Grave of Willis and Mary Caroline at Banbury

ウィリス夫妻の墓石の写真が見つかりました。感謝とともにご紹介。

Willis died at  2 West Bar, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom on 26 October 1918, and was buried at Southam Road Cemetery, Southam Road, Banbury. 

Banbury Town Council

Southam Road Cemetery

http://www.banbury.gov.uk/Banbury-Town-Council/southam_road_cemetery-3837.aspx

Here is a photograph of Willis' tombstone, taken by a church historian, Ms Alice Goss of Colchester, England.

Grave of Willis Norton Whitney
Tico Productions
https://www.flickr.com/photos/glamalice/18592599021/

Click here to the photo @ Flickr 

I am really grateful to Alice for sharing the photo on the web. Furthermore, she had the kindness to send me a high-resolution image of the photo, so that I can note the inscription :

IN

AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE

OF WILLIS NORTON WHITNEY M.D. 

OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, U.S.A.

BELOVED PHYSICIAN OF THE 

AKASAKA MISSION HOSPITAL.

TOKIO : JAPAN 1883 - 1911.

WHO PASSED TO HIS HEAVENLY REST 

AT BANBURY,

OCT. 26TH 1918.

AGED 63 YEARS.

BUT WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST

1 Peter 1.19 *1

HIS SERVANTS SHALL SERVE HIM AND THEY SHALL 

SEE HIS FACE REV. 22.3-4 *2

AND OF OUR BELOVED MOTHER 

MARY CAROLINE WHITNEY,

(NÉE BRAITHWAITE) 

WHO DIED AT BANBURY JULY 4TH 1935

AGED 78 YEARS.

THEY TOOK KNOWLEDGE OF THEM THAT 

THEY HAD BELIEVETH JESUS. ACTS 4.13 *3

The hospital name is mentioned as “Akasaka Mission Hospital”, and there is no information of their birth years on the stone.

The rest place of Willis' was what I've looking for for years. Thank you, Alice! 

*1 瑕｛きず｝なく汚點｛しみ｝なき羔羊｛こひつじ｝の如きキリストの貴｛たふと｝き血に由｛よ｝ることを知ればなり〔文語訳　ペテロ前書 1:19〕 

*2 その僕｛しもべ｝らは之｛これ｝に事｛つか｝へ、且｛かつ｝その御顔｛みかほ｝を見ん〔文語訳　黙示録22:3-4〕 

*3 そのイエスと偕｛とも｝にありし事を認｛み｝とむ。〔文語訳　使徒行伝4:13〕

Last updated  on 08 Nov. 2017

Adelaide Norton Whitney - 1

函館外国人墓地に眠るウィリスの妹、アデレード・ノートン・ホイットニーのお話です。日本語版はこちらからどうぞ

Adelaide N. Whitney
講談社版『クララの明治日記（上）』
カバージャケットより（部分）

If you look for the image of foreigners' cemetery in Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan on a search engine, you could find a grave with a low white cross near a hydrangea bush among hundreds of photos, like the following.

Hakodate Foreign Cemetery [click here]

This is the final rest place for Adelaide Norton Lang, née Whitney, younger sister of Willis Norton Whitney.

You might think why the cross has not a good balance - the vertical bar is too short, even as a Greek cross? This mystery was solved when I found a book Hakodate Gaijin Bochi [函館外人墓地, Hakodate Foreigners' Cemetery] written by BABA Osamu, published in 1975.

Mr BABA (1892-1979), a well-known local historian, a dentist, who was born and raised in Hakodate city, compiled the fruits of years of research on buried non-Japanese-persons in Hakodate into a book. This is a great, unprecedented work.

『函館外人墓地』馬場脩 著/図書裡会 1975

  http://search.library.utoronto.ca/details?4036709&uuid=3cbbe878-8f0f-4efa-944f-cbde0a741e49

Addie's gravestone had fell a victim of vandalism, and the cross went missing for a long while. Mr BABA, an Orthodox Christian, found the cross in 1972 and the Anglican Church in Hakodate [Hakodate St. John Church 函館聖ヨハネ教会] restored the grave a few years before the book published.

『函館外人墓地』 p.22 より

ADELAIDE NORTON LANG

THE BELOVED WIFE OF

REV. D. M. LANG, C. M. S.

WHO DIED AT HAKODATE

OCTOBER 1ST 1896

AGED 26 YEARS

“SO HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP”

Hakodate St John Church put a metal plate
for Addie, just beside the grave.
Photo taken in 2016.

Mr BABA wrote that “nothing was known about this priest's wife” [p.59], however, I can add something.

Adelaide Norton was born 17 June 1868 at Newark, NJ, as the third and youngest child of Mr & Mrs Whitney. She was 7 years old when her family arrived Japan on August 1875. On 17 January 1893 Addie married a Scottish missionary, Rev. David Marshall Lang (1862-1946) of CMS at St Andrews Church, Tokyo. She passed away just after she delivered her first-born on 1 October 1896, at the age of 28, not 26.

