This touching elegy to Mary Bird by her loving husband John, rector of Knapwell, accompanies her burial entry in the parish register where John wrote "8 August 1696 my dear wife Mrs Mary Bird died about 8 a.m."
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Elegy to Mary Bird
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John, born in Cambridge, was an undergraduate at Christ’s College and curate of Carlton-cum-Willingham before becoming rector of Knapwell in 1679, where he remained until his own death in 1709.
In 1684 he was licensed as the village schoolmaster. Although the couple do not appear to have married in Cambridgeshire, John baptised six of their children in Knapwell church.
Source:
The original elegy appears among the pages of the Knapwell parish register 1680-1781 held at Cambridgeshire Archives, document reference P102/1/1.