RICHMOND:
database file source="h:/!Genuki/RecordTranscriptions/NRY/RichmondGuide.txt"
Robinson's Guide to Richmond (1833)
Part 26
Appendix V.
Appendix V.
REV JAMES TATE,
CANON RESIDENTIARY OF ST. PAUL'S.
NEVER was the honest sympathy of pleasure
so universally and unequivocally displayed through the town, as
on the occasion of Mr. Tate receiving his long looked for preferment.
The news went home to the feelings of every individual who heard
it, the bells were speedily set agoing, and the cheerful old Grecian
was well nigh smothered with the congratulations which poured
in from every side. An address was speedily drawn up and placed
at the principal inn, to receive the signatures of his townsmen;
and very soon afterwards, a subscription (not to exceed five shillings
each) was opened for the purchase of a suitable piece of plate,
to be presented to him as a solid and lasting testimony of the
esteem in which he was held.
The Mechanics' Institute, of which Mr. Tate had been the principal
promoter, next met him with a congratulatory address, which was
delivered to him at their Annual Meeting, by H. W. Yeoman, Esq.
It may possibly amuse the stranger, and must certainly interest
our townsmen, to preserve a copy of each of these addresses.-
That from the Inhabitants at large, was as follows
DEAR AND REVEREND SIR,
He who fully and faithfully discharges the important duties
of a public preceptor has a just right to the proud title of a
PUBLIC
BENEFACTOR.
The splendid academical success of your pupils for a long series
of years has ranked you with the first classical teachers of the
land, and the respect and affection of all your scholars bespeak
the endearing qualities of your character. That services so eminent,
and qualities so estimable, should finally be rewarded with becoming
clerical honour and emolument, has ever been one of the dearest
hopes of us all. Our hope has at length, through the munificence
of our most gracious and patriotic king, been happily realised.
We hail with unbounded delight your well merited elevation to
the dignity of
CANON
RESIDENTIARY
OF
ST.
PAUL's,
and with our cordial congratulations on this joyful occasion,
we combine a fervent prayer that you may long enjoy your learned
repose, blessed by the happiness and prosperity of your family.
The next is a copy of the address from the Institute.
DEAR AND REVEREND SIR,
We, the members of the Richmond Mechanics Institute, most respectfully
beg leave to tender to you our sincere congratulations on your
elevation to the dignity of Canon Residentiary of St, Paul's Cathedral,
which our beloved King has so graciously conferred upon you. When
we consider that for more than thirty-six years you have been
usefully, honourably, and most successfully engaged as a public
teacher; when we consider your conduct as the unwearied advocate
of rational liberty in its fullest extent as also your amiable
and truly benevolent character in private life; and, above all,
when we call to mind that notwithstanding the many important demands
on your valuable time from other and higher quarters, you have
promoted to the utmost of your powerful abilities the diffusion
of useful knowledge in an humbler sphere by accepting the office,
and most effectually discharging the duties of president of our
institution, fostering and encouraging it by your attendance and
counsel, and teaching us to seek knowledge for its own sake; when
we consider these among many other claims to our gratitude and
respect, we cannot but esteem this beneficent act of a gracious
Sovereign as a just and well earned tribute to a consistent, useful,
virtuous, and honourable life.
That, Sir, you may long enjoy in health and happiness all the
advantages of so distinguished a mark of royal favour, is our
most earnest and heartfelt prayer.
To this was returned the following reply:-
GENTLEMEN, MY FRIENDS, AND BROTHER MEMBERS
OF THE MECHANICS' INSTITUTE OF RICHMOND,
The very handsome estimate which you have been pleased to express
of my humble services as the president of your society, it would
ill become me to call in question And however flattering the language
of your Congratulation may sound on the promotion which our most
gracious sovereign has conferred upon me, I yet believe it to
be as sincerely offered on your part, as it is received with all
affectionate welcome on mine.
The whole indeed of my intercourse with you, gentlemen, has
been so entirely pleasing in its origin and continuance, and any
advice or countenance in my power to give, has been so constantly
seconded by your good will and good sense in cheerfully accepting
it; that after all, perhaps, (and for that am grateful) you have
made one generous mistake in striking the balance, and have imputed
as a merit to the attentions of the president, what was due to
the excellent dispositions of the society itself.
Owing every thing under God's good providence, as I have done
from my earliest years, to the great advantages of learned and
religious education afforded by the Free Grammar School of Richmond,*
on that ground alone I should be strangely insensible to the most
natural of obligations, if I did not advocate and help to advance
the diffusion of sound knowledge and useful learning in every
circle of human life.
To you therefore, gentlemen, my friends, as well in the concerns
of this our society, as in every other honest and honourable pursuit
in which you are engaged, I heartily wish all prosperity; and
praying God to bless you here and hereafter, I bid you for the
present most affectionately farewell.
JAMES TATE.
Amid all these gratifying tokens of esteem towards Mr. Tate,
it is to be hoped that the extensive learning, suavity of manners,
and exemplary character of his successor, will not be overlooked
or undervalued; but will have the effect of ensuring the continuance
of that respect and patronage which Richmond School has so long
enjoyed.
*Can the letter concerning the kind hearted Schoolmaster of
Richmond, in No. 168 of the Spectator, be supposed to refer to
our Richmond? If so, the selection of Richmond as the date of
the letter, is a pleasing proof of the celebrity which the School
had then acquired. It is singularly applicable to the present
management of the boys. Ed.
THE END.
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Robinson's Guide to Richmond (1833)
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