The History Of Saint Peter's Church Ousden

Memorials

There are several memorials in St. Peter's to people of the past who have been associated with the church and parish.

A plaque in the chancel commemorates the Revd Thomas Frampton, D.D., Fellow of St. John's College Cambridge, Rector of Starston, Norfolk and of Ousden from 1762 until his death in 1803, also Mary his wife, who died in 1808. A stone in the chancel floor marks the entrance to their vault.

The finest memorial in the church is the fascinating wall monument to the north of the western tower arch, in honour of Letitia, wife of Richard Moseley, who died in 1619. Richard (the son of Humphrey, who bought the Manor here in 1567) made Ousden his home in 1614 and Letitia was his first wife. The monument is a fine piece of craftsmanship, which merits examination. Two black marble columns support a broken pediment, upon which two human figures recline and two obelisks stand. This frames an hour-glass, above which is a coat of arms. Beneath the inscription is a rather horrific skeleton in a shroud; its legs are missing and other bones are broken. The inscription has a beautiful three-verse epitaph which is worth reading. Its final verse states:-

Three tymes five yeares a virgin's life she tryed.
Three tymes ten yeares a wife, and then she dyed.
Of daughters seven, sonnes three, she was ye mother,
To poore and rich a friend, they all did love her.
Who at her death rejoic't, and yet were sorrye,
Sad to recount her losse - Glad for her glorye.

The Moseleys held the Manor from 1567 until they sold it in 1800. Later members of this family are commemorated in their transept Chapel. Over its archway to the nave are plaques to Sarah Moseley (1754) and Thomas (1766), to John Moseley (1775) and to Thomas Ireland (1841). The Ireland family held the Manor from 1835 -1885 and Thomas's son, Thomas James Ireland, is commemorated by a Gothic memorial (by I.E. Thomas of London) on the east wall of the Chapel. He died in 1863, his wife Elizabeth in 1888 and the memorial also commemorates his only son, who died aged 13 in 1843, after "a long and lingering illness".

In 1885. the Manor passed to Sir Herbert Bulkley Mackworth Praed. He died in 1920 and has a marble plaque on the south wall of the nave. Also in the nave are metal plaques to Fitz Patrick Praed (1914) and to Algeron Henry Mackworth Praed (1952), the last of the family to live at Ousden Hall, which was demolished three years after his death. On the south wall of the nave is a plaque (by Hems of Exeter) to the Revd William McDouall (Rector 1854-1902) with his coat of arms.

On the nave walls hang two diamond-shaped hatchments. These coats of arms were hung outside the house of a deceased person during the period of mourning and were then taken to the parish church for permanent display. The southern hatchment is for Thomas James Ireland, who died in 1863, and that on the north side is for the Revd Thomas Frampton (1803) and his wife Mary (1808), who are commemorated in the chancel. Two further coats of arms of the Ireland family, also their crest, may be seen in 19th century stained glass in the tracery at the top of the north window of the Chapel.