For almost 200 years there had been a doctor resident in Bow. I was the twenty-ninth.
This is our story
THE MEDICAL GENTLEMEN OF BOW
Christopher Lethbridge (1654-1713) of Pilton
Christopher Lethbridge was buried at St Mary's Church, Pilton, on the North side of Barnstaple, in 1713. Within the South aisle of the church there is a large memorial to him and his family, which was designed and erected by him in his lifetime.
His great-grandson, John Lethbridge was made a baronet in 1804. (In 2010 it was discovered that Sir John had an illegitimate daughter, Claire Claremont, who was the mother of Lord Byron’s daughter.)
It was Sir John’s son, Sir Thomas Buckler Lethbridge, who sold the plot of land in Bow known as “Fair Park” to surgeon John Arscott in 1818.
Sir Thomas Buckler Lethbridge's third son, Rev Thomas Prowse Lethbridge (1804-1851) was Rector of Broad Nymett 1837-41, and Bow 1839-1841
Memorial to Christopher Lethbridge in Pilton Church, with detail and transcription and translation
Juxta
Hoc Monumentum
Quod ipse in sui suorumque
Memoriam Vivus Vidensque.
Extruxerat Jacet Christopherus
Lethbridge, Armiger, qui natus
Annos 59 mortem obiit Junii 28
Annoque Domini 1713.
Hujus Reliquiis suas adjunxit
Margareta Uxor, Philippii Bouchier
Generosi Filia, Maritum Vidua decennii
Intervallo secuta, viz: die Nov. 3tio
Anno Christi 1723. Pari
Amoris Fœdere Conjunctos
Par Annorum Terminus
Clausit
Translation by the Rev William Henry Morris Bagley, Vicar of Pilton in his book 'Some Account of Pilton Priory and Church' (1907 ).
Near this Monument which he himself in his lifetime erected under his own supervision in memory of himself and his family lies Christopher Lethbridge, Esquire, who died on the 28th June in the year of our Lord 1713, aged 59 years. Mingling her remains with his, Margaret, his wife, the daughter of Philip Bouchier, Gentleman, followed her husband after an interval of ten years which she passed in widowhood, namely on the 3rd of November, in the year of Christ 1723. United by an equal bond of love, an equal number of years closed their lives.
