COMERFORD WAY: Patrick Comerford’s online journal on Anglicanism, theology, spirituality, history, architecture, travel, poetry, beach walks ... and more
Lent began over a month ago on Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024), and Passiontide begins tomorrow with the Fifth Sunday in Lent (Lent V), also known as Passion Sunday. But it is also Saint Patrick’s Day (17 March 2024).
Throughout Lent this year, I am taking time each morning to reflect on the lives of early, pre-Reformation English saints commemorated in the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship.
I plan to spend much of this afternoon watching the international rugby matches in the Sux Nations Championship, particularly the crucial fixture between Ireland and Scotland at 4:45. But, before this day begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, A reflection on an early, pre-Reformation English saint;
Early English pre-Reformation saints: 32, Saint Wulfstan of Worcester
Saint Wulfstan (1095), Bishop of Worcester, is remembered in Common Worship with a lesser festival on 19 January.
Wulfstan was born ca 1009, at Itchington in Warwickshire. His maternal uncle, also called Wulfstan, was the second Archbishop of York. Wulfstan was educated in the monastery of Peterborough and spent the first 25 years after his ordination in the Benedictine monastery in Worcester. He was elected Bishop of Worcester against his will in 1062. But he went on to prove an able administrator and pastor.
After the Norman conquest of England, Wulfstan was the only English-born bishop to retain his diocese for any significant time after. He carefully and gently nurtured both church and state through the transition from Saxon to Norman rule. He struggled to alleviate the suffering of the poor, was a strong opponent of the slave trade, and together with Lanfranc, was mainly responsible for ending the 11th century slave trade between Bristol and Ireland.
He died at Worcester on 19 January 1095, at the age of 87, after washing the feet of a dozen poor men, a humble ritual he performed daily. He was canonised by Pope Innocent III in 1203 on the testimony of Archbishop John Comyn of Dublin. He is the patron saint of peasants, vegetarians and dieters.
Inside Worcester Cathedral … Saint Wulfstan was Bishop of Worcester in 1062-1095
John 7: 40-52 (NRSVA):
40 When they heard these words, some in the crowd said, ‘This is really the prophet.’ 41 Others said, ‘This is the Messiah.’ But some asked, ‘Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee, does he? 42 Has not the scripture said that the Messiah is descended from David and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?’ 43 So there was a division in the crowd because of him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
45 Then the temple police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, ‘Why did you not arrest him?’ 46 The police answered, ‘Never has anyone spoken like this!’ 47 Then the Pharisees replied, ‘Surely you have not been deceived too, have you? 48 Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 But this crowd, which does not know the law – they are accursed.’ 50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus before, and who was one of them, asked, 51 ‘Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?’ 52 They replied, ‘Surely you are not also from Galilee, are you? Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.’
Saint Wulfstan depicted in a window in Holy Trinity Church, Long Itchington (Photograph: Amanda Slater /Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 2.0)
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 16 March 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), has been ‘Lent Reflection: JustMoney Movement.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Matt Ceaser, Movement Builder, JustMoney Movement.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (16 March 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Let us pray for us all to receive the freedom we have in Christ.
The Collect:
Merciful Lord,
absolve your people from their offences,
that through your bountiful goodness
we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins
which by our frailty we have committed;
grant this, heavenly Father,
for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters
and did not hide his face from shame:
give us grace to endure the sufferings of this present time
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Merciful Lord,
you know our struggle to serve you:
when sin spoils our lives
and overshadows our hearts,
come to our aid
and turn us back to you again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of Lent V:
Most merciful God,
who by the death and resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ
delivered and saved the world:
grant that by faith in him who suffered on the cross
we may triumph in the power of his victory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Early spring buttercups in front of the main front of Kings Weston House (Photograph: Kings Weston Action Group)
Patrick Comerford
Today in the Calendar of the Church is the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII, 11 September). Before today begins, I am taking some time this morning for reading, prayer and reflection.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose music is celebrated throughout this year’s Proms season. In my prayer diary for these weeks I am reflecting in these ways:
1, One of the readings for the morning;
2, Reflecting on a hymn or another piece of music by Vaughan Williams, often drawing, admittedly, on previous postings on the composer;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary, ‘Pray with the World Church.’
‘Or what woman having ten silver coins (drachmae) …’ (Luke 15: 8) … old drachmae coins in a tin box outside an antiques shop in Rethymnon in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Luke 15: 1-10 (NRSVA):
1 Now all the tax-collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2 And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.’
3 So he told them this parable: 4 ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” 7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance.
8 ‘Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? 9 When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.” 10 Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.’
Today’s reflection: ‘At the name of Jesus’ (‘Kings Weston’)
For my reflections and devotions each day these few weeks, I am reflecting on and invite you to listen to a piece of music or a hymn set to a tune by the great English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).
As I prepare for another medical procedure this week, and as I read this morning’s Gospel passage, I am also listening to Caroline Noel’s hymn, ‘At the name of Jesus,’ for which Vaughan Williams composed the tune Kings Weston. This arrangement was published in Songs of Praise (1925), and the combination of text and tune in a hymn-anthem has become a favourite for choirs in many cathedrals, churches and colleges.
Kings Weston is marked by distinctive rhythmic structures and a soaring climax in the final two lines. Like many of Vaughan Williams’s tunes, it is best sung in unison with moderate accompaniment to support this vigorous melody.
The name of the tune refers to a manor house on the River Avon River near Bristol. It was built in 1712-1719 was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for Edward Southwell on the site of an earlier Tudor house, remodelled in 1763-1768 by Robert Mylne and again in 1845-1850 by Thomas Hopper. A significant architectural feature of the house is the grouping of all the chimneys into a massive arcade.
The house passed through several generations of the Southwell family until the estate was sold in 1833 to Philip John Miles for £210,000, and became his family seat. During the World War I, the house was converted into a hospital, although the house continued as a family home until 1935.
The last member of the Miles family to live at Kings Weston, Philip Napier Miles (1865-1935), who lived there with his wife Sybil. He was a gifted musician and composer who had a wide circle of friends from a musical background, many of whom came to stay at the house. The long library at Kings Weston was such a frequent venue for recitals that it was better known as the music room.
Napier Miles was a great-grandson of the peninsular war general from Celbridge, Co Kildare, General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1785-1860), a first cousin of Lord Edward FitzGerald and a direct ancestor of Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury. He studied music in Dresden, and on his return to England studied under Hubert Parry. He was a recognised composer, and his work included several operas. Westward Ho! (1913) received positive reviews after it was performed at the Lyceum in London. Another opera, Markheim, received a Carnegie award in 1921.
His friends included some of the great composers, conductors and musicians of the day. Vaughan Williams was among the regular visitor to Kings Weston, and on one visit in 1920 he revised and completed one of his most famous pieces, ‘The Lark Ascending,’ with the help of the English violinist Marie Hall (1884-1956), who had studied under Edward Elgar and was Napier Miles’s musical protégé.
They were staying at Kings Weston as guests of Napier Miles, and Vaughan Williams arranged ‘The Lark Ascending’ to showcase her skills, dedicating it to her. The piano-accompanied premiere was on 15 December 1920 in Shirehampton Public Hall, near Bristol, which was built by Napier Miles in 1902. While it received little attention at the time, today it is regularly voted Britain’s favourite piece of classical music.
Vaughan Williams also published a melody in 1927 that he named after Kings Weston. This was written especially for Caroline Noel’s hymn, ‘At the name of Jesus.’
When Philip Napier Miles died, Kings Weston was bought by Bristol Municipal Charities and leased for use as a school. It later became the Bristol Technical College School of Architecture and then the Bath University School of Architecture. In 1970, Bristol Corporation bought the house for £305,000 to set up a police training centre. The house was abandoned from 1995 for five years before it was leased and partially restored by local businessman John Hardy.
Since 2012, the house has been extensively renovated again and is a conference and wedding venue.
