1734-1819), wealthy widow and benefactress. There is a later group with beautiful mosaic inlays, eg Rev Thomas Dehany Bernard, Rector of Walcot (1815-1904) and the two World War 1 memorials.
The people memorialised are drawn from the well-off middle class of the day: army and naval officers, administrators of the East India Company, plantation owners in the West Indies, lawyers, Members of Parliament, business people and clergy. They are the sort of people you find in Jane Austen’s novels, and as a Bath resident herself in the 1800s she may have known some of them.
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Stories behind the memorials include the naval tragedy in which Lieut James Lewis Fitzgerald and several others died in 1835; the widow and three small children left behind by William Potter, organist of the church in 1805, where the monument displays as symbols of mortality a lyre with broken strings, an hourglass with wings and a blank scroll; and Catherine Uhthoff, who came home wet from a walk in 1790, stood so close to the fire to warm up that her dress caught alight and, despite her sister rolling her in the rug to put out the flames, died next day from her injuries.
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As well as recording the people, the memorials testify to the faith in God which members of St Swithin’s have shared over the centuries and which continues to be so important in the church today. There are many touching epitaphs and uplifting scriptural quotations, largely from the Letters in the New Testament.
Most of the later monuments show the maker’s name and it is striking how many (around 40 each) were carved by the firms of T King and W Reeves, both of which had premises within the parish.
The monuments have recently been cleaned and re-inscribed by a volunteer team from the church to make them legible and interesting for visitors.
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Further Information
Please click on the following for more information:
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A Personal View of the Monuments in St Swithin's. This personal view of the monuments and the background to them is based on a talk given by Henry Brown in the church to the History of Bath Research Group in May 2019
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Naval and Marine Officers. A document listing and detailing monuments dedicated to Naval and Marine officers.
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Jeremiah ‘Jerry’ Peirce F.R.S (1696-1768). An article by Stephen Bird about Jerry Peirce, a prominent member of society in eighteenth-century Bath and the city’s most eminent surgeon.
Thomas Hustler Esq. (1738/9-1802). An article by Stephen Bird about Thomas Hustler, who's monument can be found in St Swithin's Church.
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St Swithin’s monuments elements, 2018. A summary spreadsheet of key information about the monuments.
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Sir Edward Berry, Baronet, KCB, 2018. Illustrated biography by Donatella Gelati, a friend of St Swithin’s. For copyright reasons, the author has requested readers not to print copies off.
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St Swithin’s Church, Walcot, Bath. Internal Memorials, 2014. Report by Dr PJ Bendall, a local historian, with biographical information for each monument.
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For a more formal summary, see 'Bath' by Michael Forsyth, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Yale University Press 2003.
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If you are seeking information about people buried at St Swithin’s or any of the other churches and cemeteries in Bath, please refer to the Bath Burial Index, also compiled by Dr PJ Bendall.
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Please contact the church office at St Swithin’s if you would like more information about any of the monuments or have information about the people memorialised, and the team will be pleased to get in touch with you.
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