James Chelsum

In the west cloister of Westminster Abbey is a white marble memorial tablet to James Chelsum, Lay Vicar of the Abbey from 1736-1742. He was buried nearby on 10th August 1743. The inscription reads:

Mr James Chelsum one of the Gentlemen of His Majesty's Chapel Royal, a member of St Paul's Cathedral and of this Collegiate Church dyed August 3 1743 aged 43. With him lies buried his younger son Robert who dyed September 22 1744 aged 4 years and three months. So earth to earth, so dust to dust descends, and where mortality begins, it ends.

He married Mary Ward at the Chapel Royal in Whitehall on 21st June 1731. Son James was baptised on 15th May 1738 and educated at Westminster School and Oxford, becoming a Doctor of Divinity in 1773. He was a vicar and Whitehall preacher and died in 1801.

Further Reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004