Caroline Marie Noel (1817-1877) wrote this hymn originally as a processional hymn for Ascension Day.
The text is based on the confession of faith Saint Paul quotes in Philippians 2: 6-11, which may well have been an early Christian hymn. Stanza 1 announces the triumph of the ascended Christ to whom ‘every knee should bow’ (Philippians 2: 10). In Stanza 2, Christ is the ‘mighty Word’ (see John 1: 1-4) through whom ‘creation sprang at once to sight.’ Stanzas 3 and 4 look back to Christ’s humiliation, death, resurrection, and ascension (Philippians 2: 6-9). Stanza 5 is an encouragement for submission to Christ, for us to have the ‘mind of Christ.’ Stanza 6 looks forward to Christ’s return as ‘King of glory.’ The text is not only concerned with the name of Jesus, whose saving work it confesses, but also with the glory and majesty that attends ‘the name of Jesus.’
This hymn was first published in 1870 in an enlarged edition of her collection The Name of Jesus, &c. It appears in the Irish Church Hymnal as ‘In the name of Jesus’ (No 94), but in the New English Hymnal it has the title ‘At the Name of Jesus’ (No 338).
Why does this popular hymn have two different names?
The verse in Philippians 2: 10 says in the original Greek: ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ (en to onomati Iesou). This is translated in the Authorised or King James Version of the Bible as: ‘at the name of Jesus.’ However, when the Revised Version (RV) of the Bible was published in 1881, mainly under the guidance of the Cambridge theologians Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) and the Dublin-born Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892), these words were translated more accurately as: ‘in the name of Jesus.’
Fenton Hort entered Trinity College Cambridge in 1846, and in 1852 became a Fellow; Westcott too had been an undergraduate and later a Fellow of Trinity, where Vaughan Williams would later become a student.
Caroline Noel died four years before Westcott and Hort published the Revised Version in 1881. She must have used the words found in the KJV, but when the hymn was published in the 1903 edition of Church Hymns (London), her family asked for the change, and this is how it was introduced to the repertoire of the Church of Ireland in 1915. So an Irish-born Cambridge theologian may have influenced the change of name in one of the most popular Anglican hymns.
Caroline Maria Noel was born in Teston, Kent, on 10 April 1817, the daughter of Canon Gerard Thomas Noel (1782-1851), and niece of the hymn writer the Revd the Hon Baptist Wriothesley Noel (1798-1873). These two brothers, who were born into a large, aristocratic family of 18 children, were evangelical hymn writers in their own right; although Gerard was an Anglican priest all his life, Baptist was a barrister who later became a Church of England priest before becoming a Baptist minister and later President of the Baptist Union.
At the age of 17, she wrote her first hymn, ‘Draw nigh unto my soul.’ Over the next three years she wrote about a dozen hymns or poems. Then, from the age of 20 to the age of 40, she wrote nothing. At age of 35, she became an invalid, and five years later, she once again picked up her pen to write hymns that would comfort people in their sickness and illness. In her last 20 years, she wrote the rest of her hymns and poems.
The first edition of her hymns was published as The Name of Jesus and Other Verses for the Sick and Lonely (1861). This was enlarged from time to time, and its title was subsequently changed by her publishers to The Name of Jesus and Other Poems (1878).
Caroline Noel, like Charlotte Elliott, suffered greatly, and many of her verses reflect those days of pain. They are specially adapted ‘for the Sick and Lonely,’ and were written for private meditation rather than for public use, although several are suited to the public worship of the Church.
She died at 39 Great Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, on 7 December 1877, and is buried beside her father in Abbey Church, Romsey, Hampshire, where he had been the vicar for many years.
Strangely, this hymn is not what we would expect in a collection aimed at comforting the sick and the lonely. Instead, it is a hymn about Christ and how he bore his suffering on the cross so that he might rise victorious over death.
Both the New English Hymnal and the Irish Church Hymnal suggest the tune Evelyns, composed by William Henry Monk for this hymn at the publication of Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1875. The Irish Church Hymnal offers as an alternative tune ‘Camberwell,’ which was written in 1960 by the Revd John Michael Brierley (1932-2019) while he was a student at Lichfield Theological College. He named that tune in honour of the Revd Geoffrey Beaumont (1903–1970), then the Rector of Saint George’s, Camberwell. Beaumont is remembered for composing his Twentieth Century Folk Mass in an attempt to make the Mass relevant to churchgoers in the 1950s, while he was the chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Vaughan Williams was once an undergraduate.
The New English Hymnal uses the tune Evelyns for ‘At the name of Jesus’ (No 338), but offers ‘Kings Weston’ by Vaughan Williams as an alternative setting for this hymn. Instead, The New English Hymnal uses ‘Kings Weston’ as the setting for Godfrey Thring’s hymn, ‘From the eastern mountains’ (No 50).
This tune is marked by distinctive rhythmic structures and a soaring climax in the final two lines. Like many of Vaughan Williams’s tunes, it is best sung in unison with moderate accompaniment to support this vigorous melody. The combination of Noel’s words and Vaughan William’s tune make this a festive hymn or anthem, and it is a favourite among many choirs.
At the name of Jesus
Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess him
King of glory now;
’Tis the Father’s pleasure’
We should call him Lord,
Who from the beginning
Was the mighty Word.
At his voice creation
Sprang at once to sight,
All the angel faces,
All the hosts of light,
Thrones and dominations,
Stars upon their way,
All the heavenly orders,
In their great array.
Humbled for a season,
To receive a name
From the lips of sinners
Unto whom he came,
Faithfully he bore it
Spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious
When from death he passed;
Bore it up triumphant
With its human light,
Through all ranks of creatures,
To the central height,
To the throne of Godhead,
To the Father’s breast;
Filled it with the glory
Of that perfect rest.
In your hearts enthrone him;
There let him subdue
All that is not holy,
All that is not true:
He is God the Saviour,
He is Christ the Lord,
Ever to be worshipped,
Trusted, and adored.
Brothers, this Lord Jesus
Shall return again,
With the Father’s glory,
With the angel train;
For all wreaths of empire
Meet upon his brow,
And our hearts confess him
King of glory now.
Fenton Hort, a portrait by George Percy Jacomb-Hood in Trinity College, Cambridge … his Biblical scholarship changed the title and wording of the hymn ‘At the name of Jesus’
Today’s Prayer (Sunday 11 September 2022, Trinity XIII):
The Collect:
Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
God our creator,
you feed your children with the true manna,
the living bread from heaven:
let this holy food sustain us through our earthly pilgrimage
until we come to that place
where hunger and thirst are no more;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The theme in the USPG prayer diary this week is ‘Holy Cross Day,’ and is introduced this morning with a prayer written by Naw Kyi Win, a final year undergraduate student at Holy Cross Theological College in the Church of Province of Myanmar:
‘Our heavenly Father,
‘We thank You for giving us safety in our lives with grace and mercy. We give thanks that we have been able to study about mission and theology at Holy Cross Theological College. We give thanks for Your children, who are working in evangelism and mission. These servant leaders, trained at the theological college, are spreading the Good News in local villages. As a result, many villagers are experiencing God’s love and churches are being established in these areas.
‘We pray for the teachers who are teaching at mission schools across the Church of the Province of Myanmar. Lord, give the teachers wisdom and knowledge to be good servants to You. Help them to lead their communities, guiding students and their families to live healthy and fulfilled lives. Bless the children at these schools to learn and study well. May they be supported spiritually and materially in all they do. Let us pray that where the schools are established, Your kingdom is also established there. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.’
The USPG Prayer Diary invites us to pray today in these words:
Lord of All,
Forgive us when we judge others.
May we be empathetic to all whom we meet,
and welcome the stranger.
‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost’ (Luke 15: 4) … ‘Paternoster’ or ‘Shepherd and Sheep’, a bronze sculpture by Dame Elisabeth Frink in Paternoster Square, near Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The Acropolis in Athens … one of the first military actions of Sir Richard Church was an attempt to relieve the besieged tiny Greek garrison (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
This month marks the bicentenary of the Greek War of Independence, which began on 25 March 1821, leading to the formation of the modern Greek state. The many foreigners involved in the Greek War of Independence are known as Philhellenes — people who devoted their lives to Greece at the beginning of the 19th century.
