POETS AND PARSONS

More Social History from our Mattishall Historian

Have you ever looked at the memorials in Mattishall Church and wondered about the people who are named there? Perhaps you have noticed Thomas Hewitt in the South aisle who died in 1801. He had three wives. This Thomas was described in the Registers as a Maltster and lived in the house almost opposite the East end of the church – now called Anchor House where dear John Humphreys had his book shop. The property and land covered quite a large area; the Malthouse itself extending right up to the main road corner. It has been said of Thomas Hewitt, that he considered himself to be the most important man in Mattishall. Well, he was an Attorney, a Justice of the .Peace, a Parish Overseer of the Poor, Churchwarden for many years, and a considerable farmer.

No doubt, his marriage to Elizabeth Donne (pronounced Dunn), his third wife, added to his prestige for her family was reputed to be descended from the great John Donne, 16th/17th century poet and priest, Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. This third Mrs Hewitt was half sister to Mrs Anne Bodham, who lived in South Green House (now Mattishall Hall). There is a memorial for Mrs Bodham and her husband Thomas, on the south wall of the Chancel. They will be well-known to anyone who has read “The Diary of a Country Parson – James Woodforde” – he was Rector of Weston Longville, and often visited Mattishall.

Memorials dedicated to members of the Donne family are the stained glass window behind the Royal British Legion altar, the one to the left as you enter by the south door, the magnificent wrought iron chandelier in the middle of the chancel, and a plaque on the north wall of the chancel. The surprising thing is that only one of them was actually buried here!

Mr Thomas Bodham’s sister, Mary married surgeon William Wright, who owned and lived at Ivy House Farm at the end of Welgate. Their memorial is the one which was shaken off the north wall of the chancel when we had a minor earthquake in recent years. When Mary Wright died in 1793, Parson Woodforde described her coffin as the largest he had ever seen.

Thomas Bodham’s grandmother Mary, was daughter of Colvy Chamberlayne, whose memorial is in the floor of the Lady Chapel. Thomas inherited the South Green property from her. It is possible that the Chamberlaynes had businesses in Norwich and may have provided the combers and weavers in Mattishall with work in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Mrs Anne Bodham had a famous cousin, the poet William Cowper (although spelt with a ‘w’, he wished his name to be pronounced Cooper). He was said to have visited South Green House at least on one occasion when Anne Bodham presented him with a portrait of his mother who died when he was six years old. He wrote a poem about it.

When Mrs Bodham’s brother, Castres Donne, died at an early age, she ‘adopted’ his little daughter Anne Vertue, who eventually married her cousin Edward Donne. There is a memorial on the North wall of the Chancel for this couple. Anne Bodham died in 1846, at the age of 97, and left the South Green property to Anne Vertue’s son, William Bodham Donne.

Incidentally, Mrs Anne Bodham, left Mattishall for a time, then came back to live at the big house on the main road now called “Madingley”, almost opposite Back Lane. She eventually returned to South Green House and died there.

Her nephew, the Revd. John Johnson, became Rector of Yaxham and Welborne in 1800. He had wanted to marry Anne Vertue but due to his poor circumstances, Mrs Bodham put an end to his hopes.

Revd. John Johnson, befriended his second cousin William Cowper, the poet., who had suffered periods of madness during his life. John prevailed upon Cowper to come to Norfolk and cared for him in his last five years. While searching for a suitable house, they stayed at North Tuddenham Rectory for a time, which was near enough for them to walk to Mattishall to see the Bodhams. They eventually settled in a house in Dereham Market Place. Later a church was built on part of the site. It is still there, of course. William Cowper died in 1803 and was buried in St Nicholas’ Church, Dereham. There is a memorial for him in the transept.

In the 1820s, John Johnson, having married a lady with a considerable fortune, was able to have a Rectory built to the East of the church at Yaxham, with an avenue of trees leading to it from the main road. Maybe some of the original trees are still there.

It was John Johnson’s son, Revd. John Barham Johnson, Rector of Welborne, who undertook the restoration of Mattishall church in the middle of the 19th century. Obviously a talented man, being a woodworker and carver, he taught several Welborne men to carve. One of them, John Parling, was his star pupil. It was he who carved the reredos and atlar rail in Mattishall church, also the choir stalls and prayer desk on the north side of the Chancel, and copied the lectern from an ancient one in Shipdham church. It is believed that John Parling built his own house which was in Welborne Road, Mattishall.

In more recent years members of Mattishall History Group were delighted to meet Mary, the granddaughter of John Barham Johnson. Her father, Henry Barham Johnson, followed his father as Rector of Welborne. Mary told us about her life as a small girl in Welborne, and much about the Donnes, the Bodhams, and the Johnsons. She also allowed us to study her manuscripts relating to her family history.

The triptych on the step near the High Altar was given to Mattishall Church by Mary. She told us that it hung in her father’s study at Welborne for many years.

Mary Barham Johnson was a harpist, a member of the Norwich Orchestra, and a teacher at Keswick College. She lived to be over a hundred and hers was the last burial to take place in the old churchyard at Welborne as there was a plot reserved for her.

Iris Coe