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Samuel Thurston is one of the most famous men in the history of bell ringing in not only Norwich, but throughout England. St Peter Mancroft, Norwich has a number of tributes to him in the belfry. There is also a picture of him standing in the belfry.
The picture says "This portrait of Mr. Samuel Thurston was presented to him Dec. 8th 1822, by a few young men belonging to the Society of St. Peter's Mancroft Ringers, for his many eminent and useful Services as a Teacher and Master of the Ancient Science of Ringing" The picture does not show just how large a man he was. He was 5ft. 8in. in height and weighed about 17 stone (238 lbs). Samuel Thurston
was the illegitimate son of Frances Thurston. His occupation was a stone
mason and he was employed by Norwich Cathedral at £1 4s. 0d. per week from 1832
onwards, eventually gaining the position of head mason and having five or six
workmen under him. Oddly, he is recorded in White's Norfolk Directory, 1836,
as a cabinet maker and in Pigots 1830 directory of Norfolk as a Furniture
Brokers Norwich Cathedral
On January 14th 1810 Samuel Thurston married Marianne Coleman at St Martin-at-Palace. The Norwich Scholars once had a John Coleman amongst them who died in 1835 and it is thought Marianne may have been his daughter.
The house in which Samuel Thurston lived was nearly opposite the east end of the church of St Martin-at-Palace, the second house to the north of The Cupid and Bow public-house. He had at least seven children. Three were sons. George followed in his father's trade as stone mason, another was a werryman and had about twelve boats on the river Yare between Norwich and Yarmouth. The youngest was captain of "The Chancellor", a trading vessel belonging to New York. He was last heard of in Spain. In 1829 Samuel Thurston and his family left Norwich for Bow Parish in London, but returned to Norwich the following year. It is said that they returned to Norwich because his wife did not like London. Thurston was a member of the Norwich Scholars for more than 30 years. In 1813 he joined the College Youths and became such an accomplished ringer that he became a Norwich Scholar on April 29th 1814. He deserves his fame, but he was aware of his brilliance, and seems often to have taken steps to see that it was fittingly recorded both on peal boards and in the papers. It is typical of him that his peals are reported in the Norwich Mercury for the most part saying, "it was conducted by Samuel Thurston with his usual ability and precision". It is noted that a peal attempt which came round after only 4,884 changes (and so could not be counted) owing to a mistake in Thurston's conducting, was not published in any Norwich paper! In 1813 Thurston, in the local newspapers, challenged Mr. Chesnutt (the then leader of the St. Peter Mancroft company) to ring with him for £100! This led to a controversy in the papers. It is not thought that the challenge was accepted. In April, 1825, Thurston reported in the paper that he had rehung Mancroft tenor so that it could be rung more easily. This was contradicted the following week, by Hurry, who stated that he had rehung the bell four years before, since when it had not been touched by anyone else. Several of his peals were of outstanding merit. Among them may be noted the 5016 Norwich Court Bob Maximus at Mancroft on 20 January, 1817; 8448 Oxford Treble Bob, at St. Michael Coslany on 18 November, 1824; 6160 Double Norwich (the longest up to that time) at St. Michael Coslany on 1 November, 1832; 5376 Superlative Surprise at St. Giles' on 6 February, 1835; and the first peal of London Surprise, 5280 changes, at St. Andrew's on 17 November, 1835.