Among these is the poet Lord Byron, but he and others are often typecast as English. This happens so often in the writing of history that few people are aware of the many Irishmen who were also Philhellenes.
Many of those Irish Philhellenes, such as Sir Richard Church (1784-1873) from Cork, were also members of the Church of Ireland. I first became aware of Church and the Irish Philhellenes during one of many working visits to Athens in the 1990s. I noticed a plaque in Saint Paul’s, the Anglican Church in the city centre that claims he won the affection of the people of Greece ‘for himself and for England.’
Yet Church was the leading Irish Philhellene and was once described as the ‘liege lord of all true Philhellenes.’
Richard Church’s former house in the Plaka, beneath the slopes of the Acropolis … now covered in graffiti (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
***
Sir Richard Church was born in Cork into a prominent Quaker merchant family. But he ran away to join the army and later became an Anglican. As a 16-year-old ensign in 1800, he visited Greece for the first time. Later, he married Elizabeth Augusta Wilmot, sister-in-law of the Earl of Kenmare.
When the War of Independence broke out in 1821, Church hoped he might become involved in the Greek cause. The Greek revolutionary Theodoros Kolokotronis wrote to him asking: ‘What are you doing? Where are you to be found? … I expected you here before other Philhellenes … Come! Come! and take arms for Greece: or assist her with your talents, your virtues, and your abilities, that you may claim her eternal gratitude.’
Church landed to a hero’s welcome on 9 March 1827, and was sworn in as the Greek commander-in-chief on Easter Day, 15 April 1827. One of his first actions was a disastrous attempt to drive off the Turkish force besieging the tiny Greek garrison in the Acropolis in Athens.
When Athens became the Greek capital in 1834, Church and his wife moved into a house at No 5 Odos Scholeiou, off Adrianou in the Plaka and beneath the slopes of the Acropolis. He became a life senator and remained active in Greek politics until he died in his ninetieth year on 27 March 1873. He was honoured with a state funeral in Saint Paul’s Church and was buried in the First Cemetery of Athens, close to the heroes of the War of Independence. In a funeral oration, he was described as ‘the truest Hellene, the most steadfast and most affectionate of the sons of Greece.’
The simple inscription on his grave reads: ‘Richard Church General who having given himself and all that he had to rescue a Christian race from oppression and to make Greece a nation lived for her service and died amongst her people rests here in peace and faith.’ But his former house in the Plaka was long abandoned and covered in graffiti.
Sir Richard Church’s monument in the First Cemetery in Athens(Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Charles Napier, Greek
down to his toenails
Sir Charles Napier (1782–1853) from Celbridge, Co Kildare, was a descendant of Charles II but was also a first cousin of the 1798 revolutionary Lord Edward FitzGerald.
Napier first arrived in the Ionian Islands in 1819. He was appointed the British resident or colonial governor of Kephalonia, known to many as ‘Captain Corelli’s island.’ There he was an ‘enlightened despot’ during what ‘was probably the happiest time in his life.’
Long after Byron’s death, Napier continued to hope he would become the Greek commander-in-chief, hopes harboured too by his friends among the Greek leadership, including Kapodistrias and Mavrokordatos. But the appointment never came.
Napier compared the Greeks with his own people: ‘The merry Greeks … are worth all other nations put together. I like to hear them; I like their fun, their good humour, their Paddy ways, for they are very like Irishmen. All their bad habits are Venetian; their wit, their eloquence, their good nature their own.’ He also once declared: ‘I am a Greek down to the nails of my toes and the marrow of my bones.’
Sir Charles Napier’s monument in Trafalgar Square, London (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
***
Napier eventually left Kephalonia, leaving his Greek-born daughters behind. He returned occasionally to Ireland, but eventually made his name as the Conqueror of Sind in India.
But he made no secret that he still harboured hopes of being appointed Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, which remained a British colony until 1864. His affection for the Greek people continued in his final years and in 1851 he wrote: ‘I always think of my second country, the (to me) dear island of Cephalonia.’
Until he died in 1853, he held on to Koutoupi, his house and small plot of land in Argostoli. He explained in a letter to Metaxa: ‘I keep Cutupi because I love Cephalonia; were I younger I would go and live among you a private gentleman; but I am seventy, and the night closes fast upon me.’ One historian says, ‘few who bore the name Philhellene deserved it so well.’
Napier’s daughters, who had been left behind in Kephalonia, were eventually taken to Ireland by Edward Curling, who later moved to Newcastle West, Co Limerick. Napier’s brother, Sir William Napier, is a direct ancestor of Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury.
Saint Paul’s Church, Athens … the funerals of Sir Richard Church and Sir Edward Law were held here (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Sir Edward Law and
Greek finances
Sir Edward Fitzgerald Law (1846-1908) became involved in securing Greek economic independence long after most of the Philhellenes. I might have passed by Law’s contribution to making Greece an independent, modern state, except I came across his name by accident on two, successive occasions: reading a description of a visit to Athens by his cousin, Archbishop John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, and researching the biographical details of his father’s cousin, the Revd Patrick Comerford Law (1797-1869) of Killaloe.
Edward Law was born in Rostrevor House, Co Down, a son of Michael Law, later a director of the Bank of Ireland, and his wife Sarah-Ann, daughter of Crofton FitzGerald. The Law family was a long-established clerical family in the Church of Ireland, and family members included the Revd Francis Law (1768-1807), who married Belinda Isabella Comerford, and the Revd Patrick Comerford Law (1797-1869).
He presided over the finances of Greece in the 1880s and 1890s, restructuring the Greek debt and the nation’s economy, to the lasting advantage of Greece. He married Catherine (Kaity) Hatzopulo, from an old Byzantine family, in 1893, and they settled in Athens. There he became involved in the Greek struggle for autonomy on the island of Crete for autonomy and its eventual unification with Greece in 1908.
Law was knighted in the British honours system in 1898 and died in Paris on 2 November 1908. He was given a state funeral in Athens on 21 November. Crown Prince Constantine (later King Constantine I) and the entire Greek cabinet attended his funeral service in Saint Paul’s Anglican Church.
The graveside eulogy in the First Cemetery was delivered by a future Prime Minister, Nikolaos Kalogeropoulos. One Greek newspaper, Neon Asti, commented: ‘He loved Greece with the devotion of a son … he was a Greek at heart. As he felt for Greece, more than a Greek, he watched over her, advised her and warned her.’
***
At least 31 people of Irish birth or with an Irish identity played a public role in Greek political life during the struggle for independence and in the consolidation of the modern Greek state later in the 19th century.
In Athens, Gladstone unveiled a memorial to Church in Saint Paul’s Church, where there are two windows to his memory. There are statues to Napier in Trafalgar Square and Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, and there is plaque commemorating Sir Edward Law in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin. But the Irish Philhellenes are often forgotten at home in Ireland.
Tzortz Street, close to Omonia and the Polytechnic in Athens, was named after Church, using a transliteration of his name as he spelt it in Greek. The spelling ‘Tzortz’ remains on the nameplates in Greek at each end of the street, but on most pillars and maps ‘Tzortz’ is badly transliterated from Greek into English as ‘George’ rather than ‘Church.’
Similarly, Law’s only memorial in Athens is a street named after him. A year after his death, the city council agreed unanimously to name a street in central Athens after him. His cousin, John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, Archbishop of Armagh, visited Athens in 1951. When the Mayor of Athens was told of the archbishop’s kinship with Law, he invited Gregg to return as the guest of the municipality – ‘an offer which I fear I cannot hope to take advantage of.’
But this street is usually transliterated into English from the Greek as ‘Eduardo Lo’ – making it impossible for most pedestrians and passers-by to identify him.
