- Type of Memorial
- Trophy / Relic
- WMR Reference Number
- 87312
- Description
- A Regency Tablet backed chair with Federal front legs and a woven cane seat, there is a dedicatory plaque on the middle tablet, and an associated portrait orientated, framed history of the seat on the wall behind.
- Inscription
- Brass plaque on chair:TOLL FOR THE BRAVE/ THIS CHAIR IS MADE FROM TIMBER FROM H.M.S. ROYAL GEORGE,/ LOST WITH ALL HANDS AT SPITHEAD, 29TH. AUG 1782. SIR JOHN/ RICHARDSON WAS GIVEN SOME OF THE TIMBER AND CAUSED/
THIS CHAIR TO BE MADE THEREFROM. IT WAS PRESENTED/ TO THE SPILSBY R.D.C. BY HIS GRANDSON, CAPTAIN JOHN/
FRANKLIN RICHARDSON, LATE XTH ROYAL LINCOLNSHIRE REGT. 1953.
Framed information: This chair was made from the timbers of H.M.S. ROYAL GEORGE which was lost/ with all hands at SPITHEAD in the year 1782./
The chair was owned by the Richardson family for 170 years who were connected/ with the family of the ARCTIC EXPLORER SIR JOHN FRANKLIN who was born in/ this town in the year 1786. SIR JOHN FRANKLIN made three expeditions to the/
Arctic and surveyed many thousand of miles of the NORTH AMERICAN coast line./
In the year 1845 at the age of 59 years he again set sail from the Thames in search of/ the NORTH WEST PASSAGE from which Sir John and the crew never returned./
However, in the year 1848 a cairn was discovered by another expedition with proof/ that SIR JOHN FRANKLIN had discovered the NORTH WEST PASSAGE./
In 1953 this chair was presented to the SPILSBY RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL by/ Captain John Richardson, grandson of the late Sir John Richardson./
When the SPILSBY RURAL DISTRICT COUNCIL was taken over by the EAST/ LINDSEY DISTRICT COUNCIL 1973 they presented the Chair to the TOWN of/ SPILSBY to be placed in St. Jame's Church Spilsby so that it's historical and family/
connection with the family of SIR JOHN FRANKLIN may not be lost in antiquity./
It is also interesting to note the famous English Poet Lord Tennyson who was born in/ the village of Somersby, only eight miles from the this church, wrote a poem on the/ tragic loss of the H.M.S. ROYAL GEORGE./ "TOLL FOR THE BRAVE"