Patrick Comerford
Charles Eamer Kempe (1837-1907) was best known in the late Victorian period for his stained-glass windows, many of which can be seen in Lichfield Cathedral.
The Cambridge Church Historian Owen Chadwick has said Kempe’s work represents ‘the Victorian zenith’ of church decoration and stained glass windows. His studios produced over 4,000 windows and designs for altars and altar frontals, furniture and furnishings, lichgates and memorials that helped to define a later 19th century Anglican style.
Kempe studied architecture under George Frederick Bodley and then at the Clayton & Bell studio, where his first work was produced in 1865. Kempe is a generation later than Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878), who was engaged in restoring Lichfield Cathedral from 1855 to 1877.
Scott’s restoration of the cathedral is hard to imagine today without the additional contributions of Kempe to Lichfield Cathedral, which include the Lady Chapel altar and carved wooden reredos (1895). Kempe designed half the windows in the cathedral, including: the Bishop Hacket Window (1901) in the South Choir Aisle, celebrating the completion of the Victorian restoration; the Barnabas Window (1898); Saint Stephen preaching to the Sanhedrin (1895); Saint Peter and Saint John healing (1894/1895); King David training the musicians (1890); ‘Self-Sacrifice’ in Saint Michael’s Chapel (1904); the imposing South Transept window, ‘The Spread of the Christian Church’ (1895); other windows depicting saints; the windows in the Chapel of Saint Chad’s Head; and some of the windows in the Chapter House.
It was not until one of my visits to Lichfield Cathedral shortly before Christmas that I realised the Saint Barnabas Window is Kempe’s tribute to a brother of the architect Scott, Archdeacon Melville Horne Scott (1827-1898), who was involved in the life of the cathedral for more 20 years.
The Saint Barnabas window in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral is part of a sequence of very finely detailed windows Kempe produced for the cathedral. The window is dated 1898 and was probably made by Kempe in 1899.
The three light window depicts Saint Barnabas and others, endowed by the Holy Spirit with the gifts of mutual love and charity bringing money to lay it at the feet of the Apostles (see Acts 4: 32-37).
An inscription in the bottom left corner explains: ‘Here St Barnabas, the Son of Consolation, and many others, endued by the Holy Spirit with mutual love and charity, having sold lands brings the money and lays it at the Apostles feet.’
The main inscription reads: ‘Giving thanks to God for the honoured memory of Melville Horne Scott, Archdeacon of Stafford and Canon Residentiary of this Cathedral who entered into rest June 2 1898; friends who loved and honoured him have dedicated this window.’
The Ven Melville Horne Scott (1827-1898) was Archdeacon of Stafford from 1888 until he died in 1898. Archdeacon Scott came from a prominent church family: his grandfather was the preacher and publisher of Biblical commentaries, the Revd Thomas Scott (1747-1821); his father, also the Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835), was also a prominent priest in the Church of England; and his eldest brother was the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott.
Archdeacon Scott was one of 13 children: his father, the Revd Thomas Scott (1780-1835), who had been the curate of Emberton, Buckinghamshire (1805-1806), minister of Gawcott Chapel, Buckinghamshire (1806-1833) and Rector of of Wappenham, Northamptonshire (1833-1835). An older brother was the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878).
Melville Horne Scott was born on 4 February 1827 in Gawcott, Buckinghamshire, where his father was in ministry in 1806-1833. He went to school in Wappenham, Northamptonshire, where his father served briefly as rector, and Christ’s Hospital, London, before entering Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
He graduated with a BA from Cambridge in 1850 (MA 1878), and was ordained deacon (1950) and priest (1851) by John Lonsdale, Bishop of Lichfield. He spent 22 years in Ockbrook, Derbyshire, first as a curate (1850-1852) and then as vicar, before becoming Vicar of Saint Andrew’s, Litchurch, Derby (1872-1878). Saint Andrew’s, which has since been demolished, was designed by Scott’s brother, Sir George Gilbert Scott, and was built in 1864-1866.
Sir Gilbert Scott completed his extensive restoration of the ornate West Front of Lichfield Cathedral in 1878 and died on 27 March 1878. That year, his brother Melville Scott was appointed a prebendary of Lichfield Cathedral, and he moved to Lichfield in 1878, when he became Vicar of Saint Mary’s in the Market Square in succession to Canon John Gylby Lonsdale (1818-1907), who was vicar in 1866-1878.
Archdeacon Scott was appointed chaplain to William Maclagan, Bishop of Lichfield, in 1885, and became Archdeacon of Stafford in 1888. When Scott retired as Vicar of Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, and as a prebendary in 1894, he remained Archdeacon of Stafford and was appointed a residentiary canon of Lichfield Cathedral.
He remained at the cathedral until he died on 3 June 1898, at the Close, Lichfield. In all he had spent 20 years in ministry in Lichfield Cathedral; he is buried in the Cathedral Close.
Archdeacon Scott married Mary Hey in Saint Olave’s Church, York, on 19 October 1852. Their children included Canon Melville Scott (1860-1929), who had been his curate at Saint Mary’s, Lichfield, in 1888-1894. Canon Scott was also educated at Cambridge (BA 1884, MA 1888, BD 1910), and had a DD from Trinity College Dublin.
Canon Scott spent most of his ministry as Vicar of Castlechurch, Stafford (1894-1929), and was also Rural Dean of Stafford and a Prebendary of Lichfield (1917). His work on the Hebrew text of the Old Testament earned him a doctorate in theology at Strasburg University. He edited his father memoirs, The Force of Love and also published liturgical and Biblical translations in Chinese and Japanese.
