Obituary The Right Hon. Baron Northbourne Thomas Shipdem Frampton, B.C.L., F.S.A John Churchill Walter Charles Stunt

(. 157 ) <3hituavs. THE EIGHT HON. BAEON NOETHBOUENE, PBESIDENT OF THE KENT AECH\2EOLOGICAL SOCIETY. The loss which not only our own Society but archaeology generally has sustained in the death of Lord Northbourne is still so fresh and poignant that a short biographical notice will appeal to members of the body over which he presided from 1905 until the day of his death. Born in 1846, and educated at Eadley and afterwards at Christ Church, Oxford, Walter Henry James inherited from his father the traditions of the Liberal party of the day. Pather and son were intimate friends of Mr. W. E. Gladstone; and "Walter James himself sat in the House of Commons as Liberal M.P. for Gateshead from 1874 until 1893, when, on the death of his father, the first Baron Northbourne of Betteshanger (whose title had been created in 1884), he succeeded to the peerage. With the more recent developments of advanced Liberalism, and its drastic measures in respect of land, Lord Northbourne found himself out of sympathy, and he ended as a Conservative Unionist. In 1868 Lord Northbourne married Edith, daughter of Mr. J. Newton Lane of King's Bromley, Staffordshire. He had been ailing for the last twelve months or so, but no immediate apprehension of his death was felt, when the end came suddenly on 27th January 1923 at his home at Betteshanger, near Eastry, Kent. His eldest son succeeds him. The late peer was a Pellow of the Society of Antiquaries, on whose council he recently served. Of the many spheres of usefulness he occupied with public-spirited devotedness, it suffices to mention that he was D.L., and J.P. for Kent; Honorary Colonel of the 3rd Home Counties Brigade, E.P.A., and also of the 9th Durham Light Infantry. He was President of the Kent and Canterbury Hospital, and of the Association of Kentish Men and Men of Kent, and also at one time President of the National Shire Horse Society. 158 OBITUARY. But it is in the capacity of President for some eighteen years that the late Lord Northbourne will chiefly be remembered by the members of the Kent Archseological Society, and more especially by the members of the Council, to one and all of whom he endeared himself by his constant tactand consideration. No society could wish for a more excellent Chairman. Alert, judicial, practical, under his presidency the Council never failed to dispose of its multifarious business without wasting time or falling into arrears. The Council meets four times a year, and Lord Northbourne rarely missed attending; on repeated occasions he entertained the members most generously. He was indeed no mere figure-head, but entered into all the concerns and activities of the Society conscientiously and with keen zest. Only a personality like Lord Northbourne, holding as he did the position of officer of both institutions, could have carried through to a satisfactory issue the difficult negotiations necessary to reconcile the diverse interests of the Kent County Hospital at Canterbury and St. Augustine's College. It was he who arranged the 60 years' lease by which the College acquired the right to explore that portion of the site of the Monastic Church, which in times past had become alienated; and it was he whose munificent gift of £2000, or more, then made it possible for the excavations to be prosecuted with success. Lord Northbourne contributed liberally to financing the publication of the Inventory of the Parish Registers and other Records in the Diocese of Canterbury, issued in 1922 for the • Diocesan Authorities under the editorship of the Eev. C. Eveleigh Woodruff. In a foreword which he wrote to the volume Lord Northbourne emphasized the value and importance that the late Archbishop Benson attached to such documents, and tells how the two happened one day to visit a church which proved to be "absolutely devoid of -architectural interest. Surveying the fabric with a look which betokened a sense of disappointment, he (the Archbishop) observed to his companion, 'Well, at any rate we can ask to see the registers.' Dr. Benson,"- OBITUARY.' 159> continues Lord Northbourne, "knew full well that theseancient documents often contain facts no less important and interesting than some external or internal architectural feature of priceless esteem to the antiquary or historian."" Hence the active support which Lprd Northbourne afforded, to the publication of the Canterbury Diocesan Eecords, and. to the work of the Eecords Branch of the Kent Archaeological1. Society. Of his activities as a devoted member of the Church of England this is not the place to speak : it will suffice to say that he was a member of the Canterbury House of Laymen, of the Standing Committee of the Diocesan Conference, and of many special committees in connection with the same. His; attachment to his own little parish church was touchingly evinced by his mindfulness while travelling abroad, when, he gathered a handful of cypress cones from the cemetery of St. Callixtus, and having brought them home, raised treesfrom them for the adornment of Betteshanger Churchyard. Again, he provided for Eochester Cathedral a handsomely embroidered pall, rich with heraldic blazonry, as a memorial to his wife's brother, the late Dean Lane. His singleheartedness was not the least of the many charms of hisattractive character. And if it is permissible to allude tomatters