Decoding the décor of Mereworth Church
Mereworth’s neo-Palladian church of Saint Lawrence, consecrated in August 1746, replaced a mediaeval church that had stood about a kilometre to the east, in front of Mereworth Castle.
In the mid-1740s, Fane petitioned for the demolition of the old church and commissioned Roger Morris, it is thought, to design the church that stands today. Morris had designed a façade in a similar style to that at Fane’s other home at Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire. The internal décor of the church, described by Horace Walpole in 1752, was painted by Francesco Sleter whose memorial plaque remains on the south wall of the church. Despite Sir Francis Dashwood’s later beautification of the church and subsequent 19th-century modifications, most of the original décor has survived.[fn1]
This paper explores the possible Jacobite symbolism in much of this décor. As Neil Guthrie has written, “Historians […] need to be alert to coded expressions of Jacobite sympathies, while exercising due care no to read too much into too little […] we in the twenty-first century may simply fail to recognise the encrypted symbols.”[fn2]
[fg]jpg|Fig 1: Mereworth church in 1807 (KAS collection)|Image[/fg]
The building of the present Saint Lawrence’s Church
The 1931 Archaeologia Cantiana has a description of Mereworth Castle in 1735: “A perfect Novelty; an Italian House in England… In the North Front of the House are very good Stables, & opposite to them the Church.”[fn3] John Fane, later 7th Earl of Westmorland, had replaced Mereworth Castle in 1723 with a building by Colen Campbell (1676-1729) who designed it as a copy of the Palladian Villa Rotunda in Vicenza.[fn4]
The old church stood in front of Fane’s new castle for two decades. In 1743, however, Fane petitioned the Bishop of Rochester to have the church demolished. Paul Amsinck in 1810 wrote, “the church and parsonage- house […] were such obstacles to the projects of improvement entertained by Lord Westmorland, that he procured a faculty for their removal.”[fn5]
According to the June 1744 faculty for pulling down the old church, Fane, with the rector and “several of the inhabitants” of Mereworth, had petitioned the Bishop of Rochester to have the church replaced. The petition stated, “The Earl is desirous to pull down the old parish church and build a new one in a more convenient place.” It stressed Fane’s generosity in paying for a church with more room on a site with more burial space. The old church, it said, was “an ancient building and decaying. The situation of it is most inconvenient being near the bounds of the parish on one side and that the greater number of parishioners dwell at a great distance from it.”
The bishop sent his commissioner, who reported that Fane’s proposal would be “no detriment, inconvenience or disadvantage to the ministers, parishioners or inhabitants of the said parish or any other person having or pretending to
have any right or interest in the said church or churchyard.” Thus, on 14th January 1744, the Bishop of Rochester signed a citation to be read and published in the church. This was read out on 29th January 1744, stating that the bishop would give consent to Fane’s proposals unless he received “good and sufficient cause to the contrary.”[fn6]
In order to state such cause, objectors were obliged “lawfully” to appear in person before the bishop’s “competent judge” between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on 7th February 1744 in the vestry room of East Greenwich church. This gave objectors only one week to plan a journey of thirty miles that would have taken between five and six hours each way. Adjusting for the Gregorian calendar, sunrise would have been at 07:06 and sunset at 17:20. Inconveniently the date was also during the moon’s first quarter, making night travel more difficult.
