Great Pargetters
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To mark Lower
LoxleyÂ’s current tercentenary celebrations, contributors to
the remember some of Nigel's famous ancestors:
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Baron
Hubert de Pargyterre (1167 - 1221)
Hubert de Pargyterre was not present to witness the signing of Magna Carta
on Runymede, as he had been misdirected to Canvey Island. However it is
clear that he was expected at this historic event since an early draft,
preserved as a fragment in Felpersham Cathedral library, includes the
words "no man shall be fined to his utter ruin, except the common
people and that idiot Pargyterre".
Tessa Ing
Major
Dennis Pargetter (1878 - 1952)
Indian Army, DSO, DFC, Iron Cross First Class (all acquired in Lucknow
market) - First coming to public notice after unfortunately letting off
a firecracker in Amritsar in 1919, Major Pargetter was later credited
with being largely responsible for the formation of the 'Quit India' movement,
after remarking 'fancy a sandwich?' to the Mahatma. His distinguished
war record included claiming to be a Nepalese mother on the outbreak of
war in 1939, spending the entire siege of Tobruk tenaciously occupying
a wine cellar in Alexandria, and at great personal risk evacuating large
sums of Army pay from the siege of Kohima (the money was never subsequently
traced). Cashiered from the Army on a record-breaking six occasions.
Tony Keen
Henri
"le Pargeusier" Pargetter (1901 - 1967)
Undeterred by his failure to win an architecture diploma, le Pargeusier
was uncompromising in his bold, Modernist designs. He was particularly
influenced by le Corbusier's definition of a house as "a machine
for living in". His last residence, a 1955 Ford Consul, was recently
listed Grade 1*.
Robert Ing
Herbert
Pargetter (1072-1099)
Herbert Pargetter took the cowl, entering Felpersham Abbey in 1095, where
he quickly made his mark. He appears to have worked in the vegetable gardens
and to have assisted in the brewing of medicines. The Prior refers to
him in one document saying: 'Yhave sadley lost maney of yre membyrs whene
idiotte Pargyttre did give a dose of monkesbane in mistayke for ye mynte.'
Frances
Carman
Frank
Boy Pargetter (1903 - 1955)
Younger brother of Le Pargeusier (qv), Frank Boy Pargetter emigrated to
the United States of America, where he became that country's most accomplished
domestic architect. Self-taught like his elder sibling , his most famous
accomplishment was Fallingover, an ambitious and audacious design for
a modern house, built to extend beyond its own centre of gravity over
a Pennsylvanian waterfall.
Frank Boy
Pargetter put his entire architectural genius into Fallingover and worked
so hard on the design he often quipped it would be the death of him. In
the end, of course, it literally was. One morning as he surveyed the tangled
mass of stone and metal , a fireplace which had been caught in a tree
was dislodged by a gust of wind and fell on top of him. It was as he lay,
prone and fatally bleeding on the mossy bank of the river, that he was
given his famous sobriquet "the apotheosis of the horizontal."
Joanna Townmouse
Abigail
'Goody' Pargetter (1640-1690)
Creator of the famous 'Borsetshire Blue' Cheese which was commended by
Samuel Pepys in 1669 when he was travelling through the county. 'Tast'd
an interesting Cheese, cunningly Shot through With veins, Tangy, salty,
fine, mature, all that a Cheese and a Wench should be. 'cept, of course,
the veins!'
Frances Carman
The Hon
Lady Henrietta Constance Pargetter (1852 - 1900)
Daughter of Dr Erasmus Pargetter, from whom it is believed she inherited
her fathers' scientific curiosity, The Hon Hen was a tireless traveller
and collector of curios.
Her first visit to Africa came in 1880, her family now convinced that
despite her vast wealth her general appearance, smell and habit of bellowing
suddenly at people in close range would vouchsafe that she would never
get a husband.
In 1895 she climbed Mount Cameroon, unfortunately thinking it to be Kilimanjaro.
She was laughed out of the Royal Geographical Society's Christmas Lectures.
The Hon Hen set out for her last trip to West Africa, inexplicably landing
up in the middle of the Boer War. She worked as a tireless nurse for the
Zulus, was caught by the Boers and summarily executed for treason. Never
was a woman so admired in life as the manner of her leaving it. Refusing
a blindfold, The Hon Hen lit up a cheroot, slapped her thighs and bellowed
"Been a bloody good innings what?" and attempted to snog the
captain of the firing squad. He immediately called for her death.
Mary Sanderson
Joe 'Bubba'
Pargetter (1923-1993)
Joe was the caretaker at the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. He
was fired from his job in November 1963, after directing a Mr Oswald to
the 6th floor of the building so he could get a better look at President
Kennedy's cavalcade. Joe was later heard to say "I thought I was
doing him a favour. Poor guy couldn't see anything from the grassy knoll."
Calamity Jane
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