REMEMBERING HUGH SEXEY
This year is the 400th anniversary of the death of Hugh Sexey and he is not forgotten by the Old Sexonians of Sexey's Grammar, Blackford.
Hugh Sexey passed away on August 19th, 1619 and was buried in St Giles without Cripplegate, London. Hugh would have worshipped at the church and had married his first wife, Dorothy Utley there in 1583.
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Some evidence suggest that Hugh had not been well for some time and that his extensive travelling round the country, often on horse back, may have have been a contributory factor - by now he was well into his seventies.
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To commemorate his passing I thought it would be a nice gesture to place a 'picture' of Hugh inside the church precisely 400 years after his death in recognition of his philanthropic deeds carried out by him and, under instruction, by his Trustees in the years following.
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I contacted the Rector, Katherine Rumens, who was very happy for this to happen and that the church would definitely be open as there was a church book sale going on that day.
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Fortunately, for me I didn't have to make the long trip to London from Somerset to deliver the picture. My son, Edward is an actor living in London and volunteered to take the picture for me under strict instructions to place it somewhere reasonably prominent!
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Needless to say, St Giles of the 17th century was in a far more rural setting that it is now and Edward had a bit of a job finding it despite knowing its general location - tall buildings and office blocks didn't help!
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The staff that greeted Edward were very helpful and offered to put the picture somewhere prominent where people attending the sale couldn't help but see it. One can't help but smile when you think of all the different reactions there must have been when people caught sight of his surname!!
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Those of you with high res screens might be able to spot I put the date of his death on the picture and not his funeral date which was the very next day - apologies, Hugh!
St Giles over the years, has been the burial place for many famous people - Hugh is certainly in good company.
The church does have a relatively recent claim to fame however in that the organ was used by the famous keyboard player, Rick Wakeman, when he played with the progressive rock group, 'Yes'.
Being a big 'Yes' fan, Edward was under strict instructions to get a picture of it!
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This ends the site's tribute to Hugh and I would like to give a huge 'thank you' to all those who made this article possible and finally to give thanks to Hugh Sexey himself whose philanthropy enabled us all to be called 'Old Sexonians'.
RIP Hugh.
