which was engraved in vol. XVI. of that publcation, and which is now placed against the wal of the remaining buildings of the house*. In 1751 he contributed to the same Miscellany a short account of the bridge at Burton-upon-Trent. In a letter from * The trouble taken by Mr. Buckeridge on this subject is evident from the following letter of Mr. Greene of Lichfield to Mr. Gough, Dec. 31, 1777: "The tomb-stone, with the epitaph you mention, was discovered in the year 1746, in digging for the foundation of a wall at the Grey Friars in this city. I took an exact drawing of it upon the spot where it was found, which my friend Mr. Buckeridge inclosed, with a particular account of its discovery, and the true reading of the monkish verses, to the Editors of the Gentleman's Magazine, which were unnoticed by them for some months, when a wood-cut, from my drawing, very faithfully executed, appeared in the Magazine of September, p. 465, accompanied with an explanation by a George Smith, who, as you will perceive by his letter, conjectured, from the Noverca, which he read Norica, it was found at Norwich. Mr. Buckeridge's letter, which ascertained the legend, was, as they afterwards confessed, mislaid by the Editors, and certainly lost. You will find the shape of the letters, cross, size of the stone, &c. so very exact, that I cannot send you a inore accurate fac-simile. Mr. Smith having so egregiously mistaken the true reading, it was no wonder his translation of it, as well as the subjoined account of its discovery, was erroneous. You will see it was animadverted upon by Mr. Pegge, under the signature of PAUL GEMSEGE, in the October Magazine, p. 546; but, as neither he nor Mr. Smith could possibly know from whom the drawing was sent, Mr. Buckeridge wrote a second information of the discovery of the stone, with a further illustration, and some pretty severe reflections upon Mr. Smith's great ignorance in matters of antiquity, published in the December Magazine, p. 646. To this, which was signed J. B., Mr. Smith thought proper to reply, in January 1747, p. 36; and in the next succeeding month Mr. Buckeridge closed the correspondence, as you will find, p. 62. Before I conclude this long letter, permit me to add, that I think my friend Buckeridge was unpolitely treated by Messieurs of the Magazine. His first letter, giving an account of the stone, was irrecoverably lost; and the two letters he afterwards wrote were so garbled and curtailed by them, as scarcely to be known when they appeared in print." This statement has been transcribed from the hand-writing of Mr. Buckeridge, who evidently prepared it for Mr. Greene; and has been communicated by the Rev. Thomas Harwood, of Lichfield, to which this and the following article are in other respects greatly indebted. Dean (afterwards Bishop) Lyttelton, to Dr. Wilkes, dated Hagley, Oct. 3, 1753, he says: "I have wrote to Mr. Buckeridge at Lichfield (to whom I have sent my folio Staffordshire manuscript), and desired him to send it to the George at Wolverhampton, directed to you; it contains several miscellaneous matters relating to the county at large, and particularly the arms in church-windows before the year 1600." In another letter, dated Hagleyhall, Aug. 9, 1755, he says: " Mr. Buckeridge of Edinghall has made several collections from the registers at Lichfield, &c. which, I believe, he would gladly put into your hands." He employed himself about this time in correcting the innumerable errors in Erdeswick's "Survey of Staffordshire," printed in 1723. He compared it with many copies in public and private libraries; with some papers of Erdeswick in his own handwriting; with the collections of Wyrley, who was the amanuensis of Erdeswick; and with many other manuscripts and printed authorities, from which he extracted some charters to which Erdeswick refers, and he compared the names of places with the Conqueror's survey in Domesday-book. He thus laid the foundation for the much improved edition of the work of that celebrated antiquary, which was published in 1820 under the superintendance of the Reverend Thomas Harwood, B. D. F. S. A. In 1760 Mr. Buckeridge was presented, by Lord Anson, to the consolidated rectories of Gresham and Barsingham in Norfolk. In 1769 he was collated by Bishop Egerton to the Mastership of St. John's Hospital in Lichfield, in which he succeeded the learned and amiable Dr. Sneyd Davies*. Of that building he contributed an engraving to the "History of Staffordshire" by Mr. Shaw, who acknowledged also the value of his communications. For * The interesting subject of the extended memoir by Mr. Justice Hardinge, in the first volume of this Work. Churton's "Life of Bishop Smith," the Founder of the Hospital, he presented another view of it, and communicated a list of the Masters; and from his papers, extracted from the episcopal registers, Mr. Harwood was enabled to give a more accurate account of the institution in his "History of Lichfield." In 1779 Mr. Buckeridge was presented to the Perpetual Curacy of Tong in Shropshire; and in 1771, by Thomas Anson, Esq. to the Rectory of Mautby in Norfolk; but he made the house belonging to his