placed immediately over the larger
pew in the east wall of the transept, bearing the following
inscription:

Near this place lies interred in hope
of a joyful Resurrection the bodies of

WILLIAM JARRETT

of Aldington in this Parish Gent, aged 73
years, who died Anno Domini 1681
and of Jane his wife the daughter of William
Wattson of Bengeworth Gent, who died
Anno Domini 1683, aged 73 years,
by whom he had Issue three Sons
and two Daughters. Thomas Augustin and
Jane ley buried here with them and
Mary the youngest Daughter Married
Humphrey Mayo of hope in the County
of Herreford Gent, and William
the Eldest Son Marchant in London
set this Monument in a dutiful
and affectionate memory of them 1685.

It is pleasant to think of William, the eldest son, "marchant,"
returning in his prosperity to the quiet old village, braving the
dangers and inconveniences of unenclosed and miry roads, and riding
the 100 odd miles on horseback, to revisit the scenes of his
childhood, in order to do honour to the memories of his father and
mother. What a contrast to the crowded streets of London the old place
must have presented, and one has an idea that perhaps he regretted, in
spite of his success in commerce, that he had not elected in his
younger days to pursue the simple life.

The monument is a somewhat elaborate white marble tablet with a plump
cherub on guard, and with many of the scrolls and convolutions typical
of the Carolean and later Jacobean taste. This monument was removed to
the north wall of the nave two centuries later, in 1885, when the
church was restored, to allow of access to the new vestry then added.

William Jarrett, senr., and his wife lived through the very stirring
times of the Civil War in the reign of Charles I., about twenty miles
only from Edgehill, where, in 1642, twelve hundred men are reported to
have fallen. It is said that on the night of the anniversary of the
battle, October 23, in each succeeding year the uneasy ghosts of the
combatants resume the unfinished struggle, and that the clash of arms
is still to be heard rising and falling between hill and vale. The
worthy couple must have almost heard the echoes of the Battle of
Worcester in 1651, only eighteen miles distant, and have been well
acquainted with the details of the flight of Charles II., who, after
he left Boscobel, passed very near Aldington on hi