Sarah
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The Bideford Weekly Gazette, and Devon and Cornwall Advertiser. Tuesday 29 May 1894
Page 5 Column 3
IN MEMORIAM. - MR. RICHARD BRAUND.
The Vicar of Woolsery sends up the following notice of the career of the late Mr. Richard BRAUND, a true, tried, and deeply regretted public servant. - “During the past week there has passed from among us the familiar figure of one who was well-known in Bideford, and the neighbouring districts, and who was deservedly respected by all who know him. For 42 years Mr. Richard BRAUND held the post of Relieving Officer, as well as that of Registrar of Births, Marriages, and Deaths for the Hartland District, and was thus continually brought in contact with a large number of people, and especially with that needy class who receive parish relief. Quiet and unostentatious in his manner, and a man of very few words, he combined with these characteristics most strict and punctual business habits. The poor will miss a kind friend, and a faithful upholder of their interests, and the Board of Guardians have lost a faithful and conscientious servant.
Though for many years suffering from a serious internal complaint, he struggled through his laborious duties with a courage and persistency <sic> worthy of imitation, and during his long tenure of office he never missed, except on two occasions, meeting the Bideford Board of Guardians. During many of these years he also had charge of the Woolsery Post Office.
Though very unwell on Friday last, he went his usual rounds to relieve the poor, and on the next day, though unfit to leave his bed, he carefully wrote up all his books for the Board of Guardians for the following Tuesday (May 22nd), little thinking that on the evening of that day he would quietly breathe his last, and pass to higher service in the world beyond. So rapidly did the end come that his son, Mr James BRAUND, residing in Bideford, only just arrived on Monday in time to find his father conscious, and his other some, Mr. Joseph BRAUND, of Bristol, reached his father's bedside to late too be recognised.
Of his private character much might be said. It corresponded with his public life. He seemed to belong to the history of the past, rather than the present. Born in 1823, in Woolsery, he lived in that village all his life. In early life he became influenced by the teachings of the Wesleyan body, and joined them at a time when preachers were imprisoned for their public utterances, and when in Woolsery the services were carried out in a farmhouse, under difficulties. But he lived to see happier days, and more Christian liberty. For upwards of 40 years he was a local preacher, and for many years class leader, and won the respect of all by his quiet, consistent, Christian life. It was no difficult thing to discern what Master he served. Nor did he fear the face of man, but boldly, though gently, rebuked those tendencies in his own Society, as well as in the whole professing Christian Church, which he felt were productive of worldliness, and therefore of a corresponding loss of spiritual power. He was by no means a bigot, and though warmly attached to the principles of John WESLEY, he loved Evangelical truth and worship wherever he could find it, and was far from being an opponent of the Church of England. His body was laid to rest on Saturday afternoon, May 26th, at 2-30, in the parish churchyard, next to that of his late beloved wife, (whose maiden name was Susan BURROW), and close to that of his son Richard, whose untimely death two years ago produced a shock which may probably have hastened his own death. A large number of people attended the funeral out of respect to his memory. An address was delivered by the Vicar in the Church, and suitable hymns were sung. His example and influence will long survive him, and he leaves behind him a name deservedly honoured, both as a man of strict intregity <sic>, and business capability, as well as a humble and consistent Christian.”
From another source we learn that the funeral service was jointly taken by the Vicar of Woolsery and the Rev. Mr. JENKINS (Wesleyan Superintendent minister of Kilkhampton), that Master BURROW, son of the Vicar, played a funeral march on the organ, and that amongst the 150 who followed in the funeral cortege were several guardians and ex-guardians, Mr. C. W. HOLE (Clerk to the Board of Guardians), Mr. W. H. ANDREW (master of the Workhouse), and Mr. T. OATWAY (relieving officer).