Bow Church - The Robert Kelland Window
This window at the West end of the South aisle was erected in 1889, by Robert Kelland's great nephew, William Henry Kelland (1853 - 1911). It is the work of Frederick Drake of the Exeter firm of Beer and Driffield.
The legend beneath reads:
"In memory
of Robert Kelland of Loosebear Manor Zeal Monachorum Bow N
Devon and of Sandford who died at Totness June 1862 aged 66.
Inserted by his great nephew William Henry
Kelland"
Robert Kelland, born in 1796, farmed at Henstill in Sandford.
William Henry
Kelland (1853 - 1911)
Born in Lapford he was educated in Dunsford, Barnstaple, Totnes and Trinity College Cambridge. He then trained in law at Lincoln's Inn.
His father John farmed at Kelland Barton in Lapford, but by the time he was nine both his parents had died. His elder brother John died aged 17 in 1868.
At various times he owned large country estates including
Kelland Barton in Lapford, Grattons in Bow, and Chulmleigh Manor.
He became Lord of the Manor of Bow and Nymet Tracey in 1881, and
lived in Barnstaple and London.
In the late 1880s he endowed several charites in mid-Devon
including the William Lane Kelland Charity in Bow.
He also paid for two stained glass church windows commemorating his
parents and grandparents in Lapford,
as well as another window in Bow, and one
at Dunsford for his schoolmaster Rev
George Arden. His own name appears prominently. He was an amateur
genealogist.
Around 1894 he was declared bankrupt, and in 1898 he was
arrested in Barnstaple and charged with an assault whilst drunk. He
died in obscurity in London in 1911, having never
married.