crispina kemp

The green grille at Intwood All Saints church: Photo 24 Sept 2018

In Intwood churchyard there lies a grave, fancily enclosed with a wrought iron grille made shades of green by Nature’s hand. Moss obscures whatever inscription once was there yet leaves for us a useful clue. A coat of arms.

Coat of Arms at Intwood: Photo 24 Sept 2018

The Blazon

While it is customary to give the blazon in French, where I can I’ve translated to English, cos that’s what I speak:

Quarterly (the man deceased)

1.  on silver, an engrailed cross in red
2.  paly six of gold and blue
3.  on blue, a silver chevron beneath 3 crosslets-patty of same
4.  on silver, an engrailed cross in red

Impaled (his wife, an heiress)

1. on blue, a silver chevron beneath 3 crosslets-patty of same
2. on silver, a red fess-undy between 3 couped Boars’ heads of silver
3. on silver, a black chief with 3 silver shells
4. on gold, silver and blue fess-chequy beneath red chevron; and a double tressure flory of silver (red?)

Without getting too deep into explanations, what does this tell us?

Reading the Arms

The deceased’s arms—on silver, an engrailed cross in red—belongs to the Gurneys, a Quaker family, prominent as wool merchants and bankers in Norwich. The family, being highly fertile and prolific, had several branches. One branch lived at Earlham Hall, now part of the UEA, another branch lived at nearby Keswick Hall. I guess the deceased belonged to the latter.

The deceased’s arms are quartered with the arms of an heiress (his mother?)—paly six of gold and blue / on blue, a silver chevron beneath 3 crosslets-patty of same. The latter belongs to a family of ancient Scots ancestry, prominent Quakers of their time, with a name, today, synonymous with banking. The Barclays. The blue and gold stripes belong to a Warren family, but I haven’t been able to find them.

The son of a banking fraternity

At first glance it seems not so easy to name him since these two Quaker families have combined several times over the centuries. Yet the gentleman’s mother was a Barclay heiress. That narrows it down.

Around 1774, Richard Gurney married Agatha, daughter and heiress of David Barclay, of Youngsbury, Herts.

Their only son, Hudson Gurney, born in 1775, died without issue, aged 80 or so.

Both Richard and Hudson lived at Keswick Hall. At first sight it would seem either father or son, or even both, could be buried here. Except … the impaled wife’s arms.

The Impaled Wife

Hudson Gurney died without issue. But I suspect that wasn’t for want of trying. In 1809 he married … wait for it … Margaret, daughter of Robert Barclay of Ury, Kincardineshire. And who was Margaret’s mother? Sarah Allardice, daughter of James Allardice, and incidentally heiress of line to the Earls of Airth and Menteith.

All this is shown in the wife’s impaled arms

1. on blue, a silver chevron beneath 3 crosslets-patty of same (Barclay)
2. on silver, a red fess-undy between 3 couped Boars’ heads of silver (Allardice)
3. on silver, a black chief with 3 silver shells (Graham, who married an Allardice)
4. on gold, silver and blue fess-chequy beneath red chevron; and a double tressure flory of silver (Clan Stuart of Bute, not sure of the additional chevron; in C13th both the Grahams and the Barclays married into the Stewart/Stuart clan)

Hudson Gurney, the man whose bones are behind the green grille

Hudson Gurney died 9 Nov 1864. Unlike his family, he had little interest in banking and never became a Quaker ‘Friend’. As he wrote in 1813:

‘I was in early life determined to write a poem, to go abroad and to sit in Parliament.’

He achieved all three ambitions: a well-travelled versifier, an MP for Shaftesbury 1812, for Newtown, Hants 1816-32, and high sheriff of Norfolk, 1835.

I think I would have much liked Hudson had we met. As he said of himself:

I did nothing, but thought much.