Patrick Comerford
The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers the life of George Fox (1624-1691), the founder of the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers.
I illustrated my prayer diary this morning with the 1897 painting ‘Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield’ by Robert Spence (1871-1964). This painting, now in the Hub at Saint Mary’s in the Market Square, Lichfield, shows George Fox trudging barefoot through the snow in the Market Square as he cries out, ‘Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield’.
The story of this painting, its theft, and how it was recovered and returned to Lichfield is a story involving Quaker pacifism, a benefactor’s generosity, wily thieves and the quick thinking and honesty of an antique dealer in Great Yarmouth.
George Fox was born at Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire, within 20 miles of Lichfield and about 12 or 13 miles east of Tamworth. He was the son of a weaver, and was at an early age was apprenticed to a shoemaker. He became something of a wayfarer from 1643 for about three years, loosening all ties with his family and friends.
The ‘Inner Light of the Living Christ’ became his watchword in 1646, and he began to preach that the truth could only be found through the Inner Voice speaking directly to each soul. His society, originally known as ‘The Friends of Truth’, was soon formed, clearly a protest against the authoritarianism of the then dominant Presbyterian system in England.
George Fox was arrested in 1650 and jailed in Derby for blasphemy. At his trial, he claimed the word of the Lord caused him to tremble and the judge Gervase Bennet, humiliated him by calling Fox and his followers ‘Quakers’. It was meant as a term of abuse and derision, but it quickly became a name they used for themselves adopted.
Fox was offered release from prison in return for taking up arms for the Cromwellians against the Crown, but stated clearly his opposition to all ‘wars and strifes.’ He was threatened with being banished to Ireland, and remained in jail until he was released at the beginning of winter in 1651.
George Fox spent several spells in gaol due to his determination to preach where he would and what he willed. He had a charismatic personality combined with excellent organisational abilities.
Within two years of Fox’s visit to Lichfield, Francis Comberford of Comberford Hall, between Lichfield and Tamworth, and his family became Quakers in 1653. Francis Comberford’s daughter, Mary Comberford (1641-1700), wrote to George Fox from Stafford on 19 April 1690, addressing him as ‘My dear friend,’ ‘Dear Friend’ and ‘My dear love in the everlasting truth …’ and sending ‘dear love to thy wife & children.’ George Fox died nine months later on 13 January 1691.
Robert Spence’s painting ‘Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield’, completed in 1897, shows George Fox trudging barefoot through the snow in the Market Square in Lichfield as he cries out, ‘Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield’. The painting in oil on canvas measures 300 cm x 170 cm, was completed in 1897 and is now in the Lichfield Heritage Centre.
Robert Spence, an artist, painter and printmaker, was born into a Quaker family in Tynemouth, Northumberland, in 1871. His father Charles Spence (1848-1905) was also an artist too.
Robert Spence studied in Newcastle, at the Slade School of Fine Art, London, and in Paris. He was a Quaker and a pacifist, and soon after the outbreak of World War I he joined an ambulance unit in France. For his bravery in rescuing soldiers under fire, he was awarded the Croix-de-Guerre in 1915.
After the war, Spence produced several etchings from his memories and from sketches he made at the time. He lived in London and exhibited at the Royal Academy, the Fine Art Society and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. His style was strongly influenced by Rembrandt and he owned several original etchings by the Dutch master.
While he painted in oils, he is best known for his dry-point etchings. Many of his etchings were based on events recalled in The Journal of George Fox. His large painting of George Fox in the Hub at Saint Mary’s is part of the Lichfield District Council Museum collection. I first saw this painting in my teens in the old Lichfield Museum and Library on Bird Street, now the Lichfield Registry Office beside Beacon Park.
Spence’s painting recalls a well-known incident in the life of George Fox. After his release from prison in Derby, Fox and his friends headed south and arrived in Lichfield. Fox claimed he did not recognise the city and asked his friends where it was. On being told Lichfield, he had a vision in which he was told to remove his shoes. It was mid-winter and bitterly cold, but Fox removed his shoes and handed them to some bemused local shepherds.
As he approached the centre of Lichfield, he felt compelled to cry out ‘Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield’ as he walked barefoot through the streets, to the amazement and amusement of local people.
Plaques on the north wall of Saint Mary’s Church recall Thomas Hayward, John Goreway and Joyce Lewis, who were burned at the stake on the Square during the reign of Queen Mary in the 1550s; Edward Wightman who was burnt at the stake there in 1612, the last person to be executed in England in this way; and Edmund Gennings, who was born in Lichfield in 1567 and who was disembowelled alive and executed in London in 1591 for his Catholic beliefs.
Standing in the Market Square in the snow in 1651, Fox had a vision of the square and the streets of Lichfield awash with a river of blood. He thought this may have been because of the executions that had taken place in the square, or because of the legend of a massacre of 999 Christian martyrs, including three kings. There is no historical evidence for their martyrdom during the reign of Diocletian in the third century but the legend was linked to a misinterpretation that the name Lichfield meant ‘Field of the Dead.’
In Spence’s painting, George Fox is seen striding away from Lichfield Cathedral in the background, with its central spire severely damaged. The cathedral had taken a severe pounding at the height of the English Civil War in 1646, and the central spire had collapsed. When Fox visited Lichfield in 1651, the central spire was still shattered and it was not restored and replaced until the 1660s after the Restoration of the monarchy.
Spence produced a number of prints of the painting in the early 20th century and produced another etching of the visit in which Fox is seen outside an inn with puzzled people staring at him while sipping on their drinks.
Spence’s original painting was bought in 1904 by the local benefactor, Sir Richard Cooper of Shenstone Court, who donated it to Lichfield City Council. The painting had been on exhibition at the Royal Academy the previous year and Cooper wanted to bring it to Lichfield.
Cooper was a major benefactor to Lichfield. Almost 20 years later, he donated the old Friary building in Lichfield to Staffordshire County Council, to become the new Friary School. He paid for the construction of the Friary Road in 1928 and that same year he paid to relocate the Clock Tower from the corner of Bore Street to its present location on the Bowling Green roundabout.
Spence’s painting was put on display in the museum rooms at the Old Free Library and Museum on Bird Street. The museum was on the upper floor and the library was on the lower floor, now Lichfield Registry Office.
Jonathan Oates, a former museum administrator with Lichfield District Council and a local historian and writer, recalled some years ago how the painting remained there until March 1987, when it was stolen in a brazen robbery. The museum was unattended when the thieves walked in, cut the large painting from its frame and left unnoticed, late that Friday evening or early that Saturday morning.
All hope of recovering the painting was fading when it turned up in an antique shop in Great Yarmouth. Jono observes, ‘clearly the thieves had tried to take it as far away from Lichfield as possible!’ At the time, the painting was valued at £5,000, the antique dealer realised what it was worth and notified the police.
When the painting was returned to Lichfield, it was restored and placed back in its frame before being moved to a new location at the Lichfield Heritage Museum, now the Hub at Saint Mary’s. Jono points out that this is one of the few items in the Lichfield District Council collection that is still on public display, and the main bulk of the collection is in long-term storage.
I had a good look at the painting again last month in its place above the spiral staircase in the Hub at Saint Mary’s. There George Fox now stands high on the west wall, above the viewing platform. You have to look up to see him in the gallery, where he appears to continue to berate the ‘Bloody City of Lichfield’.
