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Whitchurch Canonicorum

George Somers – Seaman Extraordinary

Mar 28th, 2011
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Having regard to Dorset’s geographical situation as a coastal county we should not be surprised that numbered among its famous sons should be several master mariners. Sir George Somers was one of these mariners, but he occupied a key position among the county’s seafarers, rising from an obscure background to earn a reputation as a swashbuckling buccaneer of the ocean waves. And it was Somers who was to lay the foundations of what was to become the colonies of Virginia and Bermuda.

Somers was born in 1554, though it is not known for certain whether this was at Lyme or Whitchurch Canonicorum. Equally deficient is what is known of his earliest years, but he proved to be a worthy man of the sea, a bold adventurer in an age when England’s navy was effectively brought to birth under Tudor patronage. Somers therefore was there at the start of the great enterprise.

Ever since 1584 various abortive attempts have been made to colonise the North American territory which ultimately became Virginia. Somers too focussed his enormous energies in this direction, establishing in association with the Earl of Southampton and others, the London Virginia Company in 1606. He went on to command many naval expeditions to the Spanish Main, West Indies, and the Americas, and in 1597 joined Raleigh in a notable expedition to the Azores. On his return, however, he settled for some years back in Lyme Regis, where his notoriety seems to have helped in his election to Parliament when he stood to represent the town. He was elected Lyme’s Mayor two years later.

Somers did not remain at his home-base for long, for in 1609 he took command of an expedition to establish further settlers in the fledgling colony of Virginia (the name Virginia originally applied to all the colonial land along North America’s eastern seaboard until the designation of the 12 other states.) The colony of Roanoke had been founded only two years before. Jamestown and the voyage of the Mayflower to Cape Cod were to follow in 1620.

For this voyage Somers set sail in his Flagship Sea Venture. But after being at sea for two months the small fleet was struck by a hurricane, which dispersed the ships. Sea Venture thus became separated from the others and was damaged, causing it to spring a leak. Water then rose rapidly in the hold, but Somers’ exhausted crew were unable to cope with the flooding. For some time there was every likelihood the ship would sink.

Then Somers realised he was in reach of a group of islands not far away, encircled by a treacherous reef – a great danger in a rough sea. The coral shoals were much feared by Elizabethan sailors, who called them the “Isles of Devils”. Located 100 years earlier by a Spanish navigator, Juan Bermudeth, the islands were named in his honour. Somers and his crewmen would be stranded on Bermuda for 10 months.

Somers had to come to a decision whether to risk a landfall or perish on the reef. Spotting what appeared to be a sandy bay the captain drove the ship straight towards it, but the Sea Venture struck a pair of submerged rocks before becoming wedged between two further rocks. From this point the ship’s crew was able to disembark, without difficulty, as by then the storm had abated. The cargo was landed without loss, but Somers’ ship could not be saved. The shipwrecked crew also had a wholesome food supply and local fresh fish, birds and wild pigs. Clear, fresh water lay a few inches below ground. In fact, Somers and his men soon came to realise that the island was a virtual paradise, and set about constructing rudimentary dwellings using palmeto leaves.

The marooned mariners stayed on the island for almost a year, by which time some of them didn’t want to leave. But conscious of duty Somers and his officers set about repairing one of the Sea Venture’s boats in preparation for leaving. Fourteen men volunteered to make the 600-mile crossing to the mainland, but were lost on route and never heard from again. The rest of the crew with their captain managed to leave the island by constructing two pinnaces from cedars growing on the island. In May 1610 the party reached Virginia.

Before leaving, Somers took possession of the island for England, to be known as Somers Islands (they were re-named in honour of Bermudeth only later.) The captain was then made Admiral of Virginia, and with the colony suffering a severe food shortage, he sailed back to Britain to procure fresh supplies at the behest of Lord de la Warr. On the grocer’s errand however, Somers’ ship was again caught in a severe storm. Soon after returning to Bermuda, the great seaman sickened and died from eating, it has been said, an excessive amount of pig meat. The local coinage had a pig engraved on one side and a ship on the other.

After his death Somers’ heart was removed and buried in Bermuda. His body was brought back to England in a cedar chest because of a maritime superstition stored on board without the crew’s knowledge. The Admiral’s home at that time had been Berne Farm near Whitchurch Canonicorum. It is therefore fitting that this story should end where it began, with his burial beneath the old chantry in St. Andrews Church in Canonicorum.

In this part of Dorset Somers had long been regarded as Lyme’s most distinguished and respected citizen. It has been said that Shakespeare’s inspiration for the Tempest owes something to Somers’ adventures, in the likeness of Prospero and his island to Somers and Bermuda.

In 1996 Lyme was twinned with St.George in Bermuda. On the 23rd of July 1999 there was a commemorative parade in memory of Somers, leading onto the Cobb. Those attending the non-civic lunch were treated to the national drink of the Caribbean island: a blend of dark rum and ginger beer known locally as Dark ‘n’ Stormy.

