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Richard Furness of Eyam (1791-1857)

"On August 2nd, 1791, Samuel and Margaret Furness rejoiced at the gift of a son... Taught by his mother, the future poet could read with ease at the age of four... Upon leaving school, Richard was employed as book-keeper for weaving factories in Eyam, but soon relinquished the position in favour of apprenticeship to a Chesterfield currier. During the War with Napoleon I he became friendly with captive French officers who taught him their language."

[Prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars were garrisoned at Chesterfield - q.v Christopher Henry La Poype, "a ffrench prisoner of War", buried at Chesterfield, on 3rd June 1805, and James Leon, son of M^sr Leon, "ffrench p-o-w: wife an Egyptian" buried on 7th March, 1806.]

"After many adventures, Richard returned to his native village and there launched into business as a currier. Had he shown as much interest in pelts as he did in poetry he would have undoubtedly prospered... At the annual Wakes he had fallen in love with Frances Ibbotson, of Hathersage. This young lady welcomed the ardent overtures of the poet, but her father - a shrewd and prosperous farmer - regarded the courtship with blunt disfavour."

Along the western path into the churchyard, to the north of the church, there is an old lime tree. Richard and Frances are remembered on a large cube-shaped gravestone, surmounted by an urn, to the west of the tree; Richard buried by his own request 'neath those tall trees' (at Eyam)...

One face of his memorial records that Richard Furness was born at Eyam August 2nd 1791, died at Dore December 13th 1857. There follows ten lines of his poetry, and the statement that the monument was erected originally by Richard to the memory of his wife, but was elevated and enclosed by numerous attached friends after his death, in order that they might record their high opinion of the genius of the poet.

Another face is inscribed with six more lines of poetry and the statement that Frances, the wife of Richard Furness, died August 12th 1844, aged 52. It also preserves the memory of three of their children, Elizabeth, Margaret and Anna, who died in childhood.

Richard's Biography, 'The Poetical Works of the late Richard Furness, by G Calvert Holland MD, 1858 includes the following poem 'To Anna in Heaven, from her father', written to Anna's memory,

'To Anna in Heaven, from her father'

Death came upon thee in the storm: that hour
when thunder's quiver loosed its fiery hail;
Dread elemental scourge! resistless power,
That struck the corn fields over hill and vale:

Midst such ruin vast
We stood aghast,

While thou didst plume thy cherub-wings of fire,
And though the tempest raged in all its might,
Up didst thou soar, nor could the tempest dire
Stay for a moment thy celestial flight.

Ah, little did I think, departed shade!
That I should ever write thine elegy:
As little weened!, that these tears unstaid,
Should fall and blot this manuscript for thee.

But thou art gone,
(God's will be done)

To quaff the cup of bliss without allay:
For many a mingled draught was thine from birth,
Full many a tear has diminished thy languid eye;
Thy days of grief exceed those of mirth.

Dear Anna! Still thy favourite roses bloom,
So often watered by thy careful hand;
Sweet emblem of thyself! to fade - their tomb,
Like thine, shall be their native "father-land".

The lime trees guard
In Eyam church-yard.

Thy mortal part, and there in sorrow deep
They brothers, sisters, did thy loss bemoan:
They wept, and still thy woe-worn mother weeps;
Nor is thy father's harder heart a stone.

Ah! no - be an availing grief suppressed;
Our eye is on thee, on thy joy and light:
Our loss is thy blessed gain, for thou art blessed:
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Beneath the tree
There now lie three.

Once lovely little sisters, side by side:
Spring, hang thy dewy rosaries on their sod:
heaven gone, and took away, that human pride
Might bow, For ever blessed be the name of God.

According to his editor's footnote, "She died on the evening of the 5th of July, in the year 1843, during a tremendous thunderstorm, accompanied by terrible flashes of lightning, mingled with ice and large hailstones, which seriously damaged the windows facing south, and cut the ears from the wheat crops in the fields to the west of Sheffield."

I would like to thank Christopher Byrom for kindly supplying me with these details from his own copy of this book, which probably belonged to Adam Holmes, Richard's brother in law. Adam Holmes was Christopher's gt*3 grandfather.

For further details see G Calvert Holland's biographical introduction to The Poetical Works of Richard Furness, contributed by Paul Bradford.

[Information prepared by Rosemary Lockie in March 2001]

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