Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 08/02/2013

635-1/0/10240
21-FEB-11

BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND
Monument to John Conder, North section

GV
II

Headstone and footstone of John Conder, renewed 1869

LOCATION: 532646.3, 182289.2

MATERIALS: Portland stone, whitewashed

DESCRIPTION: The monument comprises a headstone and a smaller footstone, both simple upright slabs with arched tops bearing carved and painted text. The footstone is inscribed 'Dr Conder 1781'; the headstone gives brief details of Conder's life and career, and gives an English translation of Conder's original Latin epitaph: 'I have sinned, I have repented, I have trusted, I have loved, I shall rest, I shall arise, and through the grace of Christ, however unworthy, I shall reign.' An inscription at the base records the monument's renewal in 1869.

HISTORY: John Conder (1714-81) was a noted Independent minister, preacher and tutor. Born in Cambridgeshire and educated at Hitchin Grammar School and various Dissenting academies, he began his career as minister at Hog Hill Independent Church in Cambridge, moving to London in 1754 to become classical tutor at the Kings Head Society Academy at Mile End and, from 1762, minister at the chapel on Little Moorfields in the City. He published a number of lectures and sermons on moral and doctrinal issues, and was later awarded an honorary doctorate by Aberdeen University.

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. The latter scheme involved clearing the tombs in the cemetery's northern enclosure; Conder's tomb was one of those selected for retention and relocation.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902).
A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915).
JHY Briggs, entry on Conder in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, www.oxforddnb.com (retrieved on 9 June 2009).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to John Conder is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It commemorates a noted C18 Nonconformist preacher and tutor.
* It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the north section.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27087495

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey