Anthony Williams (c.1807-1836):
Holy Trinity Church, Blatherwycke PE8 6YW
It is not clear whether Anthony Williams’ headstone still remains, and this uncertainty highlights the importance of discovering and protecting these important memorials.
Lake Blatherwycke is the largest manmade lake in the UK, constructed in the18th century for the O’Brien family. Over the years, it has claimed a number of lives and one of those may, or may not, have been that of Anthony Williams, who is remembered for having saved the life of his drowning master.
The Northamptonshire Black History Association’s excellent database lists versions of the key events. It seems that Jacob and his master had been fishing on the lake when the latter lost his balance and fell in. Anthony jumped in to save him, and probably lost his life in doing so. There are local recollections of a statue commemorating his rescue by the lake. There is also another account which claims he survived for a few more years before dying of a cold.
The church is now redundant and isolated, and it is not clear whether his headstone is still legible, or indeed extant.
Inscription:
In Memory of Anthony Williams
who was drowned in (Blatherwyke Lake)
June 11th, 1836,
Aged 29 Years.
Here a poor wanderer hath found a grave,
Who death embraced when struggling with the wave,
His home far off in the broad Indian main,
He left to rid himself of slavery’s chain.
Friendless and comfortless he passed the sea,
On Albions shores to seek liberty,
Yet in vain his search for aye with toiling brow
he never found his freedom until now.
