Thomas Eyre 23rd Oct 1752 - 26th March 1829 (aged 77)
Despite his apparent prominence in the village for almost 50 years remarkably little is known about him, and any information appears difficult to find. If anyone has any documents, books or artefacts relating to him we would be delighted to see them!
See Hardcastle pages 49-51
See Hardcastle pages 49-51
Thomas Eyre's tankard, apparently dredged out of the river near The Fish Inn, Ringwood.
"THOMAS EYRE Burley Manor Born 23 Oct 1752"
Courtesy Christopher Tower Library, Lyndhurst
"THOMAS EYRE Burley Manor Born 23 Oct 1752"
Courtesy Christopher Tower Library, Lyndhurst
First attempt at the family tree of Thomas Eyre (to be updated/revised), incorporating his second wife's nephew and nieces who were beneficiaries in his will. Also John Watkins (husband of one of his wife's sisters), Ringwood stonemason, who carved a number of items for him.
Thomas Eyre was born on 23rd October 1752, and was baptised when 20 days old on 12th November 1752, at Spitalfields, Middlesex.
His parents were Barnabas and Sarah Eyre (nee Arlun) who were then living in White Row, Spitalfields. Their Licence for marriage is dated 2nd September 1751 and they were married the next day at Christ Church, Spitalfields. In the 1763 Kent's Directory Barnabas Eyre is described as a cheese monger in White Row.
(Barnabas Eyre was christened on 11th June 1725 in Blackwell, Derbyshire to Thomas and Mary Eyre)? Barnabas was buried on 1st June 1777.
Barnabas and Sarah had two other children while living in White Row -
William Eyre, baptised when 7 days old on 14th April 1754 (? died 13th April 1818 at Cumpsall, Lancashire).
Robert Eyre, baptised when 2 days old on 5th January 1756 (at Fashion Street - extension of White Row). A burial is recorded in Spitalfields of a Robert Eyre on 24th January 1756 aged 21 days. It seems almost certain that these entries in the records relate to the same individual.
In his will of 14th February 1776 Barnabas left 1/- (about £9 today) to each of his son Thomas, and to "my two brothers" William (Ch 2/2/1720) and Joseph (Ch 12/6/1741).
Thomas Eyre came to Burley on 14th September 1780. He had been widowed and married spinster Mary Knott (? born in 1761 at Kington, Herefordshire) on 14th July 1782 in Ringwood. Mary died in Burley on 2nd July 1813 (age 52).
In 1801 James Mowbray (of Burley Manor) left Thomas Eyre £100 (approx £8.3k today) in his will. Could this have funded the Peace Stones?
He died on Thursday 26th March 1829 and was buried next to his late wife in unmarked graves beneath Burley Chapel.
The notice in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal of 30th March 1829 stated:
"Thursday died Mr. Thomas Eyre, of Burley, near Ringwood, aged 76, an eccentric but very humane and charitable character."
He died on Thursday 26th March 1829 and was buried next to his late wife in unmarked graves beneath Burley Chapel.
The notice in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal of 30th March 1829 stated:
"Thursday died Mr. Thomas Eyre, of Burley, near Ringwood, aged 76, an eccentric but very humane and charitable character."
Carved stone discovered in Chapel Lane in 1967 during demolition work (Hardcastle p49)
The stone measures 29.5 inches across and carries the Latin inscription: PAUPERI THOMI CULMEN EYRE TUGURIUM
This is very similar to a line in Virgil's Eclogue 1, Line 68 - pauperis et tuguri congestum caespite culmen
Several translations are possible but it seems to imply: Poor Thomas Eyre Cottage Roof (or perhaps keystone or lintel).
Its purpose and previous location remains a mystery. Probably carved by John Watkins as a lintel stone intended for Randalls,
a cottage at Chapel Hay that Thomas Eyre bought and enlarged in 1786.
This is very similar to a line in Virgil's Eclogue 1, Line 68 - pauperis et tuguri congestum caespite culmen
Several translations are possible but it seems to imply: Poor Thomas Eyre Cottage Roof (or perhaps keystone or lintel).
Its purpose and previous location remains a mystery. Probably carved by John Watkins as a lintel stone intended for Randalls,
a cottage at Chapel Hay that Thomas Eyre bought and enlarged in 1786.
