Major Edward Francis Knottesford FORTESCUE [14684]

  General Notes:

Letter from Edward Francis K Fortescue to "My Dear L" - presumably his brother Laurence Fortescue, who was then living in Canada. It describes their father's last illnes and death.

20 S George's Square, N.W.
September 1, 1877
My dear L.,
On Saturday, August 4, at 11 a.m., I had some business with our dear father, and met him in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Mr Russell, who had been his man of business since the time he came of age, remarked how wonderfully well he was looking, and how completely he seemed to have recovered from his long and severe illness; indeed I thought as he came along the side of Lincoln's Inn, swinging his stick in his hand, and with his hat on the back of his head, that I had never seen him looking so young, or so well, yet, that very time, a fortnight after, he entered into his rest. After leaving me he went up to the Dominican Priory, at Haverstock Hill, it was their Fête Day, and they had a luncheon after service, at which he met several old friends. He afterwards paid several visits, and did not return home till late in the evening. He went out to Communion next morning; and took his usual place in the choir, and (as he was accustomed to do,) read the Epistle at the High Mass. After the Offertory, feeling ill, he got up quietly, bowing to the Altar, and went out of the Church; a curious farewell to the earthly worship he had always so loved. Next time he joined in the worship of God he was within the Veil, and understood, in its entirety the meaning of worship of Him Whom he had lived to honor.

The next day was the August Bank Holiday, and the Transfiguration. I had remained at home, and was doing little odds and ends of things for the children: at luncheon I received a Post Card from Mrs Fortescue, written that morning, saying, "Your father is very unwell, there is nothing to be alarmed about, come and see him as soon as you can."

I went over and found Mr May, who had attended my father with great care and skill during his long illness, and our own doctor, Mr Lawrence, in the house. They both assured me that there was no cause for alarm, although the day before, and that morning they had been uneasy about him, as he was suffering from a stoppage in the bowels which they had not yet overcome, but from which they anticipated no danger. I went upstairs and found our father in bed, he said he had been suffering a good deal of pain, and was evidently nervous about himself, as indeed he always was when ill, he spoke about his will, and said that we, meaning M and myself, his Executors, would find his "papers all straight now." I turned the conversation off, not thinking it good for him to talk in that sort of way, and said, "I don't think there is any reason to talk about that now, you are not nearly so ill as you were in the winter." He said, "Perhaps not, one never knows;" that was the only conversation I had with him about himself or his illness until the day before he died.
I saw him every day twice that week, except Wednesday, and that day once; at times he seemed in great pain, but he was generally able to talk, and liked to be talked to. I told him the news of the war, in which he was always intensely interested, and about the trial of the Detectives; both these topics seemed to amuse him, but he did not talk much himself.

On Sunday I remained with him nearly all day, and when I went home A¹. remembers my saying to her, Oh, he is all right now, but C². is the one to be anxious about. I saw him alone for the last time on Friday evening, the 17^th of August, I went there after a meeting of the Charity Organisation Committee, and found that Father Tondini, a Barnabite, the Founder of a Society lately formed among Roman Catholics, to pray for the restoration of visible unity among Christians, had been sitting with him for some time talking to him on the subject. My Father was most interested in all that Father Tondini had to say, and as the priest went away he said to him "the subject we have been talking about is the one I have had nearest and dearest to my heart, and for which I have prayed more than for anything else during the whole of my life." Strange indeed that the last conversation he had with any one on earth should have been on this subject³.

I went into him when Father Tondini left, and we talked a little about him. I asked my father if he, Father Tondini, really understood our position, (meaning those in the Church of England who longed for reunion.) He said, "It is wonderful to me how well he understands it, and he is able, as a foreigner, to take a line that no English Roman could do in the matter." I don't remember our talking about anything else, except his saying that he felt very weak; I kissed him when I went away and he said, "Thank you so very much for coming so often," those were the last words he ever said to me.

My wife then saw him for a few minutes and talked to him about our children, and about Father Tondini's Society, his mind was evidently very full of it, and she wished him good-bye for the last time, she was very much struck by the way in which he turned round and looked at her for a minute evidently as if he meant to say something but then did not. On the Sunday before, and on the morning of this very day, he had seen his sister Mrs S. and during the week he had constantly seen M.M. and G. As well as Father Dolan and two or three other friends.

