Queenborough

The Gentleman's Magazine (vol. 98, December 1828: 513) notes that the font is not ancient and reproduces the image of a castle as it is supposed to appear on the Queenborough baptismal font. Noted in Glynne (1877): "The font is of late character, and has a small octagonal bowl on banded stem." Noted in Newman (1976): "Font. Given in 1610. Octagonal, on a thick stem with a complex moulding of double waves and other Gothic forms. On the E face of the bowl a schematized relief of Queenborough Castle, with cannon mounted in the walls." The Sheppey On-line site [http://sheppeyonline.co.uk/index.php/Queenborough-Church/] [accessed 22 November 2008] adds: "A Visitation of Archdeacon Nicholas Harpsfield in 1557 revealed that the church had no font, ‘for as they say, they never marry, bury nor christen but at Minster’. The subservience of the church to Minster remained for many years a source of discontent at Queenborough. In 1583 there was hope that the issue might be resolved when, on 28th June, John Cobham, one of the town’s Members of Parliament, wrote to the Mayor that he had ‘spoken to my Lord of Canterberrys grace, and he is contented to make oure town a parrych’ [...] For the christening ceremonies Nicholas Taylar, one of the Jurats of the town, stepped in to present the church with its first font. The font, installed in 1610, is of an attractive octagonal design, manufactured from Kentish ragstone with a domed oak cover. Its most interesting feature, however, is the stylized represen­tation on one of its faces of the Keep of Queenborough Castle."