Memorial To Ely Hargrove In Churchyard 1 Metre South Of Church Of Saint John The Baptist

SE 3457 KNARESBOROUGH THE PARSONAGE (north side)

6/191 Memorial to Ely Hargrove in churchyard 1 metre south of Church of Saint John the Baptist

II GV

Chest tomb. 2nd quarter of C19 with mid C20 restoration. For Ely Hargrove (d1818), Christiana, his wife (d1780), and Mary his daughter. Gritstone. Moulded plinth, octagonal fielded panel to ends, a central octagonal fielded panel flanked by hexagonal fielded panels to sides. Large top slab has roll-moulded edges and deeply-incised lettering. The inscription eulogises Ely Hargrove, "The celebrated historian of this town / and the surrounding country / and one whose / Indefatigable Literary Pursuits / were not more exemplary than his faithful and honourable / discharge of all the relative duties / of domestic and social life: / In him was realized / The rare unity of talent with / The strictest integrity; / And his death ... / Evinced the composure of a superior mind, / with the Christian hope of Eternal peace. / Superior to the ills of Time / His lengthened days in peace he trod, / Till death remov'd to scenes sublime / This servant of the living God; / where now, with feeling more refin'd / He pitys those he left behind. /" The tomb was moved to its present position from outside the west end of the church when the churchyard was landscaped in 1973. Ely Hargrove was born in Halifax in 1741 and moved to Knaresborough in 1762 as a printer and bookseller. For a time he was a librarian at Harrogate. He published 'The History of the Castle, Town, and Forest, of Knaresborough, with Harrogate, and its medicinal springs' in 1775 which had run to 7 editions by 1832 and remains the most quoted source of information on the town. H Speight, Nidderdale, 1894, p 293.

Listing NGR: SE3472957177