Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024: 172, Wednesday 30 October 2024

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … ‘Punchestown Conyngham Cup, 1872, The Double’, John Sturgess (1840-1908), one of a set of four coloured aquatints (1874)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and the week began with the Last Sunday after Trinity (27 October 2024).

Before the day begins, before having breakfast, I am taking some quiet time early this morning to give thanks, and for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a short reflection;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … being bowled out first allowed me to enjoy the match … an old postcard seen in Cambridge (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Luke 13: 22-30 (NRSVA):

22 Jesus went through one town and village after another, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. 23 Someone asked him, ‘Lord, will only a few be saved?’ He said to them, 24 ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the owner of the house has got up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, “Lord, open to us”, then in reply he will say to you, “I do not know where you come from.” 26 Then you will begin to say, “We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.” 27 But he will say, “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you evildoers!” 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out. 29 Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. 30 Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.’

‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able’ (Luke 13: 24) … the ‘Holy Door’ in Saint Joseph’s Cathedral, Kuching (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

Like many of the shophouses in this part of Kuching, the entrance to our flat is through a narrow door and up narrow steep stairs. And we are so high up above the street, that we cannot hear anyone knocking at the door below.

A few weeks ago, in our Sunday Gospel reading, we read how the disciples James and John wanted to be in the ‘in-gang’, to be the first ones in the door, to be picked for the first team, and to have the best seats.

I never made it to the first team in sports at school, perhaps to the disappointment of my parents, and to the reluctant acceptance of my teachers, who always told me I never reached my potential, either intellectually or physically.

That still did not stop from enjoying sports later in life. I tried valiantly, but failed to tog out for Wexford Wanderers when I was in my early 20s, and I still tried to play cricket with the Irish Times team when I was in my early 40s, but was mercifully bowled out immediately.

My experiences at trying to play cricket in middle age reminded me of an old postcard I once saw in Cambridge: being bowled out at an early stage allowed me to enjoy watching the rest of a game.

I still remember my father trying to teach me to row when I was 15. But I was too late in years when I got to study at Cambridge, nor was I there long enough, to think about taking up rowing.

But that does not dull my enthusiasm for rugby, soccer, cricket and rowing.

It sounds glib to say now, but it should never be about winning, but about taking part, and how we take part, whether it is with enthusiasm and honesty on one hand, or, on the other, half-heartedly or, even worse, determined to win at the expense of others who deserve recognition.

The saying ‘It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game’ is often attributed to the American sportsman and coach Grantland Rice (1880-1954), who was a highly regarded sports writer who was known for his eloquent and philosophical approach to sports journalism.

Rice emphasised the importance of integrity, sportsmanship, and character over mere victory.

Winners get the medals and get to write biographies that are published. But, as I found out at a second-hand book stall at a charity sale, few people want to buy the memoirs of Michele Smith or Lance Armstrong.

Even among the best sellers, Jeffrey Archer’s real character was thinly veiled in some of the Freudian choices for the titles of his blockbusters. First Among Equals (1984) betrays many of Archer’s own pretensions and lies about his life. The title of his The Eleventh Commandment (1998) refers to the rule, ‘Thou Shalt Not Get Caught’ – but Archer was eventually caught and jailed for perjury and many critics accuse him of plagiarism.

I hope I have learned in life, not to worry about coming first or last, or how I have performed when I have been chosen or selected. To be among the saints and the disciples should be good enough, and I hope never to be jealous of the achievements or recognition of others, for ‘people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God’ (Luke 13: 29).

Fact or Fiction? Winners get the medals and write their biographies … but who reads the biographies of cheats and liars? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Wednesday 30 October 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘All Saints’ Day’. This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update by the Revd Dr Duncan Dormor, General Secretary, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Wednesday 30 October 2024) invites us to pray:

Let us pray for archbishops and senior leaders across the Anglican Communion. Grant them wisdom and discernment as they guide the Church and its people.

The Collect:

Blessed Lord,
who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
help us so to hear them,
to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them
that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word,
we may embrace and for ever hold fast
the hope of everlasting life,
which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

God of all grace,
your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry
with the bread of his life
and the word of his kingdom:
renew your people with your heavenly grace,
and in all our weakness
sustain us by your true and living bread;
who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.

Additional Collect:

Merciful God,
teach us to be faithful in change and uncertainty,
that trusting in your word
and obeying your will
we may enter the unfailing joy of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

‘Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last’ (Luke 13: 30) … my lack of skills never dulled my enthusiasm for Cricket (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Nicholas Comberford and one of the earliest English-language maps of Borneo, made in 1665

Nicholas Comerford’s map of the East Indies, made in 1665, may be the earliest English-map showing Borneo, including Kuching and Sarawak (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London)

Patrick Comerford

Inevitably, once I had arrived in Kuching, I started searching for Comerford family links in the past with Kuching, in Sarawak, or in Borneo, or in Malaysia.

