Halstead Memorials

In Halstead church is an inscription engraved on copper and gilt, to the memory of Samuel Fiske. It was formerly fixed on the South wall of the chancel, now on the wall of the North aisle.

JOHN MORLEY*
to the memory of his
Good Friend and Neighbour
Dedicated this Plate.

Obijt 21 - Ætatis
[Fiske crest]
Ap. 1718 - Suæ 62

Samuel Fiske
By Descent a Gentleman
By Profession an Apothecary
In His Practice
Honest, Knowing, Successful,
In His Life
Just, Pious, Charitable
The Riches he acquired he used
As the means of doing Good,
A Friend to the Public, a father to the Poor
A great Benefactor to the Town of Halstead
More particularly
The Spire of the Church burnt down by lightning
He Rebuilt at his own Expense
Anno 1717.

View not this Spire by measure giv'n
To Buildings rais'd by common hands.
That Fabric rises high as Heaven,
Whose Basis on Devotion stands.

While yet we draw this vital Breath,
We can our Faith and Hope declare.
But Charity beyond our Death
Will ever in our Works appear.

Best be He call'd among good Men,
Who to His God This Column rais'd.
Tho' Lightning strike the Dome again,
The Man who Built it shall be prais'd.

Yet Spires and Towers in Dust shall be,
The weak effects of Human pains,
And Faith and Hope themselves shall Dye,
While Deathless Charity remains.
* John Morley was 'England's most remarkable butcher' according to the Shell Guide to England, known as 'merchant Morley', born in 1655 and buried in the churchyard in 1732. He was the friend of lords, poets and men of letters, and a man of some standing. He resided at Blue Bridge House which still stands in the town.
From Holman's Halstead published by W.H. Root in Halstead in 1902:

"In the belfry were formerly five bells, to which a sixth, being the least, was added by the gift of Mr. Samuel Fiske, in remembrance of which, and the burning of the steeple, a plate of brass is affixed to a beam of the gallery opposite to the belfry door, with this inscription:-

1701
Vicesimo quinto Aprilis
Campano prima donata
Samuele Fiske generoso
de Norton Suffolciae
nato nunc Halstediae
pharmacopoeo quo
die tunis fastigiata
fulgure conflagrata"