Kismet and Serendipity are important parts of family research

On Wednesday (12 July 2023) the workshop was on Visitations and Hatchments; now available in the members only area of our web site.

At a talk by Celia Heritage entitled 'Above and below: exploring a pre-reformation church and churchyard' she showed a picture by the Artist Samuel Prout 1738-1852. The name of the church was not given but the interest was in the hatchments hanging on the church walls.

In the Q & A I asked about the Samuel Prout picture showing the interior of a church with hatchments on the walls. Unfortunately, the location of the church was not known.

I discover on the web site https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Samuel-Prout/202297/Arundel-Church-(lithotint).html the picture and it confirmed it is of St Nicholas Church in Arundel, Sussex.

This takes on a Kevin Bacon moment (six degrees of separation) as my initial interest was on the Hatchments but Francis Cuffley was put into Arundel by Oliver Cromwell in 1653 and died there in 1656.

He was a Captain of a company of Sir Richard Onslow's regiment of Surrey Foot. On a Sunday in June 1646, he preached to the troops about to march on Basing House. "Captain Cuffly, an honest godly man of Gilford (sic) who goes out with them upon this design, preached unto them and after sermon they marched towards Farnham, and so for Basing".

There is a list of vicars in the church which includes Francis Cuffley. Looking back at the photographs I took many years ago I can see that there are some hatchments high up on the walls.

I think I now need to go back to Arundel and study and record the hatchments just in case one relates to Francis.

Who would have thought the two events would link and that link was Francis Cuffley 1604-1656, one of my one name study.