We arrived in Kuching two weeks ago (15 October 2024), but in the two weeks since I have found very little about any Comerford presence here before me as I trawl the internet and pored over academic papers, news reports and the historical research of others in the past.

There wis the occasional academic paper with a Comerford co-author, but none of them amounted to a long-standing connection with this part of south-east Asia. There is an Australian racing commentator, also called Patrick Comerford, who has worked here occasionally, but he has also worked in Singapore as well as Abu Dhabi and other parts of the Middle East. Once again, though, there were no long-standing associations.

I extended my research a little further in Malaysia and found Comerfords who had been here on business trips or who had on-off business connections with Malaysia as part of their interests in south-east Asia. In my initial searches I could find no Comerford involved in colonial administration, no Comerford involved in rubber plantations, oil exploration, or missionary engagement in Malaysia, or in the Brooke administration in Sarawak.

I even wondered whether there was a possibility that the Brooke family, one-time Rajahs of Sarawak, were related to Comberford Brooke (1675-1711), who lived at Madeley, Shropshire, and Comberford Hall, Staffordshire, and who was also known as ‘Mr Brooke of Cumberford’ and ‘Captain Cumberford’.

He was living with his sisters and his grandmother, Catherine Comberford, at Comberford Hall in 1705. He became an English Jacobite and a captain in the German Regiment of Saar. But he maintained regular contact with his family and friends, and as Comberford Brooke of Comberford he made his will in 1711.

Comberford Brooke married Rose Austen, daughter of Sir John Austen of Bexley, Kent. But his descendants in the male line came to an end with the death of his only son Basil Brooke, who died in 1727, and the line of descent of these Comberfords and Brookes passed into the Smitheman, Edwardes, Giffard, Salughter and Mostyn family.

A portrait of Basil Brooke, Comberford Brooke’s son, painted in 1727 … I could find no links with the Brookes of Sarawak (Photograph courtesy Paul and Kathy Schaefer, Fairfield, Iowa)

The legacy of the Brooke family can be seen throughout Kuching to this day. But it does not include a descent from the Comberford family of Comberford Hall.

And then I remembered the work of the Nicholas Comberford or Comerford, the 17th century mapmaker in London, who worked in Radcliffe and Stepney.

Returning to the work of Nicholas Comberford, I also returned to the paper I wrote 25 years ago in the Old Kilkenny Review, the Journal of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society (‘From India to Brazil: Nicholas Comerford, a seventeenth-century Kilkenny-born cartographer’, 1999, pp 92-102).

Nicholas Comerford’s maps charted the world from the East Indies and India to Brazil and the coast of North America. However, unlike the other members of the Thames School, he was not an Englishman, but a Kilkenny-born Irishman, who, as well as being overlooked until recently by cartographers and art historians alike, has been overlooked too in his native county.

Nicholas may well have been the first person to create English-language maps that show Borneo, including the area that is now Sarawak and the place where Kuching would later develop.

Two versions of his colourful map, East Indies, have survived. They are both on vellum and similar in every detail apart from their size, including the materials and colours Nicholas used, his spelling of place names and the inscriptions: ‘Nicholas Cumberford dwelling at the Signe of the Platt neare the weste end of the School House in Ratcliffe, 1665’.

The larger version, measuring 70.5 cm x 55.5 cm, is in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London; the smaller version, measuring 40 cm x 32 cm, is in the Braga Special Map Collection of the National Library of Australia. The map in Greenwich is a single sheet Portulan made of vellum and mounted on two hinged boards, each 70.5 cm x 27.5 cm. The signature reads: ‘Made by Nicholas Comberford dwelling at the signe of the platt neare the west end of the school house in Ratcliffe anno 1665.’

Nicholas Comberford’s smaller map in the National Library of Australia is in colour, measuring 40 x 32 cm, with a similar inscription and also dated Ratcliffe, 1665.

Borneo is at the very centre of these two maps, and it is possible to identity the location on the map where Kuching later developed. Other places included in the maps include the West Pacific, Malaya, Sumatra, Siam, China, Taiwan, Japan, New Guinea, Timor, the Philippines and north-west Australia. Cambodia is named as Camboea an seems to include Laos and Vietnam; Java is identified as Iava Maior; the Philippines as Laphillpinia, and Korea as Coray. A clear line indicates the Equator.

Inside Saint Dunstan’s Parish Church, Stepney, facing east … Nicholas Comberford and Mary Kithen were married here on 10 June 1624 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Nicholas Comberford was a leading member of the Thames School of chart makers who drew manuscript plane charts on vellum. Although he lived most of his working life in Stepney and Wapping, he was born in Kilkenny. He was a member of the Drapers’ Company all his life. His maps charted the world from the East Indies and India to Brazil and the North coast of America.