On Saturday morning I again stayed at home and a little before twelve as I was making some toys for the children, I saw a boy with a telegram coming up to the house, and without the wildest idea of what it was to be I went to the door, took the telegram but did not open it for a few moments having something else in my hands. When I opened it I found it was from one of the servants at Holloway. "Come over at once, Master is gone." You may imagine what a shock it was. A⁴. had gone out with her Sister-in-Law who was staying with us. I rushed out of the house to get a cab, and found just outside Mr N. S. one of the clergy of our church, and an old acquaintance. I showed him the telegram and begged him to break it to A., which he did in a most kind and feeling way. When I reached Holloway, I went upstairs and found Mrs Fortescue, sitting in the morning-room by herself in a sort of dazed state, quite calm and not in the least realizing what had happened. She told me that about eleven, the doctor had seen him and gone out of the room for a minute or two. My father sat up in bed with her help, before lying down again he seemed to faint, she called in the doctor, who poured some brandy down his throat; while she was holding his hand she thought she felt a slight pressure, in a minute or two the doctor said, "it's too late it is all over." His soul had gone to God, and his end was peace. The one thing he had always feared, and had often talked about was a struggling and lingering death. I remember so well during his last illness his saying with tears in his eyes, "I wonder what the end will be like, I know it must be very painful, with such a strong constitution as mine the struggle must be very long, severe and painful. I dread that far more than death itself." God had heard his prayer, and had taken him to Himself without pain and without a struggle. What the actual cause of his death was we hardly know. In some form or other it was caused by great weakness and exhaustion brought on by the illness he was then suffering from acting on a constitution weakened by long previous confinement to bed. It does not seem to me to be useful or necessary to dwell on the immediate causes of his death.

I went into the room where he was lying on his bed his hands folded on his breast, he looked twenty years younger than when I had seen him yesterday with a half-smile on his face which went off in the course of the day.

I knew very well what he would wish to be done and as far as possible followed the course he himself had taken at my Grandfather's death. He was carried down into the Library, which was hung with black, and there he lay on one of the oak tables that had been made for the Library at Wilmcote, there he lay with candles burning and flowers round him, watched by his sons and daughters, wife and friends, until he was carried into the Church. M. and her husband, G. and his wife, and V. were constantly there during that week, and day and night people in the neighbourhood, members of the congregation, and others came to pay their last respects to him and to say a few prayers by his side. It is utterly impossible to describe how much feeling was shown not only by the clergy and those with whom he had been brought into personal contact, but also by many who had known him only by sight and name.

Mass were [sic] said in the church for him every day and some of us said the office for the dead in the house morning and evening. I firmly believe the respect that was shown to him and the way in which he was treated from the moment of his death till he was laid in the grave, was exactly in every particular what he himself would have wished to have been done, and what, had he given the most minute directions, he would have desired himself, and knowing so well as I did his feelings and wishes on this subject it is my earnest endeavour that such should be the case.

On Wednesday evening, at 8 o'clock, he was carried into the Church, the Choir came up through the garden to the house, and preceding the coffin to the Church, singing the cxxx Psalm. The Choir was hung with black, in the middle of which his Coffin was laid on a bier, covered with a beautiful violet pall, with the words round it, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours." Then solemn Vespers for the Dead was chanted, and there he lay all night long watched by G.A.M., and others who offered their services for this purpose, and among whom was a working man who had formerly been one of the Cathedral congregation at Perth, who, as he went away, said to G.A.M., "I should like to stay all night, but have to be at work at 5 o'clock to-morrow morning, he's in heaven to-night, Sir, I wish I had the same opportunity." Next morning the relations and friends who had been asked to the funeral met in the house or the Church, at 9 a.m. We all walked to the Church, the immediate relations had chairs placed for them in front of the Choir railing, the places behind being reserved for the other mourners. Matins for the Dead was then sung. Often as I have heard and said them I never before realized the wonderful beauty of the Psalms in this Office, so full of meaning, each finishing with the constantly recurring prayer, "Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him." Matins was followed by a beautifully and carefully sung High Mass, with its wonderful Gospel, or [sic] the raising of Lazarus, which was followed by the Absolution Service, concluding with these words, "Go forth in peace O Christian soul", a fitting dismissal from the earthly Church.

The coffin was of oak, with a large brass cross on the coped lid, with the inscription at the foot, and round the edge, in brass raised letters, the text "Magnificentiam gloriae sanctitatis tuae loquetur, et mirabilia tua narrabunt," the Latin version of "As for me I will be talking of Thy worship, Thy glory, Thy praise, and wondrous works." - Psalm lxiv. 5.

Two Anglican and two Roman Clergy were the pall bearers, both of the Anglican Members of the Society of which he was so long President, one of the Romans the founder of the Society of Prayer for a like object, and the other an old friend of Wilmcote days. At the end of the service in the Church the coffin, still covered with its violet pall, was placed in an open hearse which carried him, followed by the mourners, to the beautiful Roman Catholic S. Mary's Cemetery, at Kensal Green.

