Barrowby
More Troubled Times
On the south wall of the chancel, by the brass to Nicholas Deen, is a stone decorated with fruits on either side inscribed: “Dr Hurst hath Iyeing within this chancel seven children namely, Anne, Lewis, Mary, Elizabeth, Charles, Sarayh, and Anna. This is to their memory 1675.” On the floor is a marble slab showing where Anne, widow of Dr Hurst is buried. She outlived her husband by sixteen years dying 26th March. 1689.
Thomas Hurst was born in Barrowby in 1598, and became Rector of Barrowby and Leadenham in 1629, having gained a Doctorate in Divinity. He was a chaplain to King Charles I, and during the Civil War he spent two years away from his parishes preaching to the Royalists. As a result he lost his living in 1644, not to be reinstated until 1660 after paying a fine of £640. While deprived of his livings he lived in Grantham; his house there bears the date 1653. It is interesting to note his signature still appears in the Parish Registers until this date.
In his will he remembered the poor of Barrowby and Grantham. The Hurst Almshouses are west of St Wulfram's Church, Grantham and in Barrowby the Hurst Trust Fund was distributed on St Thomas’s Day each year. Dr Hurst died 17th March, 1674. The people of Grantham were so grateful for the help he gave during the plague there in 1637 that he was given the freedom of the borough.
The memorial to Dr Hurst is to be found on the wall to the left of the window in the small vestry behind the organ. Dr Hurst's memorial is in Latin: the other memorial carved in ill spaced lettering is to his father, which reads: 'Here Iy intered the bodyes of Richard Hurst. Gent. buried February the 12 1628 and of Alice his wife buried March 9 1641 and they left. . . Thomas Hurst Bar. son of. . . church who married Anne. Heire to Mr. Lewis Somersall of Grantham and daughters Dorothy, Elizabeth, Mary, Susanna and Frances all of them parents of divers children’
The most notable additions to the church during the eighteenth century were the bells, although the. oldest bell in the tower was hung sometime before 1600; it is now the 5th bell; before 1774 it was the 3rd. It was probably cast in Nottingham, as on it is a Rose and Shield being the stamps used by Robert Quernbie and Henry Oldfield before 1600. It bears the inscription 'Celeorum Xte placeat tibi rcx somis iste' (O Christ, the King of Heaven, may this sound be pleasing to Thee). The diameter is 39 ins.
Prior to 1774 there were four bells, the other old bell hanging at the same time as the one just described is missing. Its inscription was 'In multis annis resonet campane Johannis' (For many years may John's bell resound).
The 2nd bell has 'God Save His Churche. Mark Jenkinson 1712' on it but does not say where it was cast.
The 1st, 3rd. and 4th bells were all cast by Thomas Hedderly of Nottingham in 1774. The inscriptions are:
1. 'Glory be to God on high' Diameter 31 ins.
3. 'John Dorr, Churchwarden' Diameter 33~ ins.
4 'Glory be to God on high John Dorr Churchwarden' Diameter 36 ins.
There is a 6th bell is of a much later date which has the inscription 'John Taylor Founder, Loughborough 1897’.
By the end of the century, the weather cock which surmounts the spire was in place. It has been there since 1794 at least, when from the accounts it cost 12s for gilding.
In 1805 a gallery was built at the West End, only to be removed before the end of the century. The Rector's Vestry was built in 1806.