3-043-794 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Late Rev. John Dudley, Vicar of Sileby, Leicestershire, Aged 93, 1856. This venerable divine...was born in 1762...He has been a great benefactor...not only by his kindness and liberality to the poor, but also by restoring and beautifying the churches of both [his parishes]. He entirely repaved and built a new porch to Humberstone Church at his own expense, besides otherwise restoring it...He rebuilt the old bridge in the village; and by his active exertions and some cost to himself, he enforced the rebuilding of another bridge in the parish of Sileby, which, from its dangerous state for a long period of time, had been the cause of many accidents...For forty-seven years he was one of her Majesty's most able and active justices of the peace...He was the author of several learned works - viz., "The Metamorphosis of Sona a Hindoo legend in verse, after the manner of Ovid"...He preached his last sermon on the 16th December last, and the severe weather during the following week brought on an attack of bronchitis, which proved fatal...at the close of a long and useful life, he awaited the approach of death with serenity, rejoicing in the hope of eternal life'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.