St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich
Some of the stone tributes to Samuel Thurston in St. Peter Mancroft's belfry. It is interesting to note that Samuel Thurston's name is even scratched on the inside of one of the five Norwich Cathedral clock bells. Four of the five bells were cast in monastic times between 1424-1482 and each has an inscription dedicating it to a saint -Margaret, Andrew, Katherine and Mary. It is inside the tenor that Samuel Thurston's name is scratched. In 1819 Samuel Thurston is recorded as officiating as a bellhanger, having hung bells at Blofield, Worstead, Paston and Weston. http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/blofield/church.html mentions this fact on their website. About the time of the battle of Waterloo, Thurston was pressed into the militia. He considered it such a degradation that, during musketry drill one morning, he fired away his ramrod. He was very fond of talking about his adventures. One incident occurred to him one night when on his way to Fakenham on some ringing exploit. He was trudging alone, along a country road, swinging his arms to and fro. It was very dark and a greyhound came noiselessly alongside him and bobbed its cold nose into Thurton's warm hand. This startled him and he started to run. He did not get far when he fell over a donkey lying in the road! Samuel Thurston was a genius in many ways. He was very clever with clocks. He had them all over the house and people brought their clocks to him for repair. It is told that he put some sort of contrivance into one of his own clocks which when fully wound up would keep repeating the words "Don't fret" until the special mechanism had run down. He was not only a good composer and conductor on tower bells, but also rang handbells, an art harder, in many people's opinion, than tower bell peals. He had a lot of young men who he called "young stags" who came to practice at his house once a week. When these young men practiced on the church bells Thurston would go into his bed-chamber to hear them. He was a little deaf and used an ear-horn or ear trumpet. He was able to follow the ringing and detect a mis-call or change course. He would write down the mistake on a piece of paper and reprimand the young man when he next saw him.
Samuel had eaten rather heavily and retired to his bed as usual. Early the next morning, between 2-3am, his wife, Mary, found Samuel making a gurgling noise in his throat. By the time she could obtain a light he was dead. The doctor said "He died through having too much fat round the heart, so that it had not sufficient room to beat." The greatest respect was shown in Norwich at his burial. Shutters were closed, blinds drawn and at nearly every church in Norwich the bells were tolled just before the interment. His obituary notice in the local newspaper said:- "On Saturday January 9th, 1841, died suddenly in the 52nd year of his age, Samuel Thurston, who was for more than 30 years one of St. Peter's Mancroft ringers. As a practical ringer and theorist combined, the art has lost one of its brightest ornaments, but though dead, the tablets erected in different parishes throughout the city and county will yet live to record his fame as a ringer, and those who best knew him can testify that the best ringers our city can boast of are indebted to this great artist in the profession for the knowledge they possess in the art of ringing, Norwich being able to compete with any band of ringers in the United Kingdom." Samuel Thurston was buried at the foot of St. Peter's Mancroft tower, close to the little door where the ringers go up to ascend the tower at the south-east corner. A memorial tablet was placed in the south wall of St. Peter's tower by the Norwich scholars recording the same. The inscription says:- "This stone is erected to the memory of Mr. Samuel Thurston, many years an eminent ringer of this parish, in commemoration of his great abilities and perseverance in advancing the art of ringing, he having performed and conducted many of the most intimate peals. He suddenly departed this life much regretted by the Exercise at large on the 9th January 1841, in the 52nd year of his age. The following is from St. Peter's sick society's books:- "January 15th 1841 - paid to the widow £3; paid to the bearers, 12s.; warning the society, 2s.; beer and tobacco 19s.7d.; bumbling the bells 2s." He was very generous and "kept an excellent table", so that at his death his wife and younger children were left unprovided for. Consequently they became scattered. One of the older daughters went to Congleton and the youngest daughter joined her there shortly afterwards. Later on they went to Macclesfield to learn silk weaving. One of Samuel Thurston's daughters married John Finlow. They had several daughters and one son Robert Finlow, who was an engineer and millwright in Macclesfield. The following was in the local newspaper; "On Tuesday, December 9th 1856, in her 69th year, died Mary, widow of the late Mr. Samuel Thurston, who was many years one of St Peter's Mancroft ringers." Samuel Thurston's son, George Thurston, was also a member of the Norwich Scholars, but not of the standard of his father. It is said that he poisoned his fingers or one of his hands and that he died while being operated on at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital. Cause of death given on George Thurston's death certificate is "Hydrothoroax from deseased heart - certified". The obituary notice in the local newspaper said :- "On Wednesday March 21st, 1849, died Mr. George Thurston, at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, son of the late Samuel Thurston, the celebrated change-ringer of this city."
Mary Ann Caroline Thurston with her husband Percy Metcalf.
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St. Martin at Palace, Norwich