so intimate, the respect and affection with which,, while not by any means lax in household discipline, he washeld by his dependents, the genial hospitality he dispensed to his guests, and, in fine, the air of peace and contentmentwhich pervaded his home, were at once an education and a privilege which none who experienced it are likely toforget. A God-fearing English gentleman, sincere in all his ways,. Lord Northbourne was a devoted husband and father, a good, master, and a kind and courteous friend. And so, havingserved the Lord and his fellow men in his generation, hefell on sleep in his 76th year. Pour days later his body,.. attended by a numerous gathering of mourners, was laid to rest in Betteshanger Churchyard. . A. V. 160 OBITUARY. THOMAS SHIPDEM PBAMPTON, B.C.L., P.S.A. To the younger generation of Kentish archaeologists the Eev. T. S. Frampton was but little known. Always of a modest and retiring disposition, delicate health and the increasing infirmities of age had caused him latterly to retire from active participation in the affairs of our Society. But for many years—I believe he was a member for upwards of sixty years, and a councillor for at least thirty—he took a leading part in all our proceedings, and in his own subject, which was Church history, and particularly the ecclesiastical history of the diocese of Canterbury, his knowledge was profound. To those who had the privilege' of his friendship, or even acquaintance, his invariable geniality and readiness to impart to others the stores of learning he had himself accumulated by much patient research will be always a pleasant memory. Thomas Shipdem Prampton was born at Hythe in 1842, and was the second son of John Nelson Prampton of that town. When somewhat past the usual age for matriculation at a University he became a member of Queen's College in Oxford, graduating in 1868. In the following year he was ordained to the curacy of Eastchurch, and in 1875 he became Curate of St. Mary Platt near Wrotham, where practically he had sole charge of the parish, as the Vicar was an invalid. It was during his residence at Platt that Prampton published his "Glance at the Hundred of "Wrotham," a modest title for a sound piece of work based upon original research amongst the • Plea Eolls of the Hundred. Already, however, he had begun a work of much greater importance. His aim was to compile a complete conspectus of the beneficed clergy of the diocese of Canterbury, from the earliest recorded institution down to the -present century. • He took for his model Newcourt's "Eepertorium," and later-Mr. Hennessey's edition of the same work, and spent all his leisure time in visiting the various depositories where records relating to his subject were to be found. • > Por many years he was a familiar figure in the Library end Thomas Shipdem Frampton. OBITUARY. 161 of Lambeth Palace, where he explored the Eegisters of the See from end to end. Similar researches were undertaken at Canterbury amongst the Sede Vacante Eegisters in the Chapter Library; at the District Probate Office and that of the Deputy Eegistrar; in the Library of the British Museum; at the Public Eecord Ofiice, and at Somerset House. His transcripts were made with scrupulous care in' his own beautifully clear handwriting, and every notebook was indexed in the most methodical manner. Mr. Prampton remained at Platt for twenty years. In 1895 the Vicar of the parish died, and Prampton, who had worked with much self-devotion in that widely scattered parish, was at length offered preferment. But the offer came too late. His health, never very robust, had given signs of further weakness, so'declining to accept a benefice he retired from active ministerial work, taking up his residence first at Hythe and then at Dover, where he had inherited from his uncle, the late John Shipdem, sometime solicitor to the Cinque Ports, the quaint house in Townwall Street known as the " Eound House." There he spent the last twenty years of his life, ever adding to his collections, but never quite seeing his way to publish the result of his labours. His friends urged him to publish, and suggested ways and means, but it was no use. Prom innate modesty, or over-fastidiousness concerning his work, the question of publication was always gently put aside. Specimens of his work indeed appeared from time to time in the pages of Archceologia Cantiana, to which he contributed admirable lists of the incumbents of several parishes. But for the most part he was content to supply a manuscript list to any clergyman who might apply to him. Often the trouble involved was very considerable, for Prampton was seldom content until his list was enriched by ample biographical notes. Thus it was that these lists found their way to a number of remote country parishes, where they occupy an honoured place on the walls of the church or its vestry—not always, I fear, with due acknowledgment as' to their provenance. von. XXXVI, M 162 OBITUARY. Mr. Prampton left no instructions in his will as to the disposal of his MS. collections. Fortunately his widow was fully aware of their importance, and, being anxious that they should be deposited in some place where they might be preserved with care, and consulted readily, she decided to offer them to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury. The offer was gratefully accepted, and the Frampton collections have been placed in the Cathedral Library. In addition to his MS. collection