In Islington Church Yard

The Tomb of Richard Cloudesley and in the churchyard of St Mary Islington, drawn by Thomas Gosden (1780 – 1843), probably c.1840. Richard Cloudesley d.1517. He was one of Islington’s best known charitable benefactors. His will of 1517 left 2 fields of pasture land ‘the stony fields’ to the parish of St Mary Islington. The annual rent from these fields was initially paid into the churchwardens account and managed through St. Mary’s vestry. In the middle of the 19th century the charity was constituted more formally as the Richard Cloudesley Charity, and in 2013 it rebranded as just ‘Cloudesley’.
The value of Richard Cloudesley’s legacy increased significantly in the 1820s when the vestry decided to let the two fields to speculative builders. The result was the oblong square of streets around Cloudesley Square, known in the 19th century as the Cloudesley Estate or the Stonefield Estate. The value of the charity’s assets increased again around 1900 when the 81-year ground rents were re-let. But the properties had begun to deteriorate and in 1937 three quarters of the freeholds were sold. The charity retained a number of houses in Cloudesley Road and the ground rents from these, plus other investments still provide the charity’s income – which todays runs at around £1million a year.
Richard Cloudesley’s will specified that he should be buried in the church yard of St Mary Islington and that a grave stone should be laid over him (apparently an unusual request in 1517). The tomb has always been maintained by the parish, although the site of the grave seems to have moved more than once and the tomb itself has been rebuilt. In 2017 Richard Cloudesley’s tomb was extensively restored by the charity as part of their 500th anniversary celebrations.
The artist Thomas Gosden (1780 – 1843) was a bookman, print seller and antiquarian who recorded church monuments. His trade card in the Heal collection (British Museum) contains a reference to the sale of a collection of sketches of such tombstones:
"A Collection of Sixty-One Original Coloured Drawings By Thomas Gosden, being sketches of tombstones of famous and celebrated men and women..." It includes a quote from Mr. A.E. Newton from his book "This Book Collecting Game" stating: "On his business card Gosden described himself as a bookbinder, publisher, and print-seller, but he was more than this: he was an excellent sportsman with rod and gun, and an ardent antiquarian. He spent a great deal of his time poking about in churches and graveyards, making drawings of tombs and tablets..."
(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=23917 which has some further details about Gosden)
The Corporation of London collection on Collage has several examples of these tombstone sketches, identical in style to the Cloudesley example. Besides Richard Cloudesley’s tomb in Volume 3, several other Gosden tombs and inscriptions from Islington are pasted into in Volume 4 of 63.131.