The names of Sir Richard Church and Sir Edward Law on street names in Athens … with poor transliterations into English (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
This two-page feature was published in March 2021 in the ‘Church Review’ (Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough)
The Harbour at Corfu … Sir Charles Napier first arrived in the Ionian Islands in 1819, when he was appointed an inspecting field officer in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
Four Irish politicians and administrators played key roles in shaping 19th century political life in Corfu: Sir Richard Church (1784-1873) from Cork; Sir Charles Napier (1782-1853) from Celbridge, Co Kildare; George Nugent-Grenville (1789-1850) from Co Westmeath, 2nd Baron Nugent of Carlanstown; and John Young (1807-1876) from Balieborough, Co Cavan, later Lord Lisgar.
Oakley House in Celbridge was the childhood home of Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853), remembered in military history as the conqueror of Sindh. But Napier was also one of the great Irish Philhellenes, and was closely involved with political life in Corfu and the Ionian Islands in the first half of the 19th century.
While he was the British Resident or colonial governor of the Ionian island of Kephalonia, Napier was constantly in conflict with the British administrators based in Corfu. There too he entertained the poet Lord Byron as his guest, and soon became entangled in the political course of events in Greece.
Napier was a first cousin of Lord Edward FitzGerald, one of the leading figures in the 1798 Rising. Napier’s father, Colonel George Napier (1785-1860), was born in Oakley House, Celbridge, shortly after his parents moved into the house.
His mother was Lady Sarah Lennox, an aunt of the 1798 leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and although Charles Napier was born in Whitehall, he was soon brought home to Co Kildare, and grown up close to his Conolly cousins in Castletown House.
Napier first arrived in the Ionian Islands in 1819, when he was appointed an inspecting field officer in Corfu. He was sent on a confidential mission to Ali Pasha (1740-1822) at Ioannina in 1820, and was converted to the cause of Greek independence. When the Greek War of Independence began on 25 March 1821, he started supplying military intelligence to the Greeks and publishing pamphlets in English supporting the struggle.
Despite his reputation with British administrators in Corfu as a radical and a Philhellene, Napier was moved from Corfu in 1822 to become the British resident or effective governor of Kephalonia. There he was an ‘enlightened despot,’ providing roads, bridges and public buildings, assisted by his Irish-born Director of Public Works, John Pitt Kennedy (1796-1879), the son of a Church of Ireland rector from Co Donegal.
Napier also played host on Kephalonia to the most famous of the British Philhellenes, the poet Lord Byron. However, faced with continual opposition from British administrators in Corfu, Napier was worried that Byron’s presence on the island and the visitors he was receiving threatened his own position.
Byron left Kephalonia on 30 December 1823, and arrived at Missolonghi on 5 January 1824, hoping he would soon be joined by Napier as commander-in-chief of the Greek army. But Byron died there on Easter Sunday, 18 April 1824; the day before he had said: ‘I wish Napier … [was] here, we would soon settle this business.’
Three days after Byron’s death, the Irish Philhellene, Captain Edward Blaquière from Dublin, arrived back in Zakynthos with the first instalment of a British loan. Within days, Byron’s coffin began its journey back to England on board the Florida, the ship that brought Blaquière back to Greece. Blaquière now tried to recruit either of two Irishmen, Sir Richard Church’s friend Count Laval Nugent or Napier, as commander of the army.
Long after Byron’s death, Napier continued to hope he would become the Greek commander-in-chief, hopes harboured too by his friends among the Greek leadership, including Kapodistrias from Corfu and Mavrokordatos. But the appointment never came, and the command was offered instead to Sir Richard Church from Cork.
Napier eventually left Kephalonia, leaving his Greek-born daughters behind. He returned occasionally to Ireland, visiting his friend Kennedy, the rector’s son from Donegal, at Glasnevin, but eventually made his name as the Conqueror of Sind in India.
Napier’s time in Kephalonia ‘was probably the happiest in his life.’ There he lived with a young, beautiful, proud and patriotic Greek woman, Anastasia. Although they never married, she was the mother of his two daughters: Susan Sarah, born in 1824 and named after Lady Susan O’Brien and Lady Sarah Napier but often known in the family as ‘Piggy’; and Emily Cephalonia, named after Lord Edward FitzGerald’s mother and Napier’s beloved Greek island.
Anastasia obstinately refused to marry Charles, and also refused to accompany him on a visit to England in 1824. Two years later, as he was leaving for London for his mother’s funeral, he tried to leave their two small daughters with Anastasia, but she put the girls in a small boat, pushing them out to sea after him.
The two girls were rescued by a local fisherman, and eventually, after being reunited with their father, were entrusted once again to the care of John Pitt Kennedy from Co Donegal.
Anastasia’s identity has never been established with certainty. Perhaps she was the beautiful young girl who at the age of 16 he had rescued from a convent where she had once been forced to become a nun by her aunt, the abbess. Charles once wrote, ‘The only things that bore me are the church and convent affairs, excepting a beautiful nun of sixteen who dislikes being one very much, and I have blowed up her old devil of an aunt, the abbess, for making her one. Nay more! I told the girl’s friends that if she would run away with a handsome young Greek, I would, as head of the church, stand between them and all harm.’
Anastasia died at a young age. But for the rest of his life, and perhaps even after it through bequests, Charles supported her relatives in Kephalonia.
To the surprise of family and friends, Charles Napier married the poor and invalided Elizabeth Kelly in April 1827. She was a widow of over 60 with grown-up children and grandchildren who were almost grown-up too. The two returned to Kephalonia in July 1827, but we are left with no account of what she thought of the Ionian Islands.
Napier left Kephalonia with his gravely ill wife Elizabeth in 1830, this time leaving his two young daughters in the care of a clergyman named Dixon and his wife at the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas in Perata, close to Saint George’s Castle on the southern end of the island. While Napier was on leave in London that year, his appointment to Kephalonia was annulled, his papers were seized and he was forbidden to return to Kephalonia.
Napier may have been offered and declined an alternative positing on neighbouring Zakynthos, but moved instead to the south of England. Early in 1831, Kennedy also left Kephalonia for Ireland, never to return.
Some time later, Edward Curling left Kephalonia, taking Napier’s two daughters from the convent at Aghios Andreas and bringing them to their father in England. Until Napier’s elderly wife Elizabeth died on 31 July 1833, she treated the girls as her own children. When she knew she was dying, wrote a book, the Nursery Governess, to help Napier find someone to care for them after her death. Napier took an active interest in their education, teaching them geography and maths as well as languages.
Edward Curling was a great nephew of Elizabeth Napier and had worked for Napier on Kephalonia from 1828 to 1831. Some time ago, a member of his family contacted me with further family details that links this episode in the story of the Irish Philhellenes and Newcastle West, one of the towns in my group of parishes in West Limerick and North Kerry.
When Edward Curling left Kephalonia, he brought his Maltese wife Rosa (nee Mallia) to England with him and obtained a post as the Land Agent to Sir Henry Bunbury’s estate near Bury in Suffolk. Sir Henry Bunbury had married Charles Napier’s sister, Emily Louisa Napier, and Lady Sarah Lennox, mother of Emily and Charles, had been first married to Sir Henry’s uncle.
Edward worked on the Bunbury estate for 16 years before moving to Newcastle West, Co Limerick, as the land agent for the Devon estate, centred on the castle in Newcastle West.
Another Irish figure in the Ionian Islands, John Augustus Toole (ca 1792-1829), came to Kephalonia as a member of Napier’s staff, and worked closely with Kennedy on building the roads and bridges. By the winter of 1826 and 1827, Toole was among the supporters of Kapodistrias who organised their activities from Corfu under the cover of a charitable committee.
Meanwhile, Charles Napier’s niece, Rose Leslie Napier, married Edward Portal, and their granddaughter is the mother of the Archbishop pf Canterbury, Justin Welby.
