While reading Tony Hadland’s article,
‘Catholic recusancy in Berkshire’, in
the last issue of Berkshire Family Historian, two
words, Buckland and Woolhampton, leapt from the
page. Was this the clue I have been looking for?
For two years I have been recording monumental
inscriptions in East Ilsley, and also writing
short biographies of former characters, one of
whom was Frogley Cox (1755-1826), whose story
contains several unknowns. His carved headstone
and footstone stand in isolation on the west side
of the churchyard near the supposed place of
earlier plague burials. However, he was obviously
well regarded, as his epitaph records:
‘He was a truly honest Man
and
for nearly thirty years
a faithful Servant
of
the person who has placed this stone
as a
Memorial of his worth’
Yet, despite this, it is not known who placed
the stone and employed Frogley, nor is the nature
of that employment known. Furthermore, his burial
is not recorded in the East Ilsley registers.
Frogley Cox was born and baptised at Buckland on
August 24 1755, and later married at Woolhampton
on September 27 1777. Both ceremonies were
recorded in the Anglican registers. Is it too
much of a coincidence that he moved from Buckland
to Woolhampton to East Ilsley? Could he have been
one of those servants or estate workers mentioned
in the last paragraph of Tony Hadland’s
article?
with any queries
