History in Structure

Monuments to Joseph Cartwright and the Family of JS Percy, Middle Enclosure

A Grade II Listed Building in Islington, London

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Coordinates

Latitude: 51.5237 / 51°31'25"N

Longitude: -0.0884 / 0°5'18"W

OS Eastings: 532712

OS Northings: 182262

OS Grid: TQ327822

Mapcode National: GBR S7.8Z

Mapcode Global: VHGQT.FY3T

Plus Code: 9C3XGWF6+FJ

Entry Name: Monuments to Joseph Cartwright and the Family of JS Percy, Middle Enclosure

Listing Date: 21 February 2011

Grade: II

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1396535

English Heritage Legacy ID: 508566

ID on this website: 101396535

Location: Shoreditch, Islington, London, EC1Y

County: London

District: Islington

Electoral Ward/Division: Bunhill

Parish: Non Civil Parish

Built-Up Area: Islington

Traditional County: Middlesex

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Greater London

Church of England Parish: St Giles Cripplegate

Church of England Diocese: London

Tagged with: Monument

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Description



635-1/0/10227 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND
21-FEB-11 Monuments to Joseph Cartwright and the
family of JS Percy, Middle enclosure

GV II
Two headstones, early C19

LOCATION: 532712, 182261.7

MATERIALS: Sandstone

DESCRIPTION: The two monuments stand side by side. That of Revd Cartwright (d.1800), to the north, has an arched top, and records his incumbency at Lant Street Chapel in Southwark. Below is a verse: 'What if Death my Sleep invade / Should I be of Death afraid? / What if Beams of opening Day / Shine around my breathless Clay? / Tender Friends a while may mourn / Me from their Embraces torn / Dearer better Friends I have / In the Realms beyond the Grave / [See] the golden Gates displayed / [And] the Crown to grace my Head.'

The Revd Percy's monument is to the south, and has a shaped top. The inscription records the burial of Percy's infant son and daughter, who died on consecutive days in 1800, as well as that of his two-year-old grandson Henry Davis (d.1829). These entries are followed by a verse: 'Go lovely Infants, Jesus bids you come / And take Possession of a Throne Above / Go to your blissful, your eternal Home / And sing the Saviour's everlasting Love.' A further inscription records the burials of Percy's adult daughters Eliza and Ann, who died in the same week in 1833, his wife Sarah (d.1831), and the Reverend himself.

HISTORY: Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902).
A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monuments to the Revd Joseph Cartwright and the family of Revd JS Percy are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Their versified inscriptions, which remain clearly legible, bear vivid witness to varying Evangelical responses to mortality - bullish confidence in the one case, and in the other, one of repeated family tragedy, a tenderly hopeful acquiescence.
* They are located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and have group value with the other listed tombs in the middle enclosure.

Reasons for Listing


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