2nd s. No 80., JULT 11. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



^3 



CHATTERTON : WAS HIS BODY EEMOVED FROM 

 XONDON TO BRISTOL FOB INTERMENT. 



I have received so many applications from gen- 

 tlemen personally unknown to me, requesting me 

 to give my opinion in " N. & Q." upon the sup- 

 posed removal of Chatterton's remains from 

 London to Bristol, that I have been at some pains 

 to draw up as succinct an account as I could from 

 books and documents in my possession ; as from 

 these communications it is obvious the public still 

 feel an interest in the Chattertonian controversy. 



The gentleman who first gave currency to the 

 supposition that Chatterton's body was removed 

 from the parish burying-ground in Shoe Lane, 

 London, to Redcliffe Churchyard, Bristol, for in- 

 terment, was George Cumberland, Esq. It was 

 in 1807-8 he collected evidence in relation thereto ; 

 but it was not published until 1837, when it ap- 

 peared in the appendix to Dix's Life of Chatter- 

 ton. It was collected by Mr. Cumberland with 

 much perseverance from persons then living, some 

 of whom were acquainted with Chatterton's 

 mother. The removal of the body to Bristol is 

 still credited by many Bristolians of the present 

 day. Mr. Cumberland's narrative is too long for 

 insertion in " N. & Q. ; " but as the greater part of 

 it relates to Chatterton's personal character and 

 his early course of life, extracts from it which 

 relate only to the supposed removal of the body 

 to Bristol, are all that is necessary for the object 

 of this communication. 



It was in the year 1807 that Mr. Cumberland 

 was informed by Sir Robert Wilmot, that at a 

 basket maker's in Bristol he had heard it positively 

 stated that Chatterton was buried in the church- 

 yard of St. Mary Redcliflfe. Mr. Cumberland 

 thereupon instituted inquiries to ascertain the fact, 

 and at length traced Sir Robert Wilmot's inform- 

 ation to Mrs. Stockwell, the wife of a basket- 

 maker in Peter Street. On requesting her to 

 repeat what she knew of the circumstance, she 

 informed him that at ten years of age she was a 

 scholar of Chatterton's mother ; that she remained 

 with her until she was near twenty years of age ; 

 that she slept with her, and found her kind and 

 motherly ; insomuch that there were many things 

 which in moments of affliction she communicated to 

 her, that she would not wish to have been generally 

 known ; and among others, she often repeated 

 how happy she was, that her unfortunate son lay 

 buried in Redcliffe, through the kind attention of 

 a relation or friend in London, who, after the body 

 had been cased in a parish shell, had it properly 

 secured and sent to her by the waggon ; that when 

 it arrived it was opened, and the corpse found to 

 be black and half putrid, having burst with the 

 motion of the carriage, or from some other cause, 

 so that it became necessary to inter it speedily ; 

 and that it was interred by Phillips, the sexton, 



who was of her family. Mrs. Stockwell also told 

 Mr. Cumberland that Mrs. Chatterton said her 

 son's grave was on the right-hand side of the lime 

 tree in the middle paved walk in Redcliffe church- 

 yard, about twenty feet from the father's grave ; 

 which Mrs. Stockwell said was in the paved walk, 

 where Mrs. Chatterton and Mrs. Newton, her 

 daughter, lie. Thus much for Mrs. Stockwell's 

 information. 



Mr. Cumberland was also referred to Mrs. Jane 

 Phillips, of Rolls Alley, London, sister to Richard 

 Phillips, sexton at Redcliffe in 1772. She remem- 

 bered Chatterton having been at his father's 

 school. Phillips liked Chatterton for his spirit, 

 and there could be no doubt he would have risked 

 the privately burying Chatterton on that account. 

 That soon after Chatterton's death, her brother 

 told her that poor Chatterton had killed himself; 

 on which she said she would go to Madam Chat- 

 terton to know the rights of it, but that he forbid 

 her, and said if she did so he should be sorry he 

 had told her. She did go, and asking if it was 

 true that he was dead, Mrs. Chatterton began to 

 weep bitterly, saying, " My son indeed is dead." 

 And when she asked her where he was buried, she 

 replied, " Ask me nothing, he is dead and buried." 



The last person with whom Mr. Cumberland 

 had communication was Mrs. Edkins. Much 

 stress has been laid upon this conversation ; but 

 the only allusion to the burial of Chatterton is, 

 that she had gone to see Mrs. Chatterton imme- 

 diately after the news came of her son's death. 

 On entering she found Mrs. Chatterton in a fit of 

 hysterics. She said she had come to ask about 

 her health. " Ay," said Mrs. Chatterton, " and 

 about something else," on which she burst into 

 tears, and they cried togethei', and " no more was 

 said till they parted." 



The foregoing statements relative to Chatter- 

 ton's burial in Redcliffe churchyard were, as 

 before mentioned, collected in 1808, but not 

 printed in Dix's Life until 1837. But the follow- 

 ing slight corroboration having in 1854 been given 

 in Mr. Price's Memorials of Canynge, from a 

 letter written by Mr. Joseph Cottle, who with Mr. 

 Southey in 1807 published a Life of Chatterton 

 for the benefit of his sister, great reliance has 

 been placed upon the contents of this letter by the 

 believers in Chatterton's body being removed from 

 London to Bristol. 



" About forty years ago," says Mr. Cottle, " Mr. Cum- 

 berland called upon me and said, ' I have ascertained one 

 important fact about Chatterton.' ' What is it,' I said. 

 ' It is,' said he, ' that that marvellous boy was buried in 

 Redcliffe churchyard.' He continued, '1 am just come 

 from conversing with old Mrs. Edkins, a friend of Chat- 

 terton's mother. She affirmed to me this fact with the 

 following explanation. Mrs. Chatterton was passion- 

 ately fond of her darling and only son, Thomas, and 

 when she heard that he had destroyed himself, she imme- 

 diately wrote to a relation of hers, the poet's uncle, then 

 residing in London, a carpenter, urging him to send home 