I should have had considerable difficulty as to the place where he would lie, had it not been for a conversation I had had with him during his former illness on that very subject in which he said that had things been different he would have been buried either at Perth, Wilmcote, or Cookhill, but as it was he thought Kensal Green would be the natural place. Strangely enough for him it was a thing he cared comparatively little about, which has often surprised me very much, as it did not seem to fit in with his mind on matters of this kind. The Deposition Service was said round the grave, which includes, as every one knows, the "Benedictus", and to me certainly a new and magnificent light was thrown on the Song of Zacharias, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for He hath visited and redeemed his servant." And there we left his body waiting for the resurrection of the Just.

I have here given the account of my dear Father's last illness and his loss from my own point of view, only, if I have mentioned myself too much, it is only because I have given a personal narrative, but I can only repeat what we must feel, our deep sense of gratitude to his widow for her unwearied care of him during his long and severe illnesses; nor have I told of her grief, as that seemed to me a subject too sacred to enter upon, and it is for this reason only I have not made her a more prominent figure in this account.

Yours affectionately,
E.F.K.F.

The following Paragraphs from various newspapers relating to our dear Father I have had reprinted, not because any of them are strictly accurate, but because as a tribute to his memory the accounts given seem to me to be worthy of preservation.

E.F.K.F.

20 S. George's Square, N.W.
September 1, 1877.

Footnotes
1. This must be Major Fortescue's wife Alicia (my note).
2. His little daughter who was seriously ill for two or three days. (author's note)
3. From its foundation, in 1857, till 1871 he was president of the Association for Promoting Unity of Christendom. (author's note)
4. Major Fortescue's wife Alicia.
This document has been transcribed from the pamphlet "In Memory of the Very Rev. Edward Bowles Knottesford Fortescue", which was privately printed in London, in 1877, by Edward Francis Knottesford Fortescue. A copy of the pamphlet is held by the British Library, under System Number 001273663 and Shelfmark 4903.b.64.(2.).
The transcription was made by Dr Stanley Lapidge.

A SINGULAR FUNERAL SERVICE
At the funeral of Major Knottesford Fortescue, which took place on Thursday, at Wilmcote Church, a few miles from Stratford-on-Avon, an extraordinary scene was witnessed. Although the service was supposed to be that of the Church of England, during its progress candles were burning round the corpse and incense was freely used. After the preliminary prayers Holy Communion was celebrated. Four clergymen were present, and among the chief mourners were Mr MacIrone, of the Admiralty, and Mr Fortescue, superintendent of the reading-room of the British Museum.
Extracted from the Tamworth Herald, 19^th June, 1886

