Thomas Vialls

The Reverend Thomas Vialls is buried in the east cloister of Westminster Abbey and has a gravestone and wall tablet there. His grave is near the gates of this cloister and the inscription is in Latin, just giving his name, date of death and age. He was buried in the grave of his uncle Charles Marsh.

The tablet inscription reads: 

Sacred to the memory of the Revd. Thomas Vialls of Twickenham Middlesex A.M. [Master of Arts] many years vicar of Boldre in the New Forest who departed this life on the VIIth day of May MDCCCXXXI aged LXII

His Life

He was the son of Amos Vialls, coach harness maker, and his wife Mary Ann (Marsh) and was educated at Westminster School (hence his burial in the Abbey precincts), and Cambridge university. From 1804-1818 he was vicar of Boldre in Hampshire. 

On 1st July1813 at Twickenham he married Louisa Marshall, daughter of Samuel Marshall, Serjeant at Law, and sister of Sir Charles Marshall, former Chief Justice of Ceylon. Their sons were Charles, who married Charlotte Podmore, Henry who was in the army and married Helen Strangways, and George who served in the Crimea and married Sophie Oakes. All three sons attended Westminster School. They had at least two daughters - Louisa Elizabeth who married Edmund Ashford in 1840, and Caroline Mary (born 1814) who married Count de la More from France in 1868.

Thomas died at 1 Elm Tree Road, St John's Wood while on a visit there, and was buried on 16th May 1831 aged 62. A Mr Noble paid the fee for the tablet.