Concordia 25_cover section.indd

Concordia Winter 2022

Left: Bishop Peter Mews Plaque in Guardian Angels Chapel Below: Jane Austen Ledger Stone (Photos Stephen O’Connell)

16

Bishop Peter Mews: 1619-1706 Peter Mews (1631-1636) was appointed Bishop of Winchester in 1684. He was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School and St John’s College, Oxford (where he was later a Fellow). He fought on the side of Royalty in the Civil War and was used as a messenger to the exiled Royal family during the Commonwealth period. He was always known as Captain Mews in Royalist circles. After the restoration of the monarchy, he continued with his studies and was then given several preferments, becoming a Canon at both St David’s and Windsor, and taking up the post of Bishop of Bath and Wells, before becoming Bishop of Winchester. At the age of 66, he went to fight on the side of King James II in Monmouth’s rebellion at the Battle of Sedgemoor. At some stage in his fighting career, he suffered injuries to his face and wore a black patch to cover them. This earned him the nickname “Old Patch”. He died in 1706 at Farnham Castle, then the residence of the Bishop of Winchester, and was buried in Winchester Cathedral.

Edward Thorpe and Jane Austen: 1775-1817 Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral (which is why there is a picture of the cathedral on the current Jane Austen £10 note). It may not come as a surprise that Jane was not actually an alumna of the school, but her father, the Reverend George Austen was a Fellow of St John’s College, Oxford. From him, she doubtless heard much of Fellows of Merchant Taylors’, and conceived the idea of having one of her characters, Edward Thorpe, attend the school in the book, Northanger Abbey. “From him, she doubtless heard much of Fellows of Merchant Taylors’, and conceived the idea of having one of her characters, Edward Thorpe, attend the school in the book, Northanger Abbey.”