In the 16th century members of the
university sought refuge in the village when plague was raging in Oxford.
However, their precautions proved to be in vain, as some succumbed to the
disease and died here, and were buried in the churchyard (Dunkin 1823).
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During the Civil War,
the manor house, Noke Place, was held for the Royalists by John Irons. There
was a skirmish in the village in 1643. According to the parish register two
‘souldiers’ were buried in Noke churchyard in the summer of that
year, called John (as they say named) Evins, and Philip Kippine; no tombstones
survive. |
The earliest stones in the church yard
date to the first half of the 17th century, starting in 1639. A total of
fourteen stones have been Listed as having historical interest. They are mostly
small plain stones with shaped or arched heads. Although no longer easy to
read, they have been subject to painstaking examination and their inscriptions
have been transcribed by Chris Cheetham and the late Peter Brown.
...........For example:
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HERE LIETH THE BODY OF HERCULES QUARTERMAINE
SON OF JOHN QUATERMAINE WHO DECEASED [YE] [2?] DAY OF MAY
[the parish register records his burial on May 5th 1672] |
Some of these stones can be matched up
with the burial records, whilst others span the period 1650 - 1667 when there
are otherwise gaps in the parish registers.
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An altar tomb erected to the memory of John Harper the
Elder and his son, the grandfather and father of John Harper who emigrated to
Pennsylvania in 1682, lay on the southeast side of the church porch. A note
inserted into Volume II of the burial register on 9th August 1870 records:
This day took down and removed fifteen or sixteen inches
nearer the S. wall of the Church, the Altar Tomb of the Harpers, father &
son, the Tomb having become insecure by age - the stones bearing inscriptions
are laid beneath the top slab of the Tomb:
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HERE LYETH
THE
BODY OF JOHN HAR
PER THE ELDER
WHO DECEASED
SEPTEMBER
THE 22 1617 |
|
HERE LYETH
THE BODY OF
JOHN HARP
ER THE YOUN
GER WHO DEC
EASED THE 29
DAY OF NOVEMB
ER 1667 |
The tomb can be clearly seen on a etching of 1822, and its remains are still
marked by a stone slab. (See the 'old prints and photographs' page).
The gravestones and tombs of several
Rectors and their families survive in the churchyard. They include: the
daughter of Alexander Litchfield (Rector from 1773-1804), Edward Turner
(1804-1837), John Carlyle (1840-1864), Brisco Morland Gane (1864-1870) and John
Thorp (1878-1883). There is also a tablet commemorating John Carlyle inside the
church, on the south wall of the chancel, and there was also originally a stone
to John Gilder, Rector between 1667 and 1698, in the chancel, which is no
longer visible.
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