RBH Home
  Maps & Travels
  Articles
  Legends
  Towns & Villages
  Castles & Houses
  Churches
  Biographies
  Gentry
  Family History
  Odds & Ends
  Mail David

 


Other Vaults
found during Sonning Church's Restoration (1852)

There are no less than five other vaults in the Church: one of these we came upon unexpectedly in the middle of the South Chancel Aisle, and strange to say, we could never make out to whom it had belonged. There was no whole coffin in it, but only a few bones, and coffin handles. The other vaults are those of Lord Stowell, Mr. Golding, Mr. Knyvett, and Mr. Hubbard, a former Vicar. There are in addition to these, several brick graves, most of which had to be opened, and better secured. One grave that we came upon was of some interest; it contained a coffin with this inscription, "George Jefferies, Esq., Lieutenant in General Wade's Regiment of Horse, died 1743." This takes us back to the Great Scottish Rebellion, which ended in the battle of Colloden in 1745, after which General Wade was left in Scotland, to overawe the Highlanders; and he is chiefly remembered for the military roads which he constructed for the first time across the Highlands, though perhaps more for the ridiculous lines which someone wrote in praise of them :

"Had you but seen these roads, before they were made,
You'd have held up your hands, and blest General Wade."

From Hugh Pearson’s “Memorials of the Church and Parish of Sonning” (1890)

   

    © Nash Ford Publishing 2001. All Rights Reserved.