Obituary of Mrs James Fremlin (d.1899)

Post date: Feb 14, 2012 4:22:28 PM

Extract from parish magazine of February 1899:

THE funeral of MRS. FREMLIN, widow of the late Mr. James Fremlin,-formerly of Wateringbury, and mother of the partners in the firm of Fremlin Brothers, of Maidstone, took place at Wateringbury, on the 31st December last, in the presence of a large congregation of relations and friends. The body was laid in the grave near the Church Porch, where the remains of her husband and of their son James had beforetime been buried. The service in the Church was choral, the choir singing the 90th Psalm and the Hymn "Peace, perfect peace;" the Sentences and Lesson were read by the Vicar; and the Rev. Henry Collis, Vicar of St. Philip's, Maidstone, said the prayers at the graveside.

To many of the older inhabitants of Wateringbury Mrs. Fremlin was well known, and people say " everybody loved her." Wateringbury was her native place: she was the ninth child of Mr. Wm. Jude, who had a large family, seven sons and four daughters. Her three sisters died in childhood. The bare entries in the old family Bible tell a pathetic tale: the first-born child, a girl who died at the age of eleven in the year 1806, was named Ann; in 1810 another girl was born, and was likewise named Ann. This second Ann, who ultimately survived all her brothers and sisters, and has now died at the advanced age of 88, was married in Wateringbury Church on the 1st of January, in the year 1833, by Dr. Marsham, to Mr. James Fremlin, the owner of Warden House, now commonly called " the Mill," and of the adjoining farm. There Mr. and Mrs. James Fremlin had issue six sons and five daughters, all of whom are living except two sons, James, who died in '66 at the age of 19, and Arthur, who died at 38 in the year '76.

In 1879 Mr. and Mrs. Fremlin went to live at Court Lodge, West Farleigh, where the husband died two years later. In 1889 the widow, with the one daughter who remained unmarried, went to live at Sheals Court, in the parish of St. Philip, Maidstone, where she resided till her death. Mrs. Fremlin was, naturally, very fond of Wateringbury. She was staying here in the summer of 1897, and it was during that visit that she attended church for the last time in her life. She was drawn in a chair to the church where she was baptised and where all her children were baptised, where she was married and where she worshipped regularly for many years, and where it was destined that her body should find its last resting-place---to join in a quiet, week-day celebration of the Holy Communion, the pledge to her of that union with Christ which, we all hope and believe, her spirit is now realising in full joy and peace.