The Harbour at Corfu seen from the Palace … Sir Charles Napier was moved from Corfu in 1822 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
The site of Dungan’s Castle in Dalkey … once a family home of earlier Earls of Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
Patrick Comerford
The presence of the Earls of Limerick continues on the streets of Limerick long after the Pery family has moved on to new homes in England. The names of streets and squares recall their role in developing Newtown Pery as an elegant new area in Limerick, including Pery Square and Pery Street, Mallow Street, Glentworth Street, Henry Street, Hartstonge Street. Why, even the pew once reserved for the Earls of Limerick still survives at the west end of Saint Mary’s Cathedral.
The title of Earl of Limerick was created for the Pery family in 1803 when Edmund Henry Pery (1758-1844), who had already inherited the title of Baron Glentworth, made Earl of Limerick.
The title survives, and the present holder is the seventh earl. But, as I walked around the streets of Dalkey earlier this week, on New Year’s Day, and searched for the sites of the seven mediaeval castles of Dalkey, I was surprised to realise that over a century earlier the title Earl of Limerick was once held by the Dongan or Dungan family, who had a family home in Dungan’s Castle, on the corner of Castle Street and Hyde Road, in Dalkey, and also owned Archbold’s Castle on Castle Street, Dalkey, in the 16th and 17th centuries.
John Dungan, second remembrancer of the exchequer, held Archbold’s Castle in Dalkey in 1585. After the Cromwellian confiscations, the castle was leased to James Kennan. The Dungan family recovered Archbold’s Castle at the Caroline Restoration, only to lose once again at the Williamite confiscations.
Archbold’s Castle is still standing but is not open to the public (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)
By the early 17th century, the Dongan family also owned Castletown, near Celbridge, Co Kildare, with an estate of about 21,000 acres.
The Dungan Baronetcy, of Castletown in the County of Kildare, was created in the Baronetage of Ireland in 1623 for Sir Walter Dungan or Dongan. Walter and his wife, Jane (Rochfort) were the parents of eight sons and five daughters, and he died on 21 December 1626, the title passed to his eldest son, Sir John Dongan, second baronet, who was MP for Newcastle, Co Kildare.
This Sir John Dongan married Mary Talbot of Carton, sister of Peter Talbot, Archbishop of Dublin, and Richard Talbot, the Jacobite Duke of Tyrconnell. They were the parents of five sons – William, Walter, Robert, Michael and Thomas – and three daughters, Alice, Margaret and Bridget.
When Sir John died in 1650, the title of baronet passed to his eldest son, Sir Walter Dongan, as third baronet. He died in 1686, and the title passed to his brother Sir William Dongan, 4th Baronet. That year, Sir William Dongan also became the first person to receive the title of Earl of Limerick, along with the Viscount Dungan of Clane, Co Kildare, in the Peerage of Ireland.
The coat-of-arms of William Dongan and Thomas Dongan as Earls of Limerick
At the time, peerage titles normally descended in the direct male line, from father to son. William’s son, Walter Dongan, was the obvious heir, and as heir he used the courtesy title of Lord Dungan. But the grant of titles specified that if William’s male line of descent died out, the titles should pass to his brothers Robert, Michael and Thomas, and ‘the heirs male of their bodies.’
It was an unusual concession for any peerage titles, and perhaps was designed by James II to ensure that the peerage titles would pass to any later baronets, and that they would, perhaps, eventually honour William’s youngest brother, Thomas Dongan (1634-1715), then Governor of New York (1683-1688).
William Dongan, 1st Earl of Limerick, and his son Colonel Walter Dongan, Lord Dungan, fought at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Walter was killed in battle, and his body was carried from the battlefield to the family mansion at Castletown and then buried in the parish church in Celbridge.
When William Dongan died in 1698, an inquisition found that he owned two castles, six messuages and gardens, seven acres of arable land together with meadow and pasture, totalling 74 acres, in Dalkey.
it might have been expected that his titles would die out because of his active Jacobite sympathies. But the government was deeply indebted to his brother Thomas Dongan for his work in New York and the colonies in North America. And so it was that Thomas Dongan, by then living in relative poverty, was allowed to succeed as the 2nd Earl of Limerick in 1698.
Thomas Dongan (1634-1715), 2nd Earl of Limerick, was Governor of the Province of New York
Thomas Dongan (1634-1715), 2nd Earl of Limerick, was a member of the Irish Parliament, a Royalist officer during the English Civil War, and Governor of the Province of New York. He is still remembered for having called the first representative legislature in New York, and for granting New York its first Charter of Liberties.
Thomas was born in 1634, the youngest son of Sir John Dongan MP and his wife Mary Talbot. After the execution of King Charles I in 1649, he went into exile in France, and later became a colonel in the French army in 1674.
When the Treaty of Nijmegen brought an end to the French-Dutch War in 1678, Dongan returned to England. The king’s brother, James, Duke of York, later King James II, arranged for him to receive an army commission and income. That year Thomas Dongan was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Tangiers, which had been granted to England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, and he was part of the Tangier Garrison that defended the settlement.
In September 1682, the Duke of York, as Lord Proprietor of the Province of New York, appointed Dongan as provincial governor (1683-1688) to replace Edmund Andros and granted him an estate on Staten Island. The estate eventually became the town of Castleton. Later, another section of the island was named Dongan Hills in his honour.
Thomas Dongan addresses the first-ever representative assembly in New York in 1683
At the time of his appointment, New York was bankrupt and in a state of rebellion. On 14 October 1683, Dongan convened the first-ever representative assembly in New York at Fort James – like New York, Fort James was named after Dongan’s patron, the Duke of York, later James II.
The New York General Assembly passed an act entitled ‘A Charter of Liberties.’ It decreed that the supreme legislative power under the Duke of York shall reside in a governor, council, and the people convened in general assembly. It conferred on the members of the assembly rights and privileges making them a body coequal to and independent of the British Parliament. It established town, county, and general courts of justice. It solemnly proclaimed the right of religious liberty. And it passed acts guaranteeing many liberties, including taxes being levied only by the people met in general assembly, the right of suffrage, and the prohibition of martial law or quartering soldiers without the consent of the inhabitants.
As Governor of New York, Dongan granted Albany a municipal charter on 22 July 1686 that was almost identical to the charter granted to New York City. The charter incorporated the city of Albany, establishing a separate municipal entity in the midst of the Van Rensselaer Manor.
Dongan also delineated the boundary lines of New York, settling disputes with Connecticut to the east, French Canada and the Iroquois to the north, and Pennsylvania to the South, marking out the present limits of New York State.
Dongan executed land grants establishing several towns throughout New York State including the eastern Long Island communities of East Hampton and Southampton. These grants, called the Dongan Patents, set up Town Trustees as the governing bodies with a mission of managing common land for common good.
The Dongan Patents still hold force of law and have been upheld by the US Supreme Court, with the Trustees – rather than town boards, city councils or even the State Legislature – still managing much of the common land in the state.
Dongan also established a college in New York City under the direction of three Jesuit priests, Harvey (his own private chaplain), Harrison, and Gage.
But the Assembly of New York was dissolved in 1687 by King James II, who later consolidated the colonial governments of New York, New Jersey and the United Colonies of New England into the Dominion of New England. Edmund Andros, was reappointed Governor-General, and Dongan transferred his office back to Andros on 11 August 1688.
Dongan turned down the offer of the command of a regiment with the rank of major-general, and instead retired to his estate on Staten Island, New York. But he was obliged to flee for safety during a religious persecution in 1689, and he returned to England in 1691.
When William Dongan, Earl of Limerick, died in 1698 without a surviving male son, his titles passed to his only surviving brother, Thomas Dongan, as 2nd Earl of Limerick. Thomas was also granted a portion of his brother’s forfeited estates under the terms of a special Act of Parliament. In 1709, Lord Limerick sold his 2,300-acre property at Celbridge to William Conolly.
