| The Sun that light unto three churches gave Is set; this Field is buried in a grave. This Sun shall rise, this Field renew his flowers, This sweetness breathe for ages, not for hours. |
He was successively Bishop of Llandaff, St. Davids, and Hereford.
The following rather singular epitaph, with a play upon the name, occurs in the chancel of Checkley Church, Staffordshire:—
To the Memory of the Reverend James Whitehall, Rector of this place twenty and five years, who departed this life the second daie of March, 1644.
| White was his name, and whiter than this stone. In hope of joyfole resurrection Here lies that orthodox, that grave divine, In wisdom trve, vertve did soe clearly shine; One that could live and die as he hath done Suffer’d not death but a translation. Bvt ovt of charitie I’ll speake no more, Lest his friends pine with sighs, with teares the poor. |
From Hornsea Church we have the epitaph of Will Day, gentleman; he lived thirty-four years, died May 22nd, 1616:—
| If that man’s life be likened to a day, One here interr’d in youth did lose a day, By death, and yet no loss to him at all, For he a threefold day gain’d by his fall; One day of rest is bliss celestial. Two days on earth by gifts terrestryall— Three pounds at Christmas, three at Easter Day, Given to the poure until the world’s last day, This was no cause to heaven; but, consequent, Who thither will, must tread the steps he went. For why? Faith, Hope, and Christian Charity, Perfect the house framed for eternity. |
On the east wall of the chancel of Kettlethorpe Church, co. Lincoln, is a tablet to the memory of “Johannes Becke, quondam Rector istius ecclesiæ,” who died 1597, with the following lines in old English characters:—
| I am a Becke, or river as you know, And wat’rd here ye church, ye schole, ye pore, While God did make my springes here for to flow: But now my fountain stopt, it runs no more; From Church and schole mi life ys now bereft, But no ye pore four poundes I yearly left. |
We may add that the stream of his charity still flows, and is yearly distributed amongst the poor of Kettlethorpe.