Unsurprisingly, the bishop’s faculty records that nobody had appeared in Greenwich to oppose Fane’s plan, and the foundation stone of the new church was laid in 1744. Paul Amsinck, however, suggested that Fane’s munificence had not been universally appreciated. He wrote, “A report is current, that when Lord Westmorland projected the removal of the church, he experienced a serious opposition from the prejudices of the inhabitants.”[fn7]
There may have been reasons other than its situation that made the presence of the old church inconvenient. Perhaps Fane did not want parishioners too near a seat of political intrigue. At about the same time as Fane’s petition, a rebellion was being planned to reinstate the Stuart dynasty to the throne of the United Kingdom. This, of course, failed after the defeat of Charles Edward Stuart at Culloden in April 1746. Despite the 1745 rebellion being seen now primarily as Scottish history, many in England supported the Jacobite cause in the mid-18th-century.[fn8]
The Earl of Westmorland’s Jacobite connections
James, son of King James II, had been created Prince of Wales shortly after his birth in 1688, but grew up in exile when his Roman Catholic father had been deposed later that year. Known as “The Pretender” to most, but King James III of England to Jacobites, his son Charles would have become regent had Charles deposed the Hanoverian dynasty in 1745. Early in the 18th-century coins and medals had already been struck in France bearing the legend IACOBUS TERTIUS.[fn9] James’s refusal to renounce Catholicism, however, became an obstacle to his ambitions. His son Charles, writing in May 1741, sought to reassure his presumed subjects by promising to keep the Church of England as the established church, stating that restoration of the Stuart dynasty was “the only effectual means to Restore Peace and Happiness to our Country.”[fn10]
Several secondary sources attest to the Earl of Westmorland’s Jacobite sympathies. In 1717 Fane had paid £6,500 for a regiment. In 1737, following an ill-considered vote in Parliament, Fane had been dismissed from the army without being allowed to sell out. In reaction, Fane switched from Whig to Tory. Despite Fane being reinstated in the army after the fall of Robert Walpole in 1742, the king refused to reimburse his £6,500. Horace Walpole suggested that Westmorland’s resentment at this slight “led him to imbibe all the nonsensical tenets of the Jacobites.”[fn11]
From 1743 onwards Fane was privy to Jacobite negotiations with France, which culminated in the 1745 rebellion. In December 1743 the Young Pretender mentioned him as one of his ‘principal friends’ in England and would have included Fane in his planned council had Charles become regent.[fn12]
In September 1750, Fane presided, alongside the Duke of Beaufort at a meeting of English Jacobites during the Young Pretender’s secret visit to London in September 1750.13 Lang’s 1903 biography of the Young Pretender mentions his 1750 visit to London, stating that he “met about fifty of his followers in a room in Pall Mall; two names are given in cypher, those of the Duke of Beaufort and the Earl of Westmorland.”14 Bryan Keith-Lucas later researched Fane’s Jacobite leanings, providing more evidence of his involvement in the Young Pretender’s clandestine visit to London in 1750.15,16 Victoria Thorpe has asserted that the Young Pretender also met Fane at Mereworth Castle in 1752. [fn17]
Fane, therefore, undoubtedly supported the Jacobite cause during the period in which the Mereworth church was being planned and built.18 The Gentleman’s Magazine of January 1789 provides a Jacobite link to Mereworth itself. It records: “The seat of the late John Earl of Westmorland, at Mereworth in Kent, was the place where the chief of the party met. It was agreed then to represent to the Prince (as he was called), in the strongest colours, the danger that arose to them from any intercourse with him.”[fn19]
Keith-Lucas wrote an article, the date and provenance of which cannot be substantiated[fn20], in which he recalls, some 50 years earlier, reading the manuscript diary of John Davis (rector of Mereworth 1743-76) in the KAS library. It contained “an account of how the Rector had dined one night with the squire, Lord Westmorland, at Mereworth Castle.
There was present at dinner a dark silent stranger. Just as the Rector was leaving […] he realised who this was – Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, who had been defeated in the ’45 and was now back in England, incognito.” Despite further research, Keith-Lucas had been unable to confirm this account, or to rediscover the diary.[fn21],[fn22]
At a time when the restoration of the Stuarts appeared imminent, a new Mereworth church was being built, at the behest of a Jacobite. The internal décor of the church may have been designed, therefore, to reflect Fane’s Jacobite enthusiasm. Even the motto from Luke 19:46 over the church door has Jacobite overtones; completing the verse, “MY HOUSE IS THE HOUSE OF PRAYER” may suggest that the Hanoverians “have made it a den of thieves.”[fn23]
[fg]jpg|Fig 2: The ceiling and west wall of the nave.|Image[/fg]
The ceilings of the side aisles
Those in England who supported the Jacobite cause were obliged to operate in secrecy. The glasses from which they drank the loyal toast would be passed over a finger bowl. Ostensibly, this was to toast King George II. The toast, however, would be to the king over the water, using glasses bearing symbols of the pretender James Stuart.[fn24] Chiddingstone Castle in Kent has a collection of such “Amen Glasses,” as does Traquair House in the Scottish Borders. Many of these glasses display the six-petalled white rose of the Stuarts. Near-identical white rose symbols adorn the ceilings of the north and south aisles of Mereworth church. These original 18th-century rose paintings alternate with what appear to be sunflowers and stylised oak-leaf motifs, both of which are associated with the Stuart dynasty.[fn25],[fn26]
Fig 3 & Fig 4: Decorations on the side aisle ceilings.
