Monday, July 22, 2019

An Armorial Wall Memorial in the Cloister at Canterbury Cathedral


Not all of the armorial memorials in the Cloister at Canterbury Cathedral are in the floor; some are set into the wall around the Cloister.



Sacred to the Memory of
the Revd James Ford, B.A.
for forty seven years a Minor Canon of this
Cathedral, and Rector of St George the Martyr,
and St Mary Magdalene in this City;
Who departed this life the 5th of January 1824,
in the 74th year of his age.
And of Dorothy his wife, the third daughter
of William Spearman, of Durham, Esqr
who departed this life the 14th of December 1819,
in the 74th year of her age.
Also of Mrs Mary Spearman,
who departed this life the 1st of March 1811,
in the 68th year of her age.
And of Mary, the eldest daughter of
the said Revd James and Dorothy Ford,
who departed this life the 3rd of Decr 1853,
in the 50th year of her age.

They all lie buried in a vault near this place.



The arms, carefully carved here with hatching, are blazoned as: Gules two bendlets vairy or and azure on a canton or an anchor sable (Ford), impaling, Azure a chevron ermine between three spears argent headed or (Spearman). Burke’s General Armory blazons the crest, Ford, of Bexley, Gloucester, and Canterbury, Kent: Out of a naval coronet proper a bear’s head sable muzzled gules.

James Ford seems to be best known as the father of James Ford (1779-1851), an English antiquarian with his own entry in the Dictionary of National Biography.

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