SHIRBURNS of Stoneyhurst.pdf - Ingilby History

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Having finally taken possession of the Shireburne estates, at Michaelmas 1695, Sir Nicholas combined the, by now, traditional pursuits of his House – political Jacobitism, the initiation of ambitious building projects, and the provision of charity, based upon religious models – and pursued them with greater, and far more sustained, vigour 31 . He completed the refashioning of the mortuary chapel, paying those debts of his mother’s left still outstanding to the artists and masons, and supervised the hauling of the completed effigies, by cart, from the workshops at Holborn to the church at Great Mitton. However, it was his expansion of the mansion and grounds at Stonyhurst, and his attempts to formalise the operation of his family’s charitable bequests that broke new ground and signalled his intentions to both consume conspicuously and to place himself on a par with any gentleman, or courtier, in the land. Coach houses, colossal flanking towers, and marbled hallways marked the redevelopment of the old Elizabethan hall, while square cut canals and formal gardens, stretching out from the gates, offered the prospect of a distant echo of Versailles and of a possible rival to Hampton Court. Indeed, when one regards the exhaustive plans drawn up by Sir Nicholas’ architects, the lead eagles imported from Antwerp that decorated his cupolas, and the large statue symbolising “Fame” that dominated the ornamental waters, laboriously drained from a reservoir high upon Longridge Fell, it is not difficult to detect the mark of hubris 32 . By the late 1690s, hopes of a swift return by the Stuarts were fading, and it would appear that Sir Nicholas had resigned himself to the prospect of a far more limited public career, than had previously been the case. The perpetuation of an influential Roman Catholic dynasty, now appears to have been his major preoccupation and there is something of an intense, “hothouse”, atmosphere in the provisions made for the education of his son and heir. 31 DDSt, Box 94, item 1. Gerard, Centenary Record, op.cit. pp.70-75.
Spelling and grammar books, together with translations of Seneca dedicated especially to him, were lavished upon the young Richard Francis, alongside sets of bows and arrows, and Valantine’s Day presents given by a proud father to “a Child very Extraordinary in all Respects, both beautiful and forward” 33 . Such youthful promise was, however, to be cut tragically short when the little boy suddenly sickened and died on 8 June 1702, aged barely more than 8 years. In the wake of the disaster, Sir Nicholas gave expression to his grief in the form of raising an enormous and macabre tomb for his son, while local tradition began to continually rework, and to elaborate upon, the story. According to one version, the child had become lost in the maze newly laid out in the grounds of Stonyhurst by his father. With night drawing on, he had felt the pangs of hunger and feasted off the poisonous yew berries that grew in the hedges of the labyrinth wall, thus fatally poisoning himself. However, although the absence of yew berries in June gives the lie to this tale, the imagery of boy’s tomb – which depicts Death thrusting his way from out of the depths of the earth, in order to snatch the child as he picked delicate blooms – does tend to confirm the laconic account of an “Old Sexton” of Great Mitton Church, who believed that: “He went to play in the gardens, when green fruit was rife, and he eat [sic] something that was poison, and died”. Certainly, it is not beyond the bounds of belief that the last male Shireburne heir perished in this manner, and that Deadly Nightshade poisoning was the cause 34 . His death transformed, literally overnight, the 32 Gruggen & Keating, op.cit. pp.56-57; Lofthouse, op.cit. p.152; & Pevsner, op.cit. pp.20, 22, 22 fn, 239-40, & 242. 33 Sherborn, op.cit. Vol.II p.51. DDSt, Box 101, item 35. 34 PR 3031/1/1-4, Great Mitton Registers, 1700-1739. The burial register records only that on 15 June 1702, “Richard the son of Sir Nicholas Shireburne of Stonyhurst” was buried. His tomb, on the west wall of the Shireburne Chapel, was sculpted by one of William Stanton’s sons. For a discussion of the legends surrounding his death, see: J.A.. Entwistle, “A brief history of All Hallows’ Church, Mitton, Lancashire”, (no place, 1979), p.vi; Gerard, op.cit. p.76; Hewitson, op.cit. p.162; Muir, op.cit. pp.73-74; & Skeet, op.cit. Part 1 p.72; Sir Nicholas recorded only his grief and affection in a note for an inscription for his child’s tomb, which was later pruned to exclude his affectionate phrasing, and that “God’s Almighty Holy Will be done” beside an accounts entry for the sum of £237 12s. 1d. for the burial. See: DDSt, Box 101, item 35; and Skeet ibid. The tomb itself is Italianate in both conception and execution, combining all of the essential elements of the traditional Roman wall-tomb – such as a portrait, the presence of angels, a skeleton and an inscription – with a strong narrative
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Page 5 and 6: for redress, Felgate was unable to
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SHIRBURNS of Stoneyhurst.pdf - Ingilby History

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