[fg]jpg|Fig 3: Rose symbol with stylised oak leaves.|Image[/fg]
[fg]jpg|Fig 4: Sunflower|Image[/fg]
The tetragrammatons
Horace Walpole described the church interior as “the most abominable piece of tawdriness that ever was seen,” and singled out the Doric frieze as “the greatest absurdity […] between the triglyphs of which is the Jehovah, the I.H.S. and the Dove.”[fn27] The triglyphs are reminiscent of the Morris’s façade at Apethorpe Palace, but in the context of a church would normally symbolise the Holy Trinity, as in the frieze. There could, however, be ambiguous symbolism in the triglyphs; perhaps acknowledging that James was king, the third of that name.
[fg]jpg|Fig 5: The frieze with triglyphs|Image[/fg]
[fg]jpg|Fig 6: An Amen Glass at Traquair House, Innerleithen|Image[/fg]
It would be tempting to interpret the frieze as depicting James as יהוה (“he who is” [king]), Charles as IHS (Salvator), and his pious brother Henry as the spiritual dove. Henry, however, had been a soldier until his brother’s defeat in April 1746, and had not been created a Cardinal-Deacon until a year after Mereworth church had been consecrated. Nonetheless, in the light of Neil Guthrie’s exploration of “double-edged writing and its equivalents in other media” this may not be such “a silly explanation” when one considers the messianic allegory in other Jacobite material culture.[fn28]
The repeated tetragrammaton (יהוה) may also be significant. One on the frieze sits above the altar, and is reminiscent of the decorative symbol above the altar of the church of Saint Mary-le-Strand, London.[fn29] The sacred name of the Deity can be interpreted several ways, for example “I am,” “he will be,” and “to come to pass.”[fn30]
The Amen Glasses were so called because Amen translates as “so be it,” and saying it after a seditious toast to the Old Pretender was to express a wish for James to become king.
Another code word for the Jacobites was “FIAT” meaning “let it come to pass;” it is found engraved on several Amen Glasses. In a Jacobite context the tetragrammaton may have had a similar resonance to “Amen” and “FIAT.”
The Christogram
In the late 19th-century a false east window was knocked out to accommodate stained glass in memory of the Reverend Sir Francis Stapleton. This involved moving the decorative board displaying the Ten Commandments to the north-east corner of the east wall.31 Originally this had sat directly above the high altar. The board is crowned with an unusually ornate “IHS” Christogram above a starburst. The Christogram has an ambiguity that suggests both “I+HS” (for Iesus + Hominum Salvator) and “itr” (for Iacobus Tertius Rex) with a flourishing capital “S” (perhaps for Stuart).
[fg]jpg||Image[/fg]
[fg]jpg|Fig 7 & Fig 8: The Christogram above the Ten Commandment board (amended right to highlight its ambiguity)|Image[/fg]
Painted glass
Horace Walpole wrote, “There is an entire window of painted-glass arms, chiefly modern, in the chapel, and another over the high altar.”[fn32] Fane’s heraldic painted glass survives; C. R. Councer described it in 1962.[fn33] In Archaeologia Cantiana, Councer identified explicitly Stuart glass above the altar (panels 18, 17 and possibly 16) but did not speculate on the reasons for its inclusion, only that Fane “was responsible for the present arrangement of the glass”.[fn34]
The original glass unusually has seven depictions of the Order of the Garter. Five are in a line above the altar. Two more are placed either side of the main body of the church. James the Pretender had remained a Knight Garter; it had been his right on becoming Prince of Wales. A portrait of the infant James in the Royal Collection is described thus, “James lacks a crown or other royal regalia; his legitimacy is affirmed instead by the blue sash and Great George of the Order of the Garter worn over his jacket.”[fn35] Further study of the glass in Mereworth church might therefore reveal additional Jacobite references.