Mastership his constant residence for the remainder of his life. In 1784 he was appointed by Dr. Smalbroke, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Lichfield, to be his principal Surrogate, the duties of which office he performed with remarkable regularity and ability, and in which he was succeeded by his eldest son. Mr. Buckeridge died at Lichfield, in his 80th year, Dec. 23, 1803, and was buried on the 29th of the same month at Edingale, near the remains of his wife, who, after a union of forty years, had left him a widower, Feb. 4, 1793. They had thirteen children; but lost many of them in their childhood. The following epitaph is in the Church of St. Chad, Lichfield: fil. Theoph. Buckeridge, (Hosp. Sant, Johis Bapt. Magri) et Margaretæ uxoris ejus. His death, which took place at Lichfield, March 13, 1789, when at the age of twenty, is recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine, with the following affectionate memorial by his father: "Frederick Buckeridge, of St. John's-college, Oxford, a youth of extraordinary endowment. Intense application to study impaired a constitution, weakened in his infancy by a rapid succession of infantile diseases. Incapable of sustaining the constant drudgery of a school, where much attendance is required Three sons only survived: 1. The Ven. Charles Buckeridge, Archdeacon of Coventry. He was of St. John's-college, Oxford, M.A. 1781; B. D. 1791; D. D. 1807. In 1789 he was presented by the Crown to the Rectory of Pulchrohon in Pembrokeshire, and the Vicarage of Lancarvan in Glamorganshire; in 1790, also by the King, to the Vicarage of Newport in Shropshire; in 1804, by the Chancellor of Lichfield Cathedral (Dr. Vyse) to the Perpetual Curacy of King's Bromley in Staffordshire; in the same year, he was collated by Bishop Cornwallis, to the Prebend of Wolvey in the Church of Lichfield; in 1807, to the Precentorship, the first of the six Residentiary Canonries; and in 1816, by the same Prelate, to the Archdeaconry of Coventry. With the exception of the Prebend of Wolvey, he enjoyed all these preferments, together with the office of Principal Surrogate, at the period of his death. Early in life he had been one of the Priest-Vicars of Lichfield Cathedral, but resigned it on succeedhis father in the Perpetual Curacy of Tong; which latter he also resigned on his collation to the Residentiaryship of Lichfield. He died at his residentiary-house, September 28, 1827, aged 74. He had been twice married. To his first wife, Miss for little instruction, he learned to read, write, and the first rules of arithmetic, without a master. In the acquirement of Latin and Greek he had little assistance; as little, perhaps, as the learned Scaliger, who called himself an autodidact. His amusements were music and drawing, in the latter of which he excelled; but his favourite studies were experimental philosophy and mechanics. A wheel of his contrivance, intended as a model of a perpetual motion, had he lived to complete it, would have borne ample testimony of his ingenuity. His disorder, which was a pulmonary phthisis, resisted every medical application, and the waters at Bristol. A sweetness of temper, a constitutional politeness, and gentleness of manners, endeared him to all those who knew him; and it can be truly said, he never grieved his parents but when he was sick, and when he died. As his life was all innocence and piety, his death was without a groan and without a sigh; and he literally fell asleep." Hussey, there is an elegant marble monument, by Richard Westmacott, in the north transept of Lichfield Cathedral in a false window. A female figure, with her left arm leaning upon an urn, points with her right-hand to the inscription: "Obiit 7 Januarii 1787, æt. 25." And underneath : " M. S. Catherinæ Ceciliæ, Caroli Buckeridge uxoris dilectissimæ, amplexu ejus ah! nimium beati - - ARMS. Or, two pallets between five cross-crosslets fitchee in saltire Sable, Buckeridge; impaling, 1st and 4th, Barry of six, Ermine and Gules; 2d and 3d, Or, a cross Vert, Hussey. The arms of Dr. Buckeridge also occur in the Prebendaries' window, placed in the choir between 1806 and 1808. Archdeacon Buckeridge married, secondly, Miss Elizabeth Slaney, by whom he had two children, who both died before him, Mary-Elizabeth, in 1810, at the age of thirteen; and Charles-Lewis, in 1812. Mrs. Buckeridge is now living, Jan. 1829. 2. The Rev. Richard Buckeridge. He was also of St. John's-college, Oxford, where he took his degree of B. C. L. June 22, 1791. In the same year his father resigned to him the Curacy of Edingale; in 1802 he was presented by the Lord Chancellor to the Perpetual Curacy of Stone in Staffordshire; and in 1790 he was presented by Viscount Anson to the Rectory of Beighton in Norfolk. He was also Dean's Vicar in the Cathedral of Lichfield. He was married at Lichfield, January 5, 1792, to the eldest daughter of Mr. William Wright, and granddaughter of Richard Greene, Esq. the Collector of the Lichfield Museum. He died at Stone in June 1824, at the age of 59; leaving two sons and three daughters. 3. Lewis Buckeridge, Esq. He died at Lichfield, Nov. 23, 1821. |