Book Purge

Beverley Minster, Yorkshire, England

Continental Historical Bureau. History of Jefferson County, Illinois 1810-1962, Mt. Vernon, IL: Continental Historical Bureau, 1962.

Pages 2-3 -  The admission of the Illinois to the Union occurred December 3, 1818; the County of Jefferson was organized March 26, 1819, a periof of 113 days later.  The official beginning of Mt. Vernon took place June 7, 1819, seventy-three days after the organization; it wa only 186 days after the state had officially been admitted to the Union until Mt. Vernon was officially born.

The procedure took place int he following manner: After Illinois became the twenty-first state of the federal union and the legislature was in legal functioning order, an Act of the Legislature was passed March 26, 1819, which created Jefferson County. The Act also provided for five Commissioners to select a permanent seat of justice and to designate it as such. These Commissioners were appointed yb the Legislature instead of the citizens of the county. The five who were authorized wree: Ambrose Maulding, Lewis Barker. James Richardson and Richard Graham. 

Pages N4-N5 - New Hope (Webb) Missionary Baptist Church.  The exact date this church was organized is not known.  It is on record of being ost to the annual Baptist Association in the year 1858.  It is presumed the church existed for quite some time previous to this date. 

The first minutes on record are of 1862. New Hope had no pastor at that time. Messengers to the

Association were John Waller and William Spencer. The church membership at this time was sixty-one. The associated records had burned previous to this date.

The church's first building was of log structure located in the northeast corner, described at that time as the Crossroads, now the intersection of the Boyd & Richview Roads, six miles northwest of Mt. Vernon. In 1872, this land was deeded to the church, to remain as such unless it ceased to be a place of worship: then said land to revert to the former owners, Wm. C. Webb and his wife, Mary M. Webb. The trustees of the church were Isaac Hill, Wm. P. Fiser & John W. Watkins.

In 1879 the church voted to buid a new church house. They voted to build a frame building of wood, near to the log church. . . . 

A vote was taken to move the church one and a half miles northeast, near the switch at Webb Station. (At this time Webb was a thriving village, with business places, a railroad and staton. The jacksonville Railroad ran from the Louisville & Nashville Railroad at Drivers, north and westerly through Webb and Boyd to Jacksonville. The "Jack" railroad was torn up, starting early on a Sunday morning in 1902.)  In 1889, Williamson C. Webb (his wife, Mary M. was deceased) deeded land in the town of Webb to be the property of the church forever. The building was moved at that time to its present location.  . . . 

Pastors from 1866 include: . . . B.D. Esmon (1872-1877) . . . Cal Richardson (1886 and 1891-1899) . . . Sirus Butler (1902-1903) . . . Cyrus W. Maulding (1943) . . . Melvin Chambliss (1951) . . . 

Page R5 - Ambrose Maulding was born in Virginia on August 1, 1755. He served in the Virginia troops during the Revolution. He came to Hamilton County, Illinois, died there August 25, 1833, and is buried near McLeansboro, Illinois at the Ten-Mile Baptist Church Cemetery.  In 1917 a granddaughter was still living who had attended his funeral. His grave is marked by a substantial monument which bears the following inscription: "Immortal may their memory be who fought and died for liberty."  Ambrose Maulding was one of the founders of the village of Mt. Vernon, Illinois. 

Pages W10-W11 - At the first session of the legislature after Illinois was admitted into the union, Jefferson County was formed. The act authorizing its formation was approved March 26, 1819. The act provided that this county was to be formed from Edwards and White Counties.

We should note some of the provisions of the act authorizing the formation of Jefferson County: 1) It was enacted that the name of the county should be "Jefferson."  2) The boundaries of the county were established. 3) It appointed Ambrose Maulding, Lewis Barker, Robert Shipley, James A. Richardson and Richard Graham as commissioners for the purpose of selecting and establishing a seat of justice for the county. 4) I was provided that the proprietor of the land selected should give the land to the county in order that it could be laid out in lots and sold and the proceeds used for the erection of public buildings. 5) It provided that the Commissioners' Court, until the erection of public buildings, should be held in the house of William Casey. 