Dongan lived in London for the last years of his life and he died poor and childless on 14 December 1715, without any direct male heirs. In his will, dated 1713, he asked to be buried at a cost of no more than £100. He was buried in Old Saint Pancras churchyard in London. He left the rest of his estate to his niece, wife of Colonel Nugent, afterwards Marshal of France.
As I wondered whether the Pery family were ever aware of the earlier Earls of Limerick in the Dongan family, I realised I too had overlooked the role of Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick, as Lieutenant-Governor of Tangier in 1678. When I visited Tangier two months ago, I had noted that three Irish men had been Governors of Tangier: Colonel Sir John FitzGerald from Co Limerick (1664-1665); William O’Brien, 2nd Earl of Inchiquin (1675-1680); and Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory (1680). Lord Inchiquin was Governor of the small English outpost on the Moroccan coast of North Africa when Dongan was sent there as his deputy.
This week, as I walked through Limerick, I wondered whether the Dongans are remembered anywhere in the city as Earls of Limerick. They are not forgotten in Dalkey today. Perhaps they were forgotten in Celbridge until 1995, when a plaque in honour of Thomas Dongan was unveiled at the Tea Lane Graveyard by the then American Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy-Smith.
By the early 17th century, the Dongan family also owned the Castletown estate near Celbridge, Co Kildare (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Reminders of the Devon Estate in Newcastle West … and an interesting link with the Irish role in the Greek War of Independence (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
Patrick Comerford
For many years I have been researching the Irish Philhellenes – Irish men and women who were involved in the Greek War of Independence in the 19th century and engaged in the political aftermath.
As part of this research, I have contributed chapters to books on the subject, articles in magazines and journals, given lectures from Dublin and Galway to Corfu, and visited key places in Ireland, England and Greece associated with these figures.
One of the most prominent of these Philhellenes was Sir Charles James Napier, an Irish general who was Governor of Kephalonia. He was a first cousin of the 1798 leader Lord Edward FitzGerald, and his childhood home was in Celbridge, Co Kildare, the home over 200 years ago of the three Lennox sisters. They were the daughters of Charles Lennox (1701-1750), 2nd Duke of Richmond and a grandson of King Charles II, and the heroines of Stella Tillyard’s book Aristocrats:
● Lady Emily Lennox (1731-1814) married James FitzGerald (1722-1773), 1st Duke of Leinster, who lived at Carton House and built Leinster House, Dublin. They were the parents of Lord Edward FitzGerald.
● Lady Louisa Lennox (1743-1803) married Thomas Conolly (1738-1803), who inherited Castletown House, Co Kildare, from his great-uncle, William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons.
● Lady Sarah Lennox (1745-1826) married Colonel George Napier (1753-1804). ‘Donnie’ and Sarah Napier moved into Celbridge House in 1785.
Celbridge House, the childhood home of Sir Charles James Napier (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Celbridge House, now known as Oakley Park, was built in 1724 by the Vicar of Celbridge, the Revd Dr Arthur Price, later Bishop of Clonfert, Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, Bishop of Meath and Archbishop of Cashel. In 1785, the house became home to the Napier family, and in 1798, they sought safety with their neighbours and cousins, the Conollys of Castletown House.
Oakley House is now part of the Saint Raphael centre run by the Saint John of God order. Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1785-1860) was born there shortly after his parents moved into the house. His granddaughter, Rose Leslie Napier, married Edward Portal, and their granddaughter is the mother of the Archbishop pf Canterbury, Justin Welby.
Oakley House was also the childhood home of Sir Charles James Napier (1782-1853), remembered in military history as the conqueror of Sindh. But I have been interested in Napier’s career because of his role as an Irish Philhellene.
While he was the British Resident or colonial governor of the Ionian island of Kephallonia, Napier entertained the poet Lord Byron as his guest, and soon became entangled in the political course of events in Greece.
In Kephallonia, Napier lived with a young, beautiful, proud and patriotic Greek woman, Anastasia. Although they never married, she became the mother of his two daughters: Susan Sarah, born in 1824 and named after Lady Susan O’Brien and Lady Sarah Napier but often known in the family as ‘Piggy’; and Emily Cephalonia, named after Lord Edward FitzGerald’s mother and Napier’s beloved Greek island.
However, Anastasia obstinately refused to marry Charles, and also refused to accompany him on a visit to England in 1824. Two years later, as he was leaving for London for his mother’s funeral, he tried to leave their two small daughters with Anastasia, but she put the girls in a small boat, pushing them out to sea after him.
The two girls were rescued by a local fisherman, and eventually, after being reunited with their father, were entrusted once again to the care of an Irish-born member of Napier’s staff, John Pitt Kennedy (1796–1879). He was the fourth son of the Revd John Pitt Kennedy (ca 1760-1811), Rector of Carndonagh (1791-1808) and later Rector of Balteagh (1808-1811), Co Donegal.
Anastasia’s identity has never been established with certainty. Perhaps she was the beautiful young girl who at the age of 16 he had rescued from a convent where she had once been forced to become a nun by her aunt, the abbess. Charles once wrote, ‘The only things that bore me are the church and convent affairs, excepting a beautiful nun of sixteen who dislikes being one very much, and I have blowed up her old devil of an aunt, the abbess, for making her one. Nay more! I told the girl’s friends that if she would run away with a handsome young Greek, I would, as head of the church, stand between them and all harm.’
Anastasia died at a young age. But for the rest of his life, and perhaps even after it through bequests, Charles supported her relatives in Kephallonia.
One of Emily Cephalonia’s daughters later wrote with pride and understanding to a niece, ‘Yes, I am afraid my wild and beautiful grandmother did not want to be tied by marriage or anything else. She adored her beautiful country. And when my grandfather left it she refused to accompany him. It is quite true she stuck the two small girls in a boat, and sent them out to sea, so that my grandfather had to take them with him, as a fisherman returned them to him at the very last moment. The mother he left in Greece, and begged a brother officer to take care of her. She was not legally married to Sir Charles ... She was a beautiful wild creature and a devoted patriot. Her country came always first. I think you will understand and forgive that we are both evidently proud and broad-minded about that wild, fascinating grandmother. I am sure you will bring out her virtues, not her faults. She had a violent temper, which never lasted long. So she would most likely have rescued the little girls if the fishermen had not found them. I have inherited her passionate temper, and so too have some of my sisters.’
To the surprise of his family and friends, in April 1827 Charles Napier married the poor and invalided Elizabeth Kelly, a widow of over 60 with grown-up children and grandchildren who were almost grown-up too. The two returned to Kephallonia in July 1827, but we are left with no account of what she thought of her husband’s daughters, Susan and Emily, or of the island.
Napier left Kephallonia with his gravely ill wife Elizabeth in 1830, this time leaving his two young daughters in the care of a clergyman named Dixon and his wife at the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas in Perata, close to Saint George’s Castle on the southern end of the island. While Napier was on leave in London that year, his appointment to Kephallonia was annulled, his papers were seized and he was forbidden to return to Kephallonia.
Napier may have been offered and declined an alternative positing on Zakynthos and moved instead to the south of England. Early in 1831, Kennedy also left Kephallonia for Ireland, never to return.
Some time later, Edward Curling left Kephallonia, taking Napier’s two daughters from the convent at Aghios Andreas and bringing them to their father in England. Until Napier’s elderly wife Elizabeth died on 31 July 1833, she treated the girls as her own children. When she knew she was dying, wrote a book, the Nursery Governess, to help Napier find someone to care for them after her death. Napier took an active interest in their education, teaching them geography and maths as well as languages.
Edward Curling was a great nephew of Elizabeth Napier and had worked for Napier on Kephallonia from 1828 to 1831. In recent weeks, a member of his family has contacted me with further family details that links this episode in the story of the Irish Philhellenes and Newcastle West, one of the towns in my group of parishes in this part of West Limerick and North Kerry.
