Napoleonic, Regency and Victorian soldiers of Ryedale.

Compiled byPaul Brunyee Adv Dip Ed, MA.

Captain John Fothergill 59th Foot, son of John Fothergill of Kingthorpe

In the Pickering parish Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is this extensive wall tablet to members of the Fothergill Family. Amongst those commemorated by a grieving husband are two sons; Midshipman Marmaduke Fothergill RN and Captain John Fothergill, 59th Foot. John joined the 59th Foot in 1808 as an Ensign. By 1812 he had risen to the rank of Captain. He was mortally wounded during the assault on San Sebastian on the 31st August 1812, dying in September, 1813. San Sebastian was an important border fortress on the Spanish-French frontier. It’s capture would enable Wellington to cross the Pyrenees and descend into France in the following year.

MARY, THE WIFE OF JOHN FOTHERGILL ESQ OF THE TOWNSHIP OF KINGTHORPE WITHIN THE PARISH OF PICKERING: WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON THE 21ST JANUARY 1813, AGED 49 YEARS HER AFFLICTED HUSBAND, WHOM SHE RENDERED DURING 25 YEARS THE HAPPIEST OF MANKIND, HAS PLACED THE INSCRIPTION OT HER . . . . . . LIKEWISE ARE DEPOSITED IN THE SAME VAULT, THE REMAINS OF MARMADUKE SON OF JOHN AND MARY FOTHERGILL, LATE MIDSHIPMAN IN THE ROYAL NAVY WHERE HE WAS DESERVEDLY RESPECTED; HE DIED ON THE 6TH APRIL 1807 AGED 17 YEARS. THEIR DEAR SON, JOHN, LATE CAPTAIN IN THE 59TH FOOT DIED ON THE 7TH SEPTEMBER, 1813 AGED 22 YEARS, AT THE SIEGE OF ST SEBASTIAN IN SPAIN; NEAR UNTO WHICH PLACE HE WAS BURIED: HE WAS EVERYTHING THAT FOND PARENTS COULD WISH, AND WAS PARTICUALRLY SOLICITOUS THAT THIS MONUMENT MIGHT BE ERECTED TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY OF HIS DEAR DEPARTED MOTHER, WHOM I PRAY GOD TO BLESS AMEN.

 

"Im left to suffer which I scarce can bear,
She is in shelter and above all care!
She left her children innocent and free;
I have to guide them through life's stormy sea,
She left me safe (and I hide my woe)
She saw me look at ease, and thought me so;
B8ut had she known my smiles were all pretence,
Scarce Heavn's high summons could have called her home!
Almost (had she but seen my aching heart,
She would have given up Heavn not to part!
To comfort me she would have shunned no pain:
To comfort me she would return again:
But that she knows, perhaps my better doom;
Sees in my present pangs a bliss to come;
Sees for the chasten'd, God reserves the best,
And for the heaven-laden, sweeter rest."

 

 

The smaller tablet to the right of the main one commemorates the loss of another Fothergill but this time to typhoid fever.

SACRED
TO THE MEMORY OF
DOROTHY ELIZABETH
THE BELOVED WIFE OF MAJOR
J. CLAVEL S. SLYFIELD K.H.
OF THE 60TH OR
KING'S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS,
AND YOUNGEST DAUGHTER OF THE LATE
COLONEL JOHN FOTHERGILL,
OF KINGTHORPE HOUSE,
SHE WAS PROCEEDING WITH HER HUSBAND,
TO JOIN THE SERVICE COMPANIES
OF HIS BATTALION,
IN THE IONIAN ISLANDS, AND HAD
EMBARKED AT CORK, BUT A FEW DAYS,
WHEN SHE WAS ATTACKED
WITH TYPHOID FEVER
OF WHICH SHE DIED AT SEA,
ON THE 10TH APRIL 1840
IN THE 38TH YEAR OF HER AGE.

THIS SLIGHT TOKEN OF AFFECTION
FOR ONE OF THE
MOST VALUABLE OF WOMEN
AND BEST OF WIVES
IS ERECTED BY HER AFFLICTED
HUSBAND.