The tale of a brooch

THE LINK BETWEEN a vandalised grave in the churchyard at Bourne and an item of antique jewellery recently purchased in Australia has revealed a poignant family story from almost two centuries ago.

The tale began when the elaborate sarcophagus memorial was badly damaged in an attack by vandals who broke it open and smashed the inscribed panels, leaving pieces of stone scattered on the ground in the shadow of the Abbey Church. The tombstone had been erected in the early 19th century to the memory of John Osborn, a local ironmonger, who passed away on 4th July 1810, aged 51, and two others are buried with him, Catherine, his wife, who died on 25th October 1830, aged 70, and their son Pretious Osborn who died on 9th August 1822, aged 28, their names being recorded on the side panels of the memorial.

This happened in 2007 and on Saturday 26th May I described the incident in my weekly diary on the Bourne web site suggesting that unless descendants of those buried below could be found and were willing to pay for repairs, then the memorial was likely to remain broken. But earlier this month, the item evoked a response from Cairns, a city in the far north of Queensland, Australia, from a lady who wanted to know if it had been restored.

Mrs Jan Lloyds had been surfing the Internet when she found my diary entry. “I read about vandals damaging the tomb with interest and horror”, she wrote, “ because this is the exact family I am interested in and wondered if you could tell me if the grave was ever repaired. I feel I need to know. I do hope it was.”

But Jan’s interest was not filial as might be supposed, researching for ancestors to help compile her family tree, but academic because her inquiries began in an attempt to establish the provenance of a gold mourning brooch which she had recently purchased over the Internet from an antique dealer in England with the names of John and Catherine Osborn and their son Pretious engraved on the back. It is quite small, no more than one inch across, but the wording also includes the dates of their deaths and inside is a small lock of plaited hair, almost certainly belonging to Catherine, as was the fashion of the time.

“When I saw the inscriptions, my interest was aroused and I just had to discover something about the people who had been remembered by the brooch”, she explained. “This is a matter of pure curiosity to touch the past and some of the people who lived in those days. This is a piece of jewellery not only beautiful in its own right but extra special because it was made in memory of someone’s life. I did some quick research and found those named in the parish burial registers and then checked the Bourne web site where I discovered the diary entry relating to the damaged grave.”

I have been able to assist Jan in her quest for more information. John Osborn was well known in Bourne as an ironmonger at that time and my records indicate that he had been running his business since at least 1798, perhaps even earlier. His shop premises were situated at the corner of South Street and West Street, later to be taken over by his son, Charles Osborn, and by 1850 the owners were listed as Osborn and Manby, reverting to Henry Osborn in 1856. By 1872, Thomas Wethers was the owner followed by Francis Clark (1892) and Johnson Brothers (1905) who were succeeded by the present owners, Harrison and Dunn, in 1945.

The shop must also have been a prosperous undertaking because not everyone could afford a tombstone in 1810 and this was a particularly elaborate and expensive one in a much sought after location on the east side of the churchyard. But the question remains as to who had the mourning brooch made, remembering as it does all three members of the family. This type of jewellery was extremely fashionable in the 19th century when mourning was observed through grieving and the wearing of specially made brooches, rings or necklaces, clothes and accessories such as black armbands and hatbands, became a fashionable form of public witness popularised further by Queen Victoria following the death of her beloved Albert, the Prince Consort, in 1861.

Brooches were particularly favoured, simple designs and usually made with gold and precious stones and often, as in this case, with a compartment to contain a lock of hair from the departed. It must have been a close member of the family who chose this one, perhaps another son or daughter, as a memento to remind them of the family they had lost and would never see again. There is no hallmark and it does not carry the name of the maker but this would most probably have been made locally around 1830, perhaps by one of the jewellers and silversmiths working in Bourne at that time, William Sharpe in South Street or Thomas Wilson in North Street. Whatever the explanation, the brooch is important for its social history and it also has some monetary value because this type of jewellery is eagerly sought by collectors.

Incidentally, the damaged tombstone has indeed been repaired. The church is insured for such eventualities and stonemasons have made a good job of restoring the sarcophagus although the telltale marks of desecration remain. The ancient leaded side lights in the south porch which were smashed at the same time, punctured with a stick or pole which smashed the glass and left the metal a twisted mass, have also been replaced.

The mentality of those responsible for such wanton damage is hard to fathom because senseless acts such as this cause untold distress to others and in the absence of identification, their punishment can only be remorse.

Osborn is one of almost 400 local names currently being researched by the Family History section on the Bourne web site by people from around the world, particularly the former colonies such as Australia and New Zealand, Canada and the United States, where many emigrated during the 19th century seeking a new life and their descendants are now anxious to establish family links with the old country and Bourne in particular. Each must have an equally interesting story to tell.