Re: Peads of Essex
-
In reply to:
Peads of Essex
Jonathan 3/08/01
Dear Anita,
Here is the piece I copied some 25 years back, when browsing in the stack rooms of the Australian National Library in Canberra, from volumes of an old Victorian journal entitled Notes and Queries which described itself as '...a medium of intercommunication for literary men, antiquaries, genealogists etc..'.It had an excellent index, hence my discovery.
Herewith the extract, Notes and Queries, vol.x, 1st series, p.465, 9 December 1854:
Portrait at Shotesham Park, Norwich
'Information is desired respecting a curious portrait of a gentleman which is now at Shotesham Park.He is represented in a velvet cap, black suit with ruffs etc.His left hand rests on a skull, on which are the words "Respica finem".Pen, ink, paper and wax are on the table; gloves in his right hand.On the forefinger of his left hand is a signet ring with a coat of arms, viz: Or (perhaps argent), on a bend sable, three feet coupes of the first.On the right of the head are the dates: "Anno 1578 aetat suae 39" [ie In the year 1578 in the 39th year of his age].On the left of the head are the following verses:
"Stat sua cinques [cuique?] dies; breve et irreparabile
Omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis tempus
Hoc virtutis opus - vivit post funera virtus.
Integra dum res est, seram reminiscere finem;
'Praemeditare mori' - flagitiosa cave,
Moris [mors?] ibi falce metet qua vitae industria sevit
Vitaque sucerexet, mors ubi falce metit."
[I obtained the following translation of the above from Prof. Bob Edgeworth (then) Classics Dept, Australian National University]:
"There stands for each man his own fixed day;
there is a brief and irrecoverable span of life for all men;
but to extend one's frame by deeds - that is the task of virtue:
Virtue lives on after death and burial.
While times are good, remember the ultimate end;
Think about death in advance - beware of vices'
Death will reap with the sickle at the point where the bustle of life has spent itself,
and life will rise again where death reaps with the sickle."
The following reply to the above query appeared in vol.xi, p.131, 17 February 1855:
'At the visitation of the County of Norfolk in 1664 a short pedigree was entered, by which it appears that Richard Pead, of Garboldisham, in that county, gentleman, then living, was the son of Thomas Pead.His arms were:
Or, on a bend azure, three human feet couped above the ancle argent.
Crest:- a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, ornamented with two (ostrich) feathers or.
Signed, Y."
PS: I shall also repost this as a new message under the heading: 'Peads of Norfolk' to assist any other interested parties.I would also be fascinated to know the identity of the Pead in the portrait; I should think that it wld more likely to be the grandfather of Richard Pead, and also wonder whether the portrait is still extant, and, if so, whether it cld be traced via the art dealer 'circuit'.