In Eyre's book "Hymns for Burley Chapel" (1823) he quotes:
"Pauperis Tuguri Culmen Praeivit" (= He passed the roof of the poor man's hut)
"Home is the humble calm retreat,
That shuns the notice of the proud;
The muses make my leisure sweet
And keep me from the noisy crowd"
"Pauperis Tuguri Culmen Praeivit" (= He passed the roof of the poor man's hut)
"Home is the humble calm retreat,
That shuns the notice of the proud;
The muses make my leisure sweet
And keep me from the noisy crowd"
Transcription of fascinating article about Thomas Eyre from July 1828 (see below):-
Can anyone suggest what this sentence may be referring to: "Magpie-Gate, then, consists of five bars, pleasantly situated in the Vil of Burley, and painted alternately black and white; over these bars a sort of canopy arises, thickly studded with scriptural texts; which, if the traveller fancies not the incommodious roost beneath, he may scan at his leisure from the green turf in front."
The Crypt, Or Receptacle for Things Past: an antiquarian, literary and miscellaneous journal. 1st July 1828
INTELLECTUAL MILE-STONES “STOP, PASSENGER, AND CONTEMPLATE.”
It is the good fortune of those who reside within ten miles East South East of Ringwood, to have oft-times beheld, and by personal reputation to know and venerate, that ancient and worthy gentleman, Thomas Eyre. Now, Mr Eyre is not an every-day being, whom you shall encounter upon a bleak common under the generic aspect of an elderly retainer in a Baron’s Hall – surly, deaf, and dignified: these may have been the evil qualities of our friend once upon a day, but he has now out-grown them these forty years. In his spacious quadrangular caravan, jolting at the tail of an animal, whom neither feeding nor teaching shall ever henceforth restore to the semblance or qualifications of a horse, his stately figure snuffs, ere sunrise, the morning dews of the New Forest. Over his shoulders is suspended, by a willow thong, his cloak,- by turns a cloak, a rug, and a potatoe-sack. With empty vehicle he travels to market; but who shall tell the contents of that vehicle when it returns? Of fish, flesh, and fowl, we speak not; but of books new and old, accruing weekly to the stores which already occupy sufficient tea-chests to astound an East India Director; of prints, serious and comical, in black and in colours, with frames and without frames; of groceries and sweet-meats; of farming tools and bed-room furniture; - well, Dobbin is, at least, a steady roadster, and saunters on before the gentlest of charioteers.
Mr Eyre, we remember to have heard, was once a young man; nor that we insinuate any resemblance on his part with the wizards of Dunsinane, who had neither age nor sex to swear by; indeed we have the pourtraicture of a middle-aged male at this moment before us, with the ruddy complexion of youth, and the costume of sixty, (sixty years ago,) subscribed with the veritable titles of the gentleman himself. An heir-loom he has been for many generations in the house of Mr. Shaw Le Fevre, and, in lack of more exalted instructor, a Minister of the Evangile at Burley Manor Chapel; neither, in our present dearth of Parish Churches, which has created so sensible a disturbance in the public mind, let such a Minister be too lightly under-rated.
Howbeit, Mr. Eyre is likewise an author; and, thanks to the ingenuity of the moment, the mention of his Authorship drives our vessel upon the very point we have been tugging hard to gain throughout these two pages. For besides editing the late David Cake’s Remarks on Scripture, for Mr. Eyre is author of Magpie Gate, and of an inestimable series of Mile-stones. But this requires explanation: - Magpie-Gate, then, consists of five bars, pleasantly situated in the Vil of Burley, and painted alternately black and white; over these bars a sort of canopy arises, thickly studded with scriptural texts; which, if the traveller fancies not the incommodious roost beneath, he may scan at his leisure from the green turf in front. But no such draw-back will he complain of at other stages of his journey; where he is not only invited by many a godly exhortation to repose, but finds the same stone which presents the admonition to his eyes, furnish a seat also for his legs.
Now, all this interesting detail on the affairs of honest Thomas Eyre strikes us of a sudden as scandalously personal, not to say impertinent. But then the subject of our discourse is a good-natured creature, who would rather enjoy amusement at his own expense, than not enjoy it at all, and who will certainly, on this account, buy fifteen copies of the present Number, if not of Volume Three entire. So we shall beg his forgiveness for all liberties, and wind up a rambling frolic with one half-page of serious application to the reader.
