On the south wall of the chancel of All Saints’, South Lynn is two identical white marble mural monuments, both by T Marsh of New Road, London. That to the east reads:

SACRED

TO THE MEMORY OF

MARY SUSANNA,

THE BELOVED CHILD OF

BOYS ROBERT AND MARY ALDHAM,

WHO DIED 1^st DECEMBER, 1829

AGED 5 YEARS.

I SHALL GO TO HER, BUT SHE SHALL NOT

RETURN TO ME.

                                                    2^nd Samuel, XII Chapter, 23^rd Verse.

and that to the west:

SACRED

TO THE MEMORY OF

ELLEN,

SECOND, AND ONLY REMAINING, BELOVED DAUGHTER OF

BOYS ROBERT AND MARY ALDHAM.

SHE DIED MAY 14^th 1836,

AGED 5 YEARS.

DEAD, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN.

The sculptor, T Marsh of London (fl.1820?-c.1854) had his premises at 20 New Road, where he produced a large number of monumental tablets. His monuments, though pleasant, are not very distinguished, the best being that to Barbara Murphy (d.18220 at St Mary, Paddington, London which takes the form of an amphora set in a niche.

The Aldhams were prosperous King’s Lynn solicitors who practiced in Norfolk Street but subsequently lived in King’s Staithe Square. The scion of the family was Boys Aldham (b.1773; d.1861) who lived above the law firm in Norfolk Street though worshipped at All Saints’, South Lynn. He died in February 1861, some four years after the churchyard at All Saints’ had been closed to further burials, and so was interred in Section A (plot 0385) on 16^th February 1861, the section originally established as part of the All Saints’ Cemetery.

Boys Aldham’s eldest son, Boys Robert Aldham (b.1802; d.1866), the father of the two little girls buried in the churchyard[1] at All Saints’ and commemorated on the chancel south wall, lived in Paradise Lane. His occupation is not recorded on the monuments in All Saints’ nor in the Hardwick Road Cemetery burial register, but it is assumed that he, too, was a solicitor. He died in December 1866 and was buried on the 19^th of that month in his father’s grave at Hardwick Road Cemetery.

Precisely where the Aldhams came from is not recorded on the monuments. That only Boys Aldham (b.1773; d.1861) is buried at Hardwick Road Cemetery and not his wife assumes that he moved to King’s Lynn following the death of his wife. Alternatively, it could be that his wife was buried in the churchyard at All Saints’; the burial registers there have still to be searched for this information.

In May 1870 Boys Richard Aldham’s widow, Mary (d.1800; d.1870), died at the family home in Paradise Lane and was buried at Hardwick Road Cemetery on 14^th May, this time in Section H (plot 0243A), close to the Anglican Chapel.

Reading the inscriptions on the two monuments in All Saints’ it becomes clear that Boys Richard and Mary Aldham had two girls, but they also had a son, Robert Huxley Aldham (b.1830; d.1901), who was four year’s old when his eldest sister, Mary Susannah (b.1824; d.1829), died and six year’s old when his youngest and only surviving sibling, Ellen (b.1831; d.1836), died.

Robert Huxley Aldham also practices as a solicitor, presumably in association with his father and his eldest brother, Boys Robert Aldham, though at the time of his death in 1901 he was living in King’s Staithe Square, presumably having inherited the legal practice from his late father and brother. Towards the end of February 1898 his wife, Frances Anne Aldham (b.1827; d.1898), died at King’s Staithe Square and was buried at Hardwick Road Cemetery on 5^th March in Section H, plot 0243B, the same plot in which Robert Huxley Aldham was also buried on 20^th February 1901.

Robert Huxley and Frances Anne Aldham had a daughter, Mary Frances, who died an infant aged seven months in April 1861 and was buried at Hardwick Road Cemetery on 4^th May in Section H, plot 0244, the adjacent plot subsequently being purchased in 1898 for the interment of her mother and father.

In 1902 the new choir stalls in St Margaret’s, King’s Lynn were installed by the Rev’d R C S and Mrs Sweeting in memory of Robert Huxley and Frances Anne Aldham.

The Hardwick Road Cemetery registers also records the burial of an Arthur George Aldham (b.1872; d.1889), blacksmith of Railway Road, King’s Lynn, who drowned aged seventeen in King’s Lynn Docks and was buried in Section U (plot 0457) on 19^th October 1889. It seems doubtful that he was related to the solicitor Aldhams.

Julian Litten

26 December 2011