An election was held in the house of William Casey in pursuance of he act. This house stood on the lo where a few years ago Taylor's Commercial Hotel was located. To further identify the location, the house stood at the site of our Post Office at the southwest corner of Eleventh and Main Streets. About thirty or forty votes were cast at this election. Joseph Jordan, Zadok Casey and Flemming Greenwood were elected commissioners, with Lewis Watkins become sheriff.  The commissioners met on Monday, June 7, 1819, for the purpose of organizing the county court. The matter of the seat of justice was taken up at the meeting, and the report of the commissioners was to effect that Lewis Barker, Ambrose Maulding and James A. Richardson met and after being duly sworn determined and fixed upon a location for the seat of justice. Their selection was: "A part of the Southwest Quarter of Section 29, Range 3, of Township 2, on the land owned by William Casey, the town to be laid off in the Southwest corner of said quarter, to commence near the timber, on a point not far distant from Casey's house, and thence to the foot of the descent on a point which Casey's house stood." 

---

Jenner, Michael. Journeys to Medieval England, London, England: Penguin Books, Ltd., 1991.

Pages 27 - "London, Thou Art the flower of cities all" was the unequivocal opinon of the Scottish poet William Dunbar in 1501. The late medieval capital of the prosperous realm of England had already outstripped most of its European rivals and was poised for further dynamic growth during the Tudor period. However, that very dynamism, together with natural and man-made disasters, has conspired to rebuild the city several times over in the course of the intervening centuries, so that it requires some effort to recapture the atmosphere and urban cohesion of medieval London from the surviving fragments. Indeed, first impressions might suggest that the Middle Ages in this constantly booming metropolis are quite literally dead and buried. For example, the current controversey over the historic skyline of the City focuses essentially on the London rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1666 which is now roughly 300 years old. We are so concerned by the developments affecting Wren's St. Paul's that its Gothic predecessor is all but forgotten. Until its spire collapsed in 1561, its great height of 450 feet far exceeded that of the subsequent dome at 363 feet. William of Malmesbury, writing in the first half of the twelfth century, described Old St. Paul's as 'worthy of being numbered amongst the most famous of buildings.' Moreover, it represented the very heart as well as the soul of medicval London to an extent not emulated by its successor. But despite such losses London still offers the medievalist a satisfying experience.

Let us approach from Southwark where the modest cathedral is now hemmed in between a railway viaduct and the vegetable market but was once the centre of a thriving autonomous faubourg where the writ of the City fathers did not run. This was a lively place, packed with raucous taverns and inns much frequented by pilgrims before setting off for Canterbury and the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Chaucer's group stayed at the Tabard, its site now marked by a plaque at Talbot Yard in Borough High Street; but nearby the George Inn still conveys some idea of a galleried courtyard hostelry of the period although the present buildings date only from 1676.  Such inns were used by itinerant companies of actors to stage dramas; and Southwark, on account of its laxer regime, became the favoured resort of the theatrical profession in Tudor times with such renowned establishments as the Globe and the Rose whose rediscovered site is to be preserved. 

Page 29 - In Southwark actors and their riotous audiences disported themselves cheek by jowl with such mighty neighbours as the Bishop of Winchester. An evocative relic of Winchester Palace, a fine rose window of the Great Hall, has survived in Clink Street. But in this neighbourhood it is really Southwark Cathedral which must claim our attention. It has been extensively restored and rebuilt since its foundation as the Augustinian Abbey of St. Mary Overie, but it retains its original retro-choir of Early English vaulting, still alive with the austere elegance and exuberance that sprang from the new building technology of the pointed arch. The cathedral contains other testimonials of rather different aspects of the medieval world. Some of the huge carved wooden bosses which once adorned the roof are now displayed at eye level to allow a close-up view of a veritable rogues' gallery of grotesque faces. These would once have leered down on the congregation from their lofty vantage point, a typically medieval accomondation of the ugly and the profane within a religious context. 

Southwark Cathedral also provides a gripping illustration of another leitmotif of medieval art: the stark protrayal of death. In deliberate contrast to the idealised knightly effigies of the noble deceased, we are presented here wih one of those sculptural renderings of the physical decomposition of the body as the flesh withers away and the bones press hard against the skin. . . . 

. . . [William] FitzStephen [d. ca. 1191] does give some valuable description of the London of his day such as the host of parish churches and monastic houses and the colourful scene of the various trades each occupying its own particular area.

