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Monuments in South Molton Church

Devon Notes & Queries, vol. I, (January 1900 to January 1901), p. 131.

by

Helen Saunders

Prepared by Michael Steer

The Note records the sentimental inscription on a monument to the last of the Molford family line in South Molton. Christopher Tull has elsewhere noted that the Molford family built the present house of Garliford at nearby Bishop’s Nympton in the C17 and lived there until 1692 when the Molford heir died (as recorded on the tablet in SouthMolton Church). The extract, from a copy of a rare and much sought-after journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.

Note 96. MULFORD (par 86, p. 119). Monuments in South Molton Church. One over the chancel doorway is very handsome, and has a rather pathetic interest, being in memory of the last member of a family long associated with South Molton, whose residence was at Garliford in the adjoining parish of Bishopsnympton. Inscription, translated "Beneath repose the mortal remains of John Molford, gentleman, a youth of seventeen years of age, whose ashes by the most evident display of Divine love (for those whom the gods love die young) mingle with those of his Father, Grandfather, and Great Grandfather, too early having joined them, since by his death the only hope of the noble race of the Molfords perished. He died the 2ist of June in the year of the Christian Era, 1692." The British Museum has a quarto tract, entitled, "A Sermon preach'd at the Funeral of John Molford, Esq., of Nymet Episcopi, in the Diocese of Exeter, who dyed (aged 18 years) the 2i st day of June, through the sad occasion of a fall from a horse, and was buried at South Molton the 27 day of the same month. By Thomas Easton, A.M., Vicar of Nymet Episcopi." There is a large house in South Street, South Molton known as Mulford House, now, 3rd Oct., 1900, occupied by a medical man. It formerly belonged to the Rev. J. Bawden. The Bishop Nympton register can probably supply further information.             HELEN SAUNDERS.