“Saint” John Kettlewell - “excellent clergyman”

Vicar John Kettlewell was a renowned writer and theologian when he was appointed vicar here in 1682. His views led to him refusing to take the oaths of allegiance to William and Mary. He was forced to leave Coleshill, retiring quietly to continue his studies and writing, occasionally sending kind messages to hs former parishioners.

The tomb, where Kettlewell was thought to have been a second occupant for Archbishop Laud's, was situated in the crypt of All Hallows by the Tower. Laud’s body had been removed to St John's College Oxford in July 1663.

The crypt was lost for several centuries. Much of the crypt was later explored and excavated and the eastern end made into a columbarium chapel, where the ashes of those associated with the church were laid. No exact information survives as to the location of Laud's/Kettlewell's tomb.

The church was badly bombed in the Blitz. Kettlewell's memorial tablet survived (just) and it is now placed on the south wall of the church (above left). Ecclesiastical historian and biographer John Strype also records it in his survey of 1720.

“In the Chancel. John Kettlewell, A.M. some time Pastor of Coles Hill in Warwickshire: Died Apr. 12. 1695. His Inscription upon his Monument fixed to a Pillar at the South Side of the Altar, deserves here to be set down, to preserve the Memory of an excellent Clergyman.”