A rather different scene awaits today at the northern end of the modern London Bridge which lies slightly upstream of its Roman and medieval ancestors. FitzStephen would have witnessed he constructon of the famous stone bridge of nineteen arches commenced in 1176 which eventually became home to an entire community of more than 130 shops and houses up to seven storeys in height. In the middle stood a chapel dedicated to the martyred archbishop St. Thomas Becket who was London's most popular saint throughout the Middle Ages. [p. 32] During this time London Bridge provided the only fixed crossing over the Thames to the City, a situation which greatly benefited he navy of ferrymen, a tough and vocal body of men who opposed any scheme for a second bridge. The waterfront would have been buzzing with activity round the clock as much of the nation's trade passed over London's wooden wharves. . . . 

The Church of All Hallows by the Tower contains a unique memento of pre-Conquest London in its one surviving Saxon arch which in its turn provides a link with Londinium, for it incorpoates recycled Roman tiles. We are now within sight of the Tower of London. The original Norman keep, commenced in 1078 by William the Conqueror 'against the restlessness of the large and fierce populace,' loomed large over London. Even the ebullient FitzStephen checks his bubbly tone for a moment while he describes it as 'a very great and most strong Palatine Tower, whose turrets and walls do rise from a deep foundation; the mortar thereof being termpered with the Blood of Beasts.'  Now known as the White Tower, it forms the central stronghold within a rambling circuit of curtain wall and towers locked [p.  33] within a concentric ring of fortifications. The name of White Tower derives possibly from its bright stone from Caen in Normandy but principally from the practice begun by Henry III of white-washing the exterior, presumably in order to intensify the overwhelming effect.  . . . 

The Tower of London occupied the eastern extremity of the medieval city and was the starting point for the city wall which encircled the entire settlement on the landward side. Against all the odds, substantial sections of the wall remain to be explored, although the medieval gates at Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate, Cripplegate and Newgate have all disappeared from the face of London if not from the map; but there is at Tower Hill the foundation of a thirteenth-century postern gate permanently exposed to view. 

Page 44 - It was Edward the Confessor's removal of the Saxon palace to Westminster rather than the founding of the abbey which paved the way for London's future expansion to the west. Edward's new palace soon became the home of William the Conqueror in 1066. Its central feature was an aisled hall which was rebuilt at the end of the eleventh century by the Conqueror's son William Rufus. 

Page 69 - Nowhere along the south coast of England can the threat and the fact of invasion from France by ignored. Especially not at Battle Abbey which was founded by William the Conqueror in thanks for his victory over the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The abbey straddles the battlefield itself, and the exact spot where Harold fell mortally wounded with the arrow in his eye was commemorated by the siting of the high altar upon it by the express wish of the Conqueror. The abbey church later fell victim to the Dissolution; and part of the monastic buildings is now occupied by a girls' school.  The most prominent surviving feature of the remains of Battle Abbey is the great gatehouse dominating the traingular marketplace of the town which grew up alongside it. The architectural highlighs of the ruins include the novices' room at the south end of the dorter range and the monks' common room at the north end. These are brilliant examples of Gothic engineering virtuosity, a total delight for amateurs of elegant vaulting. 

Page 153 - Beverley Minster is another great survivor and as wondrous a piece of architecture as any cathedral. Its fascination is heightened by a wealth of stone carvings inside which amount to the most comprehensive collection of musical instruments from the Middle Ages. We are confronted here with a veritable orchestra in stone of medieval musicians playing some seventy different instruments of the period. Viols, tambourines, bagpipes, cymbals, double horns, harps, trumpets, guitars, tabors and zithers are all in action, together with earthy portrayals of their long-forgotten players. However, all is eerily silent, as if the voices of these instruments had been silenced and frozen in stone by some magic spell. Yet so realistic are the carvings that it seems that Beverley Minster might at any moment burst back into life to the sounds of an uproarious concert that has been held in suspense for more than six centuries. The musical theme makes an encore in the choir where the humorous carver of the wooden misericords has portrayed subjects such as a monkey playing the bagpipes and a pig plucking a harp. 

Music has also been represented in the intricate stone canopy of the Percy Tomb in Beverley Minster. This has been acclaimed as one of the finest examples of fourteenth-century stone carving in the Decorated style. Quite surprisingly for such an elaborate memorial, it is not known for sure who is commemorated here, but the favourite candidate is Lady Eleanor of the Percy lineage, that great family which, along with their rivals the Nevilles, has left its traces all over the northern counties. In fact, the history of the North of [p. 156] England in the Middle Ages could largely be written from the annals of these warring, dynastic families.