THE SPIELMANS 53 



The presence of the badge in the church shows that 

 the paper-maker had a good deal to do with the 

 reparation of the building. 



In 1858 an association styling themselves the " Legal 

 Society of Paper Makers," of whom I know nothing, 

 restored Spielman's tomb. The strange heraldic 

 coat-of-arms of Spielman will be noticed. It is, and 

 looks, German, and is of an extravagant nature that 

 would utterly discompose an English herald. 

 Spielman's coat exhibits a blue serpent with a red crest, 

 standing on his tail on a gold background, between six 

 golden lions on a red field, the whole of this singular 

 device based on a green mount. His wife's arms, 

 impaled with his own, are a man clothed in a long black 

 gown, with a long cap, holding in his hand an olive 

 branch, and standing on a red mount inverted. The 

 crest is : a savage, wreathed about the temples and 

 loins with ivy. Motto : Arte et fortuna. The epitaph 

 is in German. Spielman's first wife died in 1607. 

 In 1609 he married again, and deceased in 1626, 

 leaving by the second wife three sons and one 

 daughter. 



The fortunes of the Spielmans were short-lived. 

 His second wife was living in 1646, but seems to have 

 had little interest in the business, which about 1686 was 

 in possession of a Mr. Blackwell. Meanwhile the 

 Spielman family had declined to poverty, and in 1690 

 " goody Spielman," widow of his grandson George, 

 was in receipt of Is. 6d. weekly relief ; and in 1696 the 

 wife of a John Spielman was receiving 2s. The 

 Spielman paper mill stood where the gas-mantle factory 

 of Curtis and Harvey is now found. 



There is a curious sundial actually in the church ; 

 oddly placed on a stone foundation on the splayed sill of 

 the south-east window. It is dated 1820, and records 

 the hours only from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. 



A brass to John Donkin (1782-1846) shows liim with 

 head and shoulders. The inscription states it was placed 

 here because it was not considered proper that one 