Mr. Frampton possessed a well-chosen library of Antiquarian books, and with rare generosity Mrs. Frampton has presented a selection from these books to the Library of our Society at Maidstone, together with four boxes containing a number of ancient deeds and charters. Of the latter a calendar has been made, and will be printed in a subsequent volume of Archceologia Cantiana. To the Library of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Mrs. Frampton made also a gift of books, including a long series of the publications of the Society of Antiquaries of London, of which Society Mr. Frampton had been a Fellow for upwards of thirty years. C. E. "W. JOHN CHURCHILL. The death of Mr. John Churchill, of Shortlands, on 22 December 1922 has made many forms of scholarly and practical activity in Kent the poorer. The great-grandson of Henry Taylor of North Shields, of some fame in connection with the placing of lighthouses in the early nineteenth century, Mr. Churchill was born in London in January 1852, and educated at Boulogne, at Frankfort under August Mommsen, and at King's College School. He became in 1883 a member of Lloyd's, with which he retained his connection till the day of his death. The memory and insight which made him a chess-player of sufficient distinction to be •a representative of the county, displayed themselves in a remarkable degree in the literary and artistic interests to OBITUARY. 163 which his leisure was devoted. By family tradition a bibliophile, who cared very much for the contents of books as well as for beauty of typography and illustration, he added with close discrimination to the library which he had inherited; while at the same time developing specially certain sections of it in which he was far more expert than his modesty would ever allow. The combination in their possessor of the interest and enthusiasm of a student of wide historical reading with artistic perceptions of a very high order, made his collection of books and engravings a source of continual pleasure both to himself and to the friends with whom he shared them. At the same time no one was further from being a bookworm or a recluse. Mr. Churchill was a man who gave himself without stint to anything to which he set his hand, and his interests included everything in which appreciation for Kent could find expression or opportunity for useful service. When the Eecords Branch of the Kent Archaeological Society was formed in 1913, his considerable practical ability contributed not a little to its development; he undertook the office of Treasurer, and grudged no pains which could make it worthy of the parent Society, upon the Council of which he served from 1917. At the time of his illness he had just completed, with characteristic method and precision, the elaborate Index to the recently-published Vol. VII. of Kent Eecords, which adds greatly to its value and usefulness, and was devoting much time and energy to the preliminary organisation of the Survey of Kent Place-names (in accordance with the scheme inaugurated by Professor Mawer of the University of Liverpool), which he had been instrumental in bringing to the notice of the Council. Nor did these exhaust the extra-business activities of a very busy man, whose energy tried to the utmost the capacity of a somewhat frail physique, for he managed to give constant thought and care to the interests both of the Phillips Memorial Hospital at Bromley, of which he had been Chairman for nearly twenty years, and of the parish of St. Mary's, Shortlands, to which he belonged. Of bis private generosity it seems out of place to speak: it was as natural to him as M 2 164 OBITUARY. the combination of courtesy, modesty and humour, which; made him one of the most delightful of friends. A devoted husband and father, he was the centre of a singularly happy and beautiful family life, and the deepest sympathy isextended to Mrs. and Miss Churchill, who shared to the full in all his many interests. CLAUDE JENKINS. "WALTER CHARLES STTJNT. I t is fitting that an obituary notice of our late Auditor should appear in this place, for, though Mr. Stunt would never have claimed for himself any profundity of antiquarian knowledge, his acquaintance with local antiquities was considerable, and his services were always at the disposal of the Society. This appeared in a notable degree at the Faversham meeting of 1872, which owed a very large part of its success to Mr. Stunt's active co-operation. Born at Sevington (though in fact a son of the owner of the Grange, Gillingham) in 1841, and educated at Marlborough, he early took up farming, and in the sixties commenced with a farm of his own at Brogdale in Ospringe, continuing to reside in that parish till his death on 12 Jan. 1922. In 1877 he acquired a larger residential property at Lorenden (sometime known as Cades) in the same parish, and having married an Ospringe lady, a daughter of Mr. Abbott of the Parsonage there, dispensed that quiet hospitality which was so attractive to his numerous friends. The ambit of his charities was not merely parochial. There was probably no church work in the county to which he did not give large and generous contributions, often, it is true, carefully concealed, for he had no desire for notoriety. Always a strong supporter of the Kent Archseological Society, he served as Auditor from 1915 till his death. We may indeed feel grateful that he was spared to assist us to .such a ripe old age. E. G.