The Mystery of Candida

Apr 7th, 2010
by Dorset Ancestors.
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Sometimes referred to as the capital of the Marshwood Vale, the village of Whitchurch Canonicorum in West Dorset has a parish church with an appropriately grandiose exterior like a mini cathedral. The church dates from before the 13th century and is dedicated to a most unusual and obscure patron in a county in which so many churches are dedicated simply to Mary or John.

This account is not however concerned with a general history of the church, but specifically on an enigmatic patron saint and a unique monument within its walls. The ecclesiastical figure in question is St. Wyte – (or Wite, Witta, Blance, Albinus, Candida or Candidus,) a saint of several alternative names and almost as many theories about her identity.

One of these is that she was a Saxon princess or recluse, possibly companion of Boniface, who was martyred by invading Danes coming ashore at Charmouth. It is known that St. Boniface was born in the Marshwood district, but it is uncertain whether Witta was a local figure or not. Here arises the possibility that the dedication became confused or altered to Candida under foreign influence, for Candida is said to have been a Roman or Spanish virgin martyr. A second myth maintains that she was actually a Welsh saint called Gwen, while yet another holds that “she” is to be identified as Albinus, Bishop of Buraburg. Fourthly, Blanche is the native French name for a Norman saint who has been put forward as another claimant on her identity.

As these various appellations mean ‘white’ it is thought that this adjective also lies behind the origin of the parochial name “Whitchurch.” Several small manors comprise the parish, but none of these has given its name to the whole. Therefore it has been suggested that it was the church itself, possibly known by the Latin name of Ecclesia Candida, which later became Angliased to Whitchurch. Whatever the truth however, there is no doubt that a burial or inhumation took place above the monument in the parish church of St. Candida & Holy Cross at Whitchurch, today known as the Shrine of St. Candida.

The shrine is a 13th century roughly cast stone monument showing clear indications of having been added to at various stages or being a composite from various sources. It stands on a base in an alcove against the north wall of the church’s north transept. The west end of this base can be seen to be contiguous with the transept wall, but projecting some three inches beyond at the east end, so that the structure is not entirely parallel to the wall. Furthermore, there is a disparity of about three inches in the height of the shrine at each end of the church as there is a slight gradient in the pavement of the transept from west to east.

The lower part of the monument gives the appearance of having been a 13th century altar tomb reset into its present position at an unknown date. This repositioning was crudely carried out, so that it interferes with the engaged pilasters at each end. Three evenly-spaced elliptical apertures are set into the monument from front to back, their purpose apparently being the cavities into which people placed their diseased limbs while they prayed for the saint to restore them to health. Above, the structure is surmounted by an unadorned 14th century stone reliquary resting upon an earlier slab and sealed with a hollow-chamfered slab of partially eroded Purbeck marble. The coffin was found to contain the bones of a small woman when, it is said, it was opened around 1850 by the incumbent of Whitchurch at the time, the Revd. William Palmer.

The outer coffin bears no inscription, but when it was later opened again during repairs to the church wall in 1900, the reliquary was found to bear the inscription ‘Hic. Requesct. See Wite’ (here lie the remains of St. Wite.) No one quite knows the whereabouts of these remains today. Presumably the bones and the small casket containing them were returned to the coffin. However, during the original disturbance by Reverend Palmer in the 19th century the side of the coffin was fractured, leaving a crack in the side that can still be seen today. Nevertheless, it remains a fact that St. Candida & Holy Cross is the only church in England to traditionally contain the tomb of its own patron saint.

Not far from Whitchurch there is a well also dedicated to St. Candida, but before describing this there are two other notables connected with the church that deserve a mention.

Sir George Somers was a contemporary and fellow mariner of Sir Walter Raleigh, a sometime mayor of his birthplace Lyme Regis and an MP largely responsible for the colonisation of Virginia. During a storm a fleet of nine of his ships carrying settlers was grounded on one of Bermuda’s coral islands, which Somers took possession of. The settlers later completed the voyage to Virginia by building new boats, but after word of the castaways reached England, the venture inspired Shakespeare to write ‘The Tempest.’
Somers died in 1610 on a voyage back to Bermuda. His heart was buried there, but his body was brought home and buried in St. Candida & Holy Cross.

In the churchyard there is a memorial stone marking a grave, inscribed in English on one side and in Bulgarian on the other. The Bulgarian inscription is there because this is the grave of the dissident BBC World Service broadcaster and journalist Georgi Markov, who died after being injected with a lethal ricin pellet by a regime-hired Communist assassin on Waterloo Bridge in London during September 1978.

The well of Candida, known under the name of St. Wyte’s Well, is to be found at nearby Morcombelake on the further side of the Chardown Hill. It is situated at the extreme western end of the village, near to where the A35 takes a double bend southwards over the hills and leads to a narrow lane between farm buildings. Here a painted sign will direct you to the well about 300 yards up a muddy track (OS Sheet 193; GR398937.) Here, fenced off in its own enclosure is the well, which takes the form of a square stone-lined basin measuring about 1 foot by 1 foot five inches. The water level is about 8 inches below the kerb, and the water is typically well-colonised by algae. A modern plaque explains that this water has been blessed with the ability to cure eye diseases since the 16th century, but it is not above being able to cure other maladies.