But in the 1650s, at the height of his career, he was poor and was paid little for his work. Although he had charted much of the world, he never travelled much further than the journey from Kilkenny to London, a journey that he appears to have regretted in the closing days of his life, when he longed to return to Ireland once more.

Part of the difficulty in the past in identifying Nicholas Comerford as a member of the Kilkenny family arises because many English map cataloguers have spelled his name Comberford, leading to confusion and his identification with the Staffordshire family. Nor was the historian of the Diocese of Ossory, William Carrigan, aware of Nicholas Comberford, his important contribution to 17th-century life, and his place in the Inchiholohan or Castleinch branch of the family. The manuscripts relevant to tracing Nicholas Comerford’s life were not published and available to readers until after Carrigan’s four volumes were published in 1905.

Nicholas Comberford’s father was Nicholas Comerford, the ‘King’s Gaoler’ at Kilkenny, and he was a grandson of Garret Comerford of Inshilholan (Inchiolohan or Castleinch). Garret Comerford (1550-1604) was the Queen’s Attorney-at-Laws for Connaught, MP for Callan, Second Baron of the Exchequer and Chief Justice of Munster. Just a year before his death, Garret was the third or fourth richest person with lands in Co Cork.

Nicholas Comberford’s father is the third son named in Garret Comerford’s will and was the ‘King’s Gaoler’ at Kilkenny. Nicholas Comberford the mapmaker was probably born in Kilkenny ca 1600. He moved to London in his teens, long before 1620, and settled in Stepney, where a number of Comberfords were living for a few generations. They may have been Irish cousins, or members of the Comberford family from Staffordshire, who would have accepted him as kin; in either case, they probably made it easy for him to find a place to live, and to find an apprenticeship with the Company of Drapers as a ‘plat-maker’ or map-maker.

The coat-of-arms of the Drapers’ Company at Drapers’ Hall … Nicholas Comberford was a member of the livery company founded in 1361 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

As Nicholas Commerford or Comberford, he was apprenticed to the mapmaker John Daniel in the Drapers’ Company school of portolan chart makers. John Daniel was the first draper-chartmaker of the Company of Drapers, and Nicholas completed his apprenticeship with him in 1620.

As Nicholas Commerford, he married Mary Kithen of Ratcliffe in Saint Dunstan’s Parish Church, Stepney, on 10 June 1624, when he is described as a ‘Draper.’ He continued to live in the parish, where he was ‘of the precincts of St Katherine,’ was active in parish life, and is recorded as attending a vestry meeting in 1645. In the parish records, he is described as a draper and is named variously as Nicholas Cumberford and Commerford. At the February 1645 Vestry, there were no less than 11 captains from Ratcliffe and Limehouse among an attendance of 30 parishioners.

Later, when he was living in London, Nicholas would tell visitors from Ireland that his kindred had many good estates in Ireland, but they also included a priest who by then was in Spain, and another who was a drunk and who robbed him. The priest in Spain may have been either Thomas Comerford (1583-1636) or James Comerford (1583-1640), two of his three Jesuit uncles who were sons of Garret Comerford. He may have been unaware that his second cousin, Patrick Comerford, had become Bishop of Waterford and Lismore.

According to his signature on most of his maps and charts, Nicholas Comberford lived at Radcliffe in Stepney, although a visitor in 1655 says he lived in Wapping. We are left with a very full description of Comberford’s living conditions and family circumstances from an almost mocking account of a visit to him contained in a letter from that visitor, William Dobbyns, to his cousin John (later Sir John) Percivale, written on 17 December 1655.

Dobbyns and his friends located a ‘rich’ uncle, who turned out to be Nicholas Comberford, the poor mapmaker, who had left Kilkenny and who was now living in squalor.

Nicholas is mentioned by Samuel Pepys in his diary in 1663. Yet, at the height of his career in the 1650s, Nicholas was poor and was paid little for his work. Nicholas worked in a garret in the house in Wapping, and was paid 25 shillings for a map that would take about three weeks to make. His works remained unclaimed until the mid-20th century. In recent years, he has been fully identified as a member of the group of London chart makers now called the Thames School.

In all, 28 of his charts have been recoded. The British Museum Library collection in London includes seven charts, dating between 1647 and 1665, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London, has seven Comberford maps, there are five Comberford maps or charts in the Sterling National Library in Yale University, the University of Kansas has four, and there is one each in the New York Public Library, the Antigua Museum, the National Library of Australia, Lincoln Cathedral and the Bodleian Library in Oxford, which has what is probably his last traceable map, dated 1670.

He was working until 1670, but I have traced no further works by Nicholas Comerford after 1670. He died in 1673 in his early 70s, still living in poverty in Wapping. The historic and artistic importance of his work and the work of other members of the ‘Thames School’ have come to be appreciated only in recent years, and his work has come to the attention of many scholars.

‘East Indies’ by Nicholas Comberford of Ratcliffe, 1665 (Braga Collection, National Library of Australia)