When Edward Curling left Kephallonia, he brought his Maltese wife Rosa (nee Mallia) to England with him and obtained a post as the Land Agent to Sir Henry Bunbury’s estate near Bury in Suffolk. Sir Henry Bunbury had married Charles Napier’s sister, Emily Louisa Napier, and Lady Sarah Lennox, mother of Emily and Charles, had been first married to Sir Henry’s uncle.
Edward worked on the Bunbury estate for 16 years before moving to Newcastle West, Co Limerick, as the land agent for the Devon estate, centred on the castle in Newcastle West.
‘So, a nice circle squared,’ as my contact told me.
The Castle in Newcastle West, Co Limerick … the Curling family were agents here for a century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2017)
In the past, I have stayed at Barberstown Castle in Straffan, when I have been at weddings, but this was my first time in the parish church in Straffan.
Straffan is part of the parish of Celbridge and Straffan with Newcastle Lyons, one of three churches on the borders of Co Dublin and Co Kildare, west and south-west of Dublin, and about 20 km from Dublin city centre.
Although suburban Dublin has almost reached them, each of these churches retains a mainly rural setting. These churches have individual and rich histories, stretching back to at least 1400, or even earlier. Saint Finian’s church in Newcastle Lyons, where I was invited to baptise a child about 15 years ago, was built ca 1400 on the site of older churches dating back to early Christian settlement. In contrast, both Christ Church, Celbridge, and Straffan Church, Straffan were originally private chapels on the Castletown and Straffan demesnes.
Straffan House, now better known as the K Club, was built in 1832. Because of Hugh Barton’s connections with the wine business in France with his friend Daniel Guestier, Straffan House was designed closely along the lines of Chateau Louveciennes by Frederick Darley of Dublin.
A monument to Hugh Barton in the nave of Straffan Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)
Straffan Church was founded by Hugh and Anna Barton in 1830, and was consecrated on 18 June 1838. The church was originally built by Hugh Barton as a private chapel for himself, his family and their large staff working at both Straffan House and on the land on the Straffan estate. Neighbours from the surrounding big houses also worshipped there.
The original church consisted of a porch with vestry and utility room surmounted by a spire. The porch opened into the nave with a simple sanctuary at the east end. The north and south transepts, followed by a raised sanctuary were added later giving the church its present cruciform shape.
The church remained a private chapel until 1933, when it was transferred to the Church of Ireland Representative Church Body (RCB).
The reredos and oak panelling in the sanctuary display particularly fine Victorian craftsmanship (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)
There are many memorials to members of the Barton family on the church walls. At the top of the nave is a fine carved font dated Christmas 1875. The carved pulpit, reredos and oak panelling around the sanctuary are of particularly fine workmanship.
The windows in the transepts were made in the 1870s by Heaton, Butler & Bayne (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)
The oldest windows are in the transepts and were made in the 1870s by Heaton, Butler & Bayne. In the nave, there is a rich variety of later windows depicting Christ’s life and dedicated to the memory of Bertram Francis Barton, a former owner of Straffan House (1899-1904). The three windows on the south nave (Christ blessing the children; the Crucifixion; and the Resurrection) are by Alfred Ernest Child (1875–1939) of Dublin, part-time manager of Sarah Purser’s workshop at An Tur Gloine in Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin. The three windows in the north nave are by HW Bryans of London.
The East Window is by Catherine O’Brien of An Tuar Gloine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)
The East Window by Catherine O’Brien of An Tuar Gloine is dedicated to Canon Lionel Fletcher, who was the Rector of Straffan for 50 years. All the other windows are dedicated to members of the Barton family.
The two manual organ was built by Peter Conagher & Co of Huddersfield and Dublin and installed in 1897. This fine organ is still in perfect weekly use.
Encaustic tiles in the church are fine examples of this Victorian craft that is part of the Gothic revival (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)
The aisle has fine example of Victorian encaustic and mosaic tiles, perhaps by Minton or Craven Dunnill.
The graves in the churchyard are only of members of the Barton family and their descendants, but the churchyard also has a war memorial remembering parishioners who died in World War I.
The ruins of Saint Patrick’s Church, Straffan, which dates back to the mid-13th century or earlier (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)
However, despite the relatively recent history of this church, the church presence in Straffan predates this church by many centuries. It probably dates back to the early 13th century, for around 1250 Saint Patrick’s, Straffan, and its vicarage, were incorporated in the Hospital of Saint John outside Newgate, Dublin.
The vicarage was suppressed in 1397 and was united with Saint John’s Hospital. But in 1531 Archbishop Allen restored the vicarage.
Few of the names of the Vicars of Straffan survive from this time, and from the end of the 17th century the parish was united with Kildrought (Celbridge), although this union was not made official until an Order in Council in 1829.
Barton’s church was built in Straffan in the following decade, and for 30 years the Revd Samuel Greer (1800-1886) was the perpetual curate or Vicar of Straffan (1834-1864) and at the same time curate of Celbridge (1828-1864).
In 1933, Straffan was joined with Celbridge and Canon Lionel Fletcher (1865-1946) of Straffan was instituted as Rector of Celbridge that year. In all, he spent almost half a century at Straffan, from 1894 to 1943.
A Gothic window in the ruins of Saint Patrick’s, Straffan (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2015)
Early spring buttercups in front of the main front of Kings Weston House (Photograph: Kings Weston Action Group)
Patrick Comerford
For my reflections and devotions each day during Lent this year, I am reflecting on and invite you to listen to a piece of music or a hymn set to a tune by the great English composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958).
There is a complicated set of readings in the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) for this morning, Palm Sunday [29 March 2015].
For the Principal Service, the readings provided for the Liturgy of the Palms are: Mark 11: 1-11 or John 12: 12-16; and Psalm 118: 1-2, 19-29. And for the Liturgy of the Passion, the readings are: Isaiah 50: 4-9a; Psalm 31: 9-16; Philippians 2: 5-11; and Mark 14: 1 – 15: 47, or Mark 15: 1-39 (40-47).
In the reading from Saint Mark’s Gospel for the Liturgy of the Palms, the crowd shouts out:
‘Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’ – (Mark 11: 9-10)
As I prepare to take part in this morning’s Eucharist in Christ Church Cathedral, and as I read this Gospel passage, I am also listening to Caroline Noel’s hymn, ‘At the name of Jesus,’ for which Vaughan Williams composed the tune Kings Weston. This arrangement was published in Songs of Praise (1925), and the combination of text and tune in a hymn-anthem has become a favourite for choirs in many cathedrals, churches and colleges.
Kings Weston is marked by distinctive rhythmic structures and a soaring climax in the final two lines. Like many of Vaughan Williams’s tunes, it is best sung in unison with moderate accompaniment to support this vigorous melody.
The name of the tune refers to a manor house on the River Avon River near Bristol. It was built between 1712 and 1719 was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for Edward Southwell on the site of an earlier Tudor house, remodelled in 1763-1768 by Robert Mylne and again between 1845 and 1850 by Thomas Hopper. A significant architectural feature of the house is the grouping of all the chimneys into a massive arcade.
The house passed through several generations of the Southwell family until the estate was sold in 1833 to Philip John Miles for £210,000, and became the family seat. During the World War I, the house was converted into a hospital, although the house continued as a family home until 1935.
The last member of the Miles family to live at Kings Weston was Philip Napier Miles (1865-1935), who lived there with his wife Sybil. He was a gifted musician and composer who had a wide circle of friends from a musical background and many of them came to stay at the house. The long library at Kings Weston was such a frequent venue for recitals that it was better known as the music room.
Napier Miles was a great-grandson of the peninsular war general from Celbridge, Co Kildare, General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1785-1860), a first cousin of Lord Edward FitzGerald and a direct ancestor of Archbishop Justin Welby of Canterbury. He studied music in Dresden, and on his return to England studied under Hubert Parry. He was a recognised composer, and his work included several operas. Westward Ho! (1913) received positive reviews after it was performed at the Lyceum in London. Another opera, Markheim, received a Carnegie award in 1921.