He, then, is admonished, to remember, that we have now travelled together “Two miles from the Office of the Crypt,” – or, without metaphor, that two goodly 12 months of our Journal are completed. Much we could say here to him on many things that have occurred during the progress of these labour; for laborious we entreat him to believe the occupation has continually proved. It is a hard thing for those who labour hard, honestly and conscientiously labour, without the prospect or even the desire of pecuniary remuneration, to have other obstacles to encounter from envy, petulance, and ill-will. Most thankfully, however, we acknowledge that warfare of this unmanly character, however much vaunted amongst its authors, has seldom reached us, and, when reaching, has yet inflicted no wound. On the other hand, we have derived unbounded consolation and satisfaction from testimonies the most liberal, contributed by persons in the highest ranks of literature, in behalf of these unassuming lucubrations. They have been the source of inestimable friendships among many, of enmity with none towards whom the name of friend were covetable. If, among the divers topics promiscuously encountered in the pages gone before, each hath found some few to which he can recur with pleasure, let him now “rest and be thankful,” – thankful, to the many valuable acquaintance who have furnished their mite of entertainment to our stores, and to himself, for having discovered wherein that entertainment lay; - let him rest but for a brief space, that he may continue his pilgrimage anon with recruited strength and spirits.
Gentle reader, we bid you peace of mind, the will to please and to be pleased.
Ringwood, June 24th, 1828. ED. CR.
Mr Eyre, we remember to have heard, was once a young man; nor that we insinuate any resemblance on his part with the wizards of Dunsinane, who had neither age nor sex to swear by; indeed we have the pourtraicture of a middle-aged male at this moment before us, with the ruddy complexion of youth, and the costume of sixty, (sixty years ago,) subscribed with the veritable titles of the gentleman himself. An heir-loom he has been for many generations in the house of Mr. Shaw Le Fevre, and, in lack of more exalted instructor, a Minister of the Evangile at Burley Manor Chapel; neither, in our present dearth of Parish Churches, which has created so sensible a disturbance in the public mind, let such a Minister be too lightly under-rated.
Howbeit, Mr. Eyre is likewise an author; and, thanks to the ingenuity of the moment, the mention of his Authorship drives our vessel upon the very point we have been tugging hard to gain throughout these two pages. For besides editing the late David Cake’s Remarks on Scripture, for Mr. Eyre is author of Magpie Gate, and of an inestimable series of Mile-stones. But this requires explanation: - Magpie-Gate, then, consists of five bars, pleasantly situated in the Vil of Burley, and painted alternately black and white; over these bars a sort of canopy arises, thickly studded with scriptural texts; which, if the traveller fancies not the incommodious roost beneath, he may scan at his leisure from the green turf in front. But no such draw-back will he complain of at other stages of his journey; where he is not only invited by many a godly exhortation to repose, but finds the same stone which presents the admonition to his eyes, furnish a seat also for his legs.
Now, all this interesting detail on the affairs of honest Thomas Eyre strikes us of a sudden as scandalously personal, not to say impertinent. But then the subject of our discourse is a good-natured creature, who would rather enjoy amusement at his own expense, than not enjoy it at all, and who will certainly, on this account, buy fifteen copies of the present Number, if not of Volume Three entire. So we shall beg his forgiveness for all liberties, and wind up a rambling frolic with one half-page of serious application to the reader.
He, then, is admonished, to remember, that we have now travelled together “Two miles from the Office of the Crypt,” – or, without metaphor, that two goodly 12 months of our Journal are completed. Much we could say here to him on many things that have occurred during the progress of these labour; for laborious we entreat him to believe the occupation has continually proved. It is a hard thing for those who labour hard, honestly and conscientiously labour, without the prospect or even the desire of pecuniary remuneration, to have other obstacles to encounter from envy, petulance, and ill-will. Most thankfully, however, we acknowledge that warfare of this unmanly character, however much vaunted amongst its authors, has seldom reached us, and, when reaching, has yet inflicted no wound. On the other hand, we have derived unbounded consolation and satisfaction from testimonies the most liberal, contributed by persons in the highest ranks of literature, in behalf of these unassuming lucubrations. They have been the source of inestimable friendships among many, of enmity with none towards whom the name of friend were covetable. If, among the divers topics promiscuously encountered in the pages gone before, each hath found some few to which he can recur with pleasure, let him now “rest and be thankful,” – thankful, to the many valuable acquaintance who have furnished their mite of entertainment to our stores, and to himself, for having discovered wherein that entertainment lay; - let him rest but for a brief space, that he may continue his pilgrimage anon with recruited strength and spirits.
Gentle reader, we bid you peace of mind, the will to please and to be pleased.
Ringwood, June 24th, 1828. ED. CR.
See also the page on the history of Burley Chapel , the page on the Burley Peace and Mile Stones and (part way down the page) 1750 reading chair once owned by James Mowbray of Burley Manor.