In mid-March this year, the Works Department received a report that one of our memorials had ‘fallen’ from the wall but sustained no breakage (Image 1). I had heard stories of memorials spontaneously throwing themselves from walls and have spent time earlier this year instructing students from the University of Chester in the process of listing our memorials, stressing that they should be considered as objects as they can move around. When we got this report, therefore, I was excited! Our Conservator was not.
The memorial was created in the eighteenth century for a Sarah Jarvis who had died at the age of thirty-seven. It is situated on the west wall of the South Transept, set back slightly from the South Transept door. A beautiful marble item, it consists of a central white marble tablet with an inscription that reads ‘Near the Foot of this marble lyes interrd, in Hopes of a Joyfull Resurection, the Body of SARAH Relict of SAMUEL JARVIS Esq. who departed this life July the 17th 1748. Aged thirty seven.’ This central panel is surrounded by more marble ledges, the side panels of which are black marble with decorative features fixed on top. The crown of the memorial is the achievement at the top which displays the crest of the family. In the bottom right-hand corner is the signature of the maker of the memorial: Daniel Sephton (1714-59), who had been based in Manchester.1 The signature makes the memorial one of the very few pre-1770 memorials in our buildings with an explicit maker.
We don’t know much about Sarah Jarvis other than in relation to her husband. Sarah Jarvis nee. Marsh was born in 1711 and married Samuel on 18 November 1742 (just over six years before she died) at All Saints Church, Runcorn, eighteen miles from Chester.2 Samuel Jarvis was a silk weaver who became sheriff of Chester in 1724 before being made mayor in 1742.3 Silk had been woven in Cheshire since the early seventeenth century, meaning that Samuel was likely part of a relatively wealthy family, evidenced additionally by his paying for a memorial for his wife Sarah at the Cathedral.
Back to the conservation work affecting the memorial to Sarah. After an initial assessment by our Works Team, the main factor leading to the detachment of the text tablet was identified as the complete failure of the iron pins that had been keeping the very heavy marble in place (Image 2). A high moisture content in the sandstone had corroded away the pins and previous repairs had employed plaster and mortar which both wasn’t strong enough to hold the tablet (did we mention that marble is heavy!) and/or failed as salt drew out of the stone on account of the moisture. What is more, the bottom marble ledge - bearing much of the memorial above it - had pushed itself away from the wall when its larger iron pins had again failed. This combination meant that not only was the central text tablet likely to fall out, but the entire item was at risk of failing.
Our Conservation Operative, Will, got straight to work by propping the memorial to keep the decorative parts (mainly the achievement mentioned above) intact while work was carried out (Image 3). He removed the reams of mortar and delaminated stone that remained from where the tablet had been, and generally tidied up the ‘behind the scenes’ ready to receive new fixings and mortar. He reset the bottom ledge using new stainless-steel fixings in the old holes to replace the rusted iron ones, repeating this process with the side pieces, and finally with the central tablet. The marble was then repointed in using hot lime mortar, a standard mortar for use on our historic buildings.
Et voila! The memorial is back in one piece again (Image 4). It is unlikely that most visitors will notice that much has changed about this memorial, but if you compare the before and after of the side profile shown below you can see how much it has been pulled back to the stone, ensuring its stability for a long time to come.
Definitions
Memorial - ‘Memorials are usually tablets with an inscription in some sort of frame, and can be described in the manner of a piece of furniture or architecture by being broken-up into the parts around the tablet.’[4] In the case of the memorial of Sarah Jarvis, the coming together of the different elements of the item erected in memoriam of her (the marble tablet, supporting pieces around it, and achievement at the top) is what we mean by memorial.
Achievement – In heraldry, the display of a full shield showing the familial ancestry of an individual or individuals.
References
[1] G. W. O. Addleshaw, 'Architects, Sculptors, Designers and Craftsmen 1700-1970 Whose Work Is to Be Seen in Chester Cathedral', Architectural History, 14 (1971), 75.
[2] Cheshire Bishops Transcripts, 1598-1900 accessed via FamilyTree
[3] https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/ches/vol5/pt2/pp305-321
[4] Patricia Dirsztay, Church Furnishings: A NADFAS Guide (Routledge & Kegan Paul: London and Henley), 1978, 75.
Emily Lanigan-Palotai
Collections & Marketing Engagement Officer
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