[134f] The members of this committee are given as Rev. Jas. Fowler (Vicar), Joshua Towne (a well-known clock maker, whose clocks are still valued), Geo. Heald (gent), James Watson, William Maddison, Robert Boulton, John Spraggings, Francis Rockliffe, and Joshua Vickers (hatter).
[134g] In digging to lay the foundations of the building, a considerable number of ancient jars were exhumed, which passed subsequently into the possession of the Chaplain, the late Rev. E. M. Chapman, Rector of Low Toynton. After disappearing for some years, several of these were sold in 1905. They are supposed to be Cyprus ware. The present writer has three of them, others have been presented to different museums, &c.
[135] The only town constable at that time was a feeble old man (it was said) a former smuggler. He afterwards retired from this post, for which he was unfitted, and became host of the Lord Nelson Inn, close by the former scene of his duties. We may add that the sign of this inn, a good portrait of Nelson, was the work of the artist Northouse.
[140] £300 was borrowed Nov. 19th, 1901.
[142a] Robert Whelpton, the father of George, who was also a shoemaker, used to relate that he made shoes for Sir John Franklin, before he went out as Governor of Tasmania. Sir John, a native of Spilsby, was brother-in-law of Mr. Henry Selwood, who lived in the house on the west side of the Market Place, now occupied by Mr. R. W. Clitherow, which would be opposite Whelpton’s shop. Sir John was Governor of Tasmania 1836–1842.
[142b] William Thomas Whelpton took as a residence 69, Gloucester Crescent, Regent’s Park, London; and Henry Robert Whelpton resided in Upton Park, Slough.
[142c] While at Derby he revisited Horncastle, driving over in a hired carriage, with pair of horses, and it is said that a local wag, seeing his carriage in the Bull Hotel yard, wrote upon it with chalk:
“Who would have thought it,
That pills could have bought it?”
[143a] His wife’s maiden name was Barber. She was, by profession, a lady’s stay maker, and occupied a house standing on the site of the present Church National School.
[143b] The inscription on the houses states that they were erected by George Whelpton, of 1, Albeit Road, Regent’s Park, London, in 1861, in memory of his wife Elizabeth, who died Dec. 11, 1859.