His friends included some of the great composers, conductors and musicians of the day. Vaughan Williams was among the regular visitor to Kings Weston, and on one visit in 1920 he revised and completed one of his most famous pieces, ‘The Lark Ascending,’ with the help of the English violinist Marie Hall (1884-1956), who had studied under Edward Elgar and was Napier Miles’s musical protégé.
They were staying at Kings Weston as guests of Napier Miles, and Vaughan Williams arranged to ‘The Lark Ascending’ to showcase her skills, dedicating it to her. The piano-accompanied premiere was on 15 December 1920, in Shirehampton Public Hall, near Bristol, which was built by Napier Miles in 1902. While it received little attention at the time, today it is regularly voted Britain’s favourite piece of classical music.
Vaughan Williams also published a melody in 1927 that he named after Kings Weston. This was written especially for Caroline Noel’s hymn, ‘At the name of Jesus.’
When Philip Napier Miles died, Kings Weston was bought by Bristol Municipal Charities and leased for use as a school. It later became the Bristol Technical College School of Architecture and then the Bath University School of Architecture. In 1970, Bristol Corporation bought the house for £305,000 to set up a police training centre. The house was abandoned from 1995 for five years before it was leased and partially restored by local businessman John Hardy.
Since 2012, the house has been extensively renovated again and has opened as a conference and wedding venue.
Fenton Hort, a portrait by George Percy Jacomb-Hood in Trinity College, Cambridge ... his Biblical scholarship changed the title and wording of this hymn
Caroline Marie Noel (1817-1877) wrote this hymn originally as a processional hymn for Ascension Day.
The text is based on the confession of faith Saint Paul quotes in Philippians 2: 6-11, which may well have been an early Christian hymn. Stanza 1 announces the triumph of the ascended Christ to whom “every knee should bow” (Philippians 2: 10). In stanza 2, Christ is the “mighty Word” (see John 1: 1-4) through whom “creation sprang at once to sight.” Stanzas 3 and 4 look back to Christ’s humiliation, death, resurrection, and ascension (Philippians 2: 6-9). Stanza 5 is an encouragement for submission to Christ, for us to have the “mind of Christ.” Stanza 6 looks forward to Christ’s return as “King of glory.” The text is not only concerned with the name of Jesus, whose saving work it confesses, but also with the glory and majesty that attends “the name of Jesus.”
This hymn was first published in 1870 in an enlarged edition of her collection The Name of Jesus, &c. It appears in the Irish Church Hymnal as ‘In the name of Jesus’ (No 94), but in the New English Hymnal it has the title ‘At the Name of Jesus’ (No 338).
Why does this popular hymn have two different names?
The verse in Philippians 2: 10 says in the original Greek: ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ (en to onomati Iesou). This is translated in the Authorised or King James Version of the Bible as: “at the name of Jesus.” However, when the Revised Version (RV) of the Bible was published in 1881, mainly under the guidance of the Cambridge theologians Brooke Foss Westcott (1825-1901) and the Dublin-born Fenton John Anthony Hort (1828–1892), these words were translated more accurately as: “in the name of Jesus.”
Fenton Hort entered Trinity College Cambridge in 1846, and in 1852 became a Fellow; Westcott too had been an undergraduate and later a Fellow of Trinity, where Vaughan Williams would later become a student.
Caroline Noel died four years before Westcott and Hort published the Revised Version in 1881. She must have used the words found in the KJV, but when the hymn was published in the 1903 edition of Church Hymns (London), her family asked for the change, and this is how it was introduced to the repertoire of the Church of Ireland in 1915. So an Irish-born Cambridge theologian may have influenced the change of name in one of the most popular Anglican hymns.
Caroline Maria Noel was born in Teston, Kent, on 10 April 1817, the daughter of Canon Gerard Thomas Noel (1782-1851), and niece of the hymn writer the Revd the Hon Baptist Wriothesley Noel (1798-1873). These two brothers, who were born into a large, aristocratic family of 18 children, were evangelical hymn writers in their own right; although Gerard was an Anglican priest all his life, Baptist was a barrister who later became a Church of England before becoming a Baptist minister and later President of the Baptist Union.
At the age of 17, she wrote her first hymn, ‘Draw nigh unto my soul.’ Over the next three years she wrote about a dozen hymns or poems. Then, from the age of 20 to the age of 40, she wrote nothing. At age of 35, she became an invalid, and five years later, she once again picked up her pen to write hymns that would comfort people in their sickness and illness. In her last 20 years, she wrote the rest of her hymns and poems.
The first edition of her hymns was published as The Name of Jesus and Other Verses for the Sick and Lonely (1861). This was enlarged from time to time, and its title was subsequently changed by her publishers to The Name of Jesus and Other Poems (1878).
Caroline Noel, like Charlotte Elliott, suffered greatly, and many of her verses reflect those days of pain. They are specially adapted “for the Sick and Lonely,” and were written for private meditation rather than for public use, although several are suited to the public worship of the Church.
She died at 39 Great Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, on 7 December 1877, and is buried beside her father in Abbey Church, Romsey, Hampshire, where he had been the vicar for many years.
Strangely, this hymn is not what we would expect in a collection aimed at comforting the sick and the lonely. Instead, it is a hymn about Christ and how he bore his suffering on the cross so that he might rise victorious over death.
Both the Irish Church Hymnal and the New English Hymnal suggest the tune Evelyns, composed by William Henry Monk for this hymn at the publication of Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1875. The Irish Church Hymnal offers as an alternative tune ‘Camberwell,’ which was written in 1960 by the Revd John Michael Brierley (born 1932) while he was a student at Lichfield Theological College. He named that tune in honour of the Revd Geoffrey Beaumont (1903–1970), then the Rector of Saint George’s, Camberwell. Beaumont is remembered for composing his Twentieth Century Folk Mass in an attempt to make the Mass relevant to churchgoers in the 1950s, while he was the chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge, where Vaughan Williams was once an undergraduate.
The New English Hymnal uses the tune Evelyns for ‘At the name of Jesus’ (No 338), but offers ‘Kings Weston’ by Vaughan Williams as an alternative setting for this hymn. Instead, The New English Hymnal uses ‘Kings Weston’ as the setting for Godfrey Thring’s hymn, ‘From the eastern mountains’ (No 50).
This tune is marked by distinctive rhythmic structures and a soaring climax in the final two lines. Like many of Vaughan Williams’s tunes, it is best sung in unison with moderate accompaniment to support this vigorous melody. The combination of Noel’s words and Vaughan William’s tune make this a festive hymn or anthem, and it is a favourite among many choirs.
Kings Weston, ‘At the name Of Jesus,’ by Cardiff Festival Choir
At the name of Jesus
Every knee shall bow,
Every tongue confess him
King of glory now;
’Tis the Father’s pleasure’
We should call him Lord,
Who from the beginning
Was the mighty Word.
At his voice creation
Sprang at once to sight,
All the angel faces,
All the hosts of light,
Thrones and dominations,
Stars upon their way,
All the heavenly orders,
In their great array.
Humbled for a season,
To receive a name
From the lips of sinners
Unto whom he came,
Faithfully he bore it
Spotless to the last,
Brought it back victorious
When from death he passed;
Bore it up triumphant
With its human light,
Through all ranks of creatures,
To the central height,
To the throne of Godhead,
To the Father’s breast;
Filled it with the glory
Of that perfect rest.
In your hearts enthrone him;
There let him subdue
All that is not holy,
All that is not true:
He is God the Saviour,
He is Christ the Lord,
Ever to be worshipped,
Trusted, and adored.
Brothers, this Lord Jesus
Shall return again,
With the Father’s glory,
With the angel train;
For all wreaths of empire
Meet upon his brow,
And our hearts confess him
King of glory now.
Collect:
Almighty and everlasting God,
who, in your tender love towards the human race,
sent your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to take upon him our flesh
and to suffer death upon the cross:
Grant that we may follow the example
of his patience and humility,
and also be made partakers of his resurrection;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Post Communion Prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation.
Give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.