[fg]jpg|Fig 9: The Garter image in a window on the north wall|Image[/fg]
Summary
That Jacobite symbolism can be found in Mereworth church is speculation. The assertion, however, aligns with the known sympathies of the 7th Earl of Westmorland and the consecration date of the church.
It seems plausible, therefore, that the décor of Mereworth church displays such symbolism. Jacobite symbols were a code known only to those loyal to the Stuart dynasty, and could therefore be hidden in plain sight.
The church is open during the day for anyone who wishes further to investigate its possible Jacobite symbolism.
Robert Earl CEnv is a Chartered Environmentalist, Incorporated Engineer and Fellow of the Institute of Water, with 43 years of experience in the water industry. He is a churchwarden, a keen historian and a participant in the SocEnv Soil and Stones project.
[fn]1|The Parish Church of St. Lawrence, Mereworth (A. Wells 2022).[/fn]
[fn]2|The Material Culture of the Jacobites (N Guthrie 2013) pp.130-131.[/fn]
[fn]3|Archaeologia Cantiana volume 43 p.274.[/fn]
[fn]4|Ibid. Wells.[/fn]
[fn]5|Tunbridge Wells and its Neighbourhood (P Amsinck 1810) p.117.[/fn]
[fn]6|Kent Archives & LHS (P247/28/3 & U3844/Z1).[/fn]
[fn]7|Ibid. Amsinck.[/fn]
[fn]8|Charles Edward Stuart (A Lang 1903) p.366.[/fn]
[fn]9|PATTERNS AND MEDALS BEARING THE LEGEND IACOBVS III (H Farquhar BNJ 1906) pp.229-270[/fn]
[fn]10|The National Archives (SP 36/59/2/257D).[/fn]
[fn]11|www.geni.com/people/John-Fane-7th-Earl-of-Westmorland/6000000004630738009 (accessed 8/Feb/2025)[/fn]
[fn]12|Ibid.[/fn]
[fn]13|Ibid.[/fn]
[fn]14|Ibid. Lang.[/fn]
[fn]15|The Young Pretender and Mereworth Castle (B Keith-Lucas: provenance and date unknown) pp.7-8.[/fn]
[fn]16|The King over the Water (Alice Shield, Andrew Lang 1907) p.461.[/fn]
[fn]17|The Royal Stuart Journal (Volume 1 2009) p28, 48-49)[/fn]
[fn]18|The Georgian Group Journal (Volume XX) p.78[/fn]
[fn]19|The Gentleman’s Magazine (January 1789) p.5.[/fn]
[fn]20|Ibid. The Royal Stuart Journal.[/fn]
[fn]21|The Life of Sir Walter Scott (G. Le Grys Norgate 1906) p.208.[/fn]
[fn]22|Ibid. Keith-Lucas.[/fn]
[fn]23|Ibid. Guthrie p.104.[/fn]
[fn]24|www.mfordcreech.com/Jacobite_Glasses_&_Their_Symbols.html (accessed 8/ Feb/2025).[/fn]
[fn]25|www.familyfolkandhistory.com/2019/05/23/jacobite-symbolism/ (accessed 8/ Feb/2025).[/fn]
[fn]26|www.cullodenbattlefield.wordpress.com/2015/07/31/the-secret-symbols-of-the-jacobites/ (accessed 8/Feb/2025).[/fn]
[fn]27|The Letters of Horace Walpole, earl of Orford” (London 1861) p.304 (1752).[/fn]
[fn]28|Ibid. Guthrie p.77.[/fn]
[fn]29|www.theshakespearecode.blog/2022/12/15/three-jacobite-symbols-in-st-mary-le-strand-church/ (accessed 8/Feb/2025).[/fn]
[fn]30|www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-tetragrammaton/ (accessed 8/ Feb/2025).[/fn]
[fn]31|Ibid. Wells.[/fn]
[fn]32|Ibid. Walpole.[/fn]
[fn]33|Archaeologia Cantiana (volume 77) pp48-62.[/fn]
[fn]34|Ibid p.48[/fn]
[fn]35|www.rct.uk/collection/401174/prince-james-francis-edward-stuart-1688-1766 (accessed 8/Feb/2025).[/fn]