A report in the Peterborough
Advertiser "The
Stamford Mercury recalls an interesting circumstance
in
which
William
Hopkinson (1784-1865) a solicitor in Stamford,
became Lord of the Manor of Little Gidding. One
night in 1848 he was detained at his London hotel,
Gray's Inn Coffee House, through missing the
York Mail, and in reading the newspaper noticed
an advertisement of the sale of the Little Gidding
estate.
Early in his life, he had read
Peckard's Life of Nicholas Ferrar, and had been
fascinated
with
its story. The next morning he went to the address
given for the sale of the estate, and when he
returned to Stamford, it was in the character
of the Lord of the Manor of Little Gidding. He
had purchased 700 acres that composed the estate
together with the buildings upon it.
He set to
work to improve the estate and concerning the
church, he wrote to a friend: 'As to the
dear little church, I am resolved, through the
divine grace and help, to do my utmost. The possession
of this spot was through an extraordinary impulse
and I feel a solemn duty is to be performed towards
it.'
Mr Hopkinson was buried at Little
Gidding." ('I
wish to be as near to the remains of that holy
man [Nicholas Ferrar] as possible') The Peterborough Advertiser, 18th August 1914
The chandelier
William Hopkinson
hung the chandelier in the nave of Little Gidding
church, and dedicated
it to the memory of his father, having engraved
upon the body an inscription in Latin which
translated reads: 'In recognition of his
debt to his most excellent father Samuel Edmund
Hopkinson STB sometime Fellow of Clare Hall,
Vicar of Morton cum Hacconby in the County
of Northamptonshire, who died on the 17th
of
July 1841 this candelabrum was dedicated
by the wish of William Hopkinson Lord of the
Manor
of Little Gidding on the Feast of St John
the Divine in the year 1853.'
It has been suggested that William Hopkinson
bought the chandelier from Uppingham Parish
Church at the time of its renovation in early
1850s.
The description matches, and William Hopkinson
lived nearby in Wansford, his nephew was at
Uppingham School, but no records have been
found to confirm
the transaction.