In Memoriam - Major Fortescue
It was our intention last week to insert a brief memoir of Major Fortescue, who was taken to his rest on Whitsun Day, after a brief but painful illness; circumstances, however prevented our carrying out our design. But it is not too late, even now, to do such honour as we can to one of the most genuinely devout and earnest of English Church layman with whom it has been our privilege to be acquainted.
Edward Francis Knottesford Fortescue was born in 1840, his father being the Very Rev. E.B.K. Fortescue, so well known formerly as the Provost of St Ninian's Perth. Provost Fortescue was the head of the eldest, though untitled, branch of the family, to which position his eldest son, the subject of our memoir, succeeded upon his father's death. Lord Clermont is the head of the Irish portion of the family, and the present Earl Fortescue belongs to a junior branch. Major Fortescue was a nephew of Catherine Tate, the wife of the late Archbishop, and, if we mistake not, on many occasions influenced the Primate for good by the mere force of his manly earnestness, and intense religious convictions. Very early in life he entered the army, and served during the Indian Mutiny with the First Bengal Fusiliers, afterwards known as the 101st regiment. For his services at that time he received a medal with the Lucknow clasp. We well remember an account which he once gave us in a gossiping after-dinner chat of how, during that stirring time, he was awakened one night by a slight noise in his bedroom, and he saw a naked sepoy creeping on hands and knees up to his bed, with a knife between his teeth, and how he saved his own life, and probably the lives of others, by silently in the half darkness drawing the loaded revolver, which he always had at night under his pillow, and coolly shooting the rascal down. The wording of the above incident is our own, for Major Fortescue was the last man in the world to think that anything he did was worthy of commendation, for the two leading features in his character may be summed up as "principle and duty". At this time he was aide-de-camp to Lord Lawrence, then Governor-General of India. After serving with distinction in India he returned to England, and married Alice, daughter of the late Rev Tyrwhitt, and leaves four children, two girls and two boys, the elder boy being, of course, heir to the old family estate of Alveston Manor, close to Stratford-on-Avon. Everybody who has passed over the bridge there, after visiting the house and tomb of Shakespeare, must have noticed the charming old half timbered Elizabethan house standing at the end of a spacious lawn running down to the river, and on asking would have been told that the old Manor House belonged to the eldest branch of the Fortescue family.
Major Fortescue was all his life a very strong and consistent Conservative, and took an active part in politics in relation to Stratford-on-Avon. He was also a borough and a county magistrate in Warwickshire. The churches of Wilmcote and Aston Cantlow, in the neighbourhood of Stratford, were built and endowed by the Fortescue family, and it was at the former of these that the funeral took place.
The Major had been living at Brighton for several years, and it was there that his death occurred. His desire had always been that he should be buried in his father's old Parish, and near to the family place. The Rev. R.H. Crucefix, the vicar of Wilmcote, had made perfect arrangements for the solemnities connected with the interment. Although the funeral party did not arrive from Brighton till 10.30 at night, they were met by a large body of Wilmcote village labourers in Sunday dress, who insisted in carrying the heavy coffin to the church, a considerable distance, where it was to remain during the night. On reaching the little church it was found brilliantly lighted up, and adorned with flowers, and with the exception of some benches set apart for the relatives, the building was full of the cottage folk, who had come to show what respect they could for their old friend to whom they were greatly attached. Some hymns were sung by the choir as the coffin lay before the altar, and a few prayers were said. The brother-in-law of the deceased Mr. G. A. Macirone of the Admiralty, kept watch in church through the night, and at nine o'clock on the following morning there was again a church full of villagers, and the funeral service began with a solemn celebration of the Holy Eucharist after which the body was taken to the grave which had been prepared just outside the chancel, with the head as close as possible to the altar, in order to associate him with that Sacrificial Service of the Church around which all his religious thoughts clustered. The grave was lined with ferns and flowers, and everything connected with the ceremonial spoke to bystanders of the Doctrine of the Resurrection. Mrs Knottesford Fortescue with her four children were the chief mourners, and were accompanied by the two brothers of Major Fortescue, Mr. G.K. Fortescue, the superintendent of the Reading-room at the British Museum, and the very Rev. Vincent Fortescue, rector of Bubbenhall, near Leamington. There was also Mr. Macirone, a brother-in-law, and the Rev. H. Tyrwhitt, vicar of St Michael's, Bromley-by-Bow, together with several neighbouring clergymen and others who wished to show their respect for the deceased officer.
We were forgetting to say that Major Fortescue was a Chevalier of Justice in the Order of St John of Jerusalem (English language), and took much active interest in the work undertaken by the Brethren. He was also a member of the Council of the English Church Union, and was a frequent lecturer upon matters of Church doctrine and politics. The last lecture which he delivered was only a few days before he was seized by his illness, and although he was unable to prepare, being called upon quite unexpectedly to address an audience, those who listened to him have said that his lecture on the occasion was of exceptional merit. We can only close our brief notice by saying, May he rest in peace.
The Church Times July 2 1886. Pg. 511. Col. 3.
Ref: Dr S Lapidge 2013.

Edward Francis Knottesford Fortescue, was also the author of a book about the Armenian Church. The book is called The Armenian Church founded by St Gregory the Illuminator, and Edward published it in 1872. The text is available for free on Google Books
Ref: http://books.google.co.nz/books?id=mlM1SRCdXtkC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=Fortescue+Armenian+Church&source=bl&ots=9mIxpoZjrs&sig=Op_q3GDLg02p408CvSo_uMmM5WQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=PEjwUvGbBo6IkgXInoDABQ&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Fortescue%20Armenian%20Church&f=false
Ref: Stan Lapidge 2014

  Research Notes:

Death Registration: Fortescue Edward Francis K 1886 2nd Qtr aged 46 Brighton 2b 164

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 7 Jun 1841, Manor House Alveston WAR. Edward is recorded as aged 1 born WAR

2. Census: England, 30 Mar 1851, Elmdon Rectory Elmdon WAR. Edward is recorded as a grandchild at the house of Rev William Spooner aged 11 born Stratford WAR

3. Census: England, 2 Apr 1871, Preston Villas Nth Oxford OXF. Edward is recorded as a son-in-law married aged 31 Capt H M Indian Army born Alveston.

4. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Mana House Alveston WAR. Edward is recorded as head of house married aged 41 Capt in Army on half pay born Alveston WAR

Edward married Alicia Margaretta TYRWHYTT [14685] [MRIN: 5211], daughter of Thomas TYRWHYTT [22493] and Margretta Anne BRIDGES [22492], 4th Qtr 1870 in Headington District OXF. (Alicia Margaretta TYRWHYTT [14685] was born 3rd Qtr 1838 in Whitchurch DOR, baptised on 15 Jul 1838 in Whitchurch DOR and died on 3 Jan 1933.)