At the east end of the High Street, Portsmouth, and nearly opposite the house before which the Duke of Buckingham was stabbed by Felton, in 1628, stands the Unitarian Chapel. John Pounds habitually worshipped here on a Sunday evening, and the place where he used to sit, in front of one of the side galleries, just to the right of the minister, is still pointed out. He lies buried in the graveyard, on the left-hand side of the chapel, near the end of the little foot-path which leads round the building to the vestries. Shortly after his death a tablet was placed in the chapel, beneath the gallery, to his memory. Although his grave was dug as near as possible to that part of the chapel wall opposite where he used to sit, yet this tablet was, apparently without any reason, put some distance away from the spot. In shape and material it is of the usual orthodox style—a square slab of white marble, edged with black, and inscribed on it are the words:—
Erected by friends
as a memorial of their esteem
and respect for
John Pounds,
who, while earning his livelihood
by mending shoes, gratuitously
educated, and in part clothed and fed,
some hundreds of poor children.
He died suddenly
on the 1st of January, 1839,
aged 72 years.
Thou shalt be blessed: for they
cannot recompense thee.
Not long after this tablet was placed in position the idea was mooted that a monument should be erected over his grave. The Rev. Henry Hawkes, the minister who then had charge of the place, at once took the matter up, and subscriptions came in so well that the monument was more than paid for. The surplus money was wisely laid out in the purchase of a Memorial Library, which still occupies one of the ante-rooms of the chapel. The monument erected over the grave is of a suitable description, plain but substantial, and is in form a square and somewhat tapering block of stone about four feet high. On the front is the following inscription:—
| Underneath this Monument rest the mortal remains of John Pounds, the Philanthropic Shoemaker of St. Mary’s Street, Portsmouth, who while working at his trade in a very small room, gratuitously instructed in a useful education and partly clothed and fed, some hundreds of girls and boys. He died suddenly, on New Year’s Day, MDCCCXXXIX, while in his active beneficence, aged LXXII years. |
| “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” “Verily I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, thou hast done it unto Me.” |
On the side facing the library door there are, in addition to the above, the ensuing sentences:—
This Monument
has been erected chiefly
by means of Penny Subscriptions,
not only from the Christian
Brotherhood
with whom John Pounds
habitually worshipped
in the adjoining Chapel,
but from persons of widely
different Religious opinions
throughout Great Britain
and from the most distant parts
of the World.
In connection with this memorial
has also been founded in like manner
within these precincts
a Library to his memory
designed to extend
to an indefinite futurity
the solid mental and moral usefulness
to which the philanthropic shoemaker
was so earnestly devoted
to the last day of his life.
Pray for the blessing of God to prosper it.
Large trees overshade the modest monument, and the spot is a quiet one, being as far as possible away from the street.[4]
On the gravestone of Richard Turner, Preston, a hawker of fish, the following inscription appears:
Beneath this stone are deposited the remains of Richard Turner, author of the word Teetotal, as applied to abstinence from all intoxicating liquors, who departed this life on the 27th day of October, 1846, aged 56 years.
In Mr. W. E. A. Axon’s able and entertaining volume, “Lancashire Gleanings” (pub. 1883), is an interesting chapter on the “Origin of the Word ‘Teetotal.’” In the same work we are told that Dr. Whitaker, the historian of Whalley, wrote the following epitaph on a model publican:—