Dr. Whitney's younger sister had married a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, Rev. David M. Lang and they resided at Hakodate. Four years later, and only a week or two after our return from furlough in 1896 the news came to us by telegram that a son was born； but the dear mother had died about two hours after. On hearing this Dr. Whitney immediately started for Hakodate, with a sorrowful heart, and came back five days later bringing the beautiful motherless boy with him for me to take care of. He was with us for six months and then an opportunity offered to send him to Mr. Lang's sister in London, where he was brought up. [ Remi1933, p.55 ]

The son was baptized David Marshall after his father, was grown up in England. He became a medical doctor as his uncle Willis, had a practice at Bath and died on 16 August 1978. His eldest son, born on 6 May 1924 was named also David Marshall Lang, became a professor of Caucasian Studies, University of London.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Marshall_Lang

I felt so happy when I had found Professor Lang's son lives in London  — poor Addie's great-grandson IS alive! What I might tell his family is, the small corner of a foreign field your great-grandmother resting is very beautiful place with a fine view. Her life was short, but was blessed.

The following is her obituary, written by her husband.

Mrs. D. Marshall Lang. 

Adelaide Norton Lang, wife of Rev. D. M. Lang, M. A. of the Church Mission Society, who died at Hakodate, October 1st. 1896, was the daughter of Prof. W. C. Whitney of Newark, New Jersey, U. S. In 1875 (when she was only 6 [sic] years old) her father was invited to found a Commercial College in Japan. Five years later a visit was paid to England, and while there she became interested in the Scripture Union; so on her return she endeavoured to start a branch in Japan. Through the influence of Mr. Tsuda Sen [*1] this was begun, and the number of members rapidly increased until now there are over 11,000 with 460 secretaries and branches in all parts of the Empire. For a while Mrs. Lang was teacher of English in the Peeress' School [*2] in Tokyo, until her marriage in January 1893. Since then first at Osaka, then at Hamada [*3], and lastly at Hakodate, she truly helped the work of her husband for the spread of the Saviour's kingdom in Japan. Whether visiting Kushiro and other outstations with him, or preparing Bible Women for their work and herself holding women's meetings, she was ever labouring for the good of those around her. 

Her long residence in Japan gave her a command of the language rarely attained, which she always used for God's glory. By translating the life of Catherine Tait [*4] and in other ways she also tried to impress upon the mothers of Japan the duty and beauty of a Christian Home. Her death, at a time when a wider sphere of usefulness seemed opening out for her, was a great loss to the work, but her service is only continued in a higher and more perfect sphere for the Master she loved and served below. D. M. L.

— Proceedings of the General Conference of Protestant Missionaries in Japan,  p.703.

[ Notes by the editor ]

*1 TSUDA Sen : 津田仙 1837-1908, a Methodist educator, agriculturist. Father of Miss TSUDA Umeko, founder of Tsuda College [津田塾大学].
*2 Peeress' School in Tokyo : 女子学習院. See History of Gakushuin School. 
*3 Hamada : 石見国浜田町〔現・島根県浜田市〕 Now Hamada City, Shimane.
*4 Catherine Tait : 1819-1878, wife of Archibald Tait (1811-1882), Archbishop of Canterbury (1868-1882).

Rev. D. M. Lang got remarried with his Scotland-born maternal first cousin in 1902 and had another son, who became a school teacher. He continued his missionary work on Hokkaido in Japan with his second wife until 1920. He died in the first day of 1946, aged 83, as a rector of Fillingham, Lincolnshire, England. Incidentally, Rt. Rev. William Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864-1945), Archbishop of Canterbury (1928–1942) was his paternal first cousin.

Images are cut out and processed by the editor.

Thanks for the those prepared the original data on the net.
Images of “Kurihon” stamped were photos taken by me,
for the Japanese edition of my blog.

Last updated 27 November 2016

Place In Memoriam - Aoyama Cemetary

青山霊園外人墓地にある、ウィリスの母アンナのお墓の話題です。

ウィリスの記念碑もここにあります。

Willis' mother, Anna Lavina Whitney sleeps in Aoyama Cemetery in Minato Ward, Tokyo. The grave located on the section N1-i1 (北1種イ1側), facing the center road.

It is pity that the sepulchral inscription of the front side has been almost obliterated. Even in the 1970s, it was hard to read. TEZUKA Tatsumaro wrote “since the inscription on the grave has been worn away in these last few years” in 1971 [*].

* 手塚竜麿「ウイリス・ホイットニーと赤坂病院」～ 『日本近代化の先駆者たち』吾妻書房 1975, p.92.

According to Shibusawa [p.98], it reads:

骸化土霊帰天

ホイト子ー氏親友　勝安芳拝誌

 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: 

and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. 

[Ecclesiastes 12:7]

presented by KATSU Yasuyoshi, friend of Mrs Whitney.

As for the inscription on the gravestone, a web page of the Library of Hitotsubashi University gives us helpful information （click here）. The above image was made by me, based on their information, and what I actually saw. The yellow rectangle shows the space which could decipher anything no more. I can add about Willis' son, Isaac Braithwaite Whitney. He was born on 19 Mar. 1889 in Tokyo, and died on 21 Feb. 1890, followed his twin brother John Norton, who died on 26 Nov. 1889. Poor brothers. 

On the other side, it reads

  

義人必由信而得生

録聖書之語

 The just shall live by his faith. 

[Habakkuk 2:4]

from the Bible 

Anna was born in 1834, died 17th April 1883 in Tokyo, aged 49. It was said that she was the second foreigner who buried in Aoyama Cemetary (the first one was a French soldier, Albert Charles Du Bousquet, died in 1882)*. KATSU Yasuyoshi was another name of Count KATSU Kaishū (1823-1899), a Japanese notable statesman and the guardian of the Whitney family.

 * A guide book of Aoyama Cemetary published by the Bureau of Construction, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, says that a German Karl Anton Bruck カール・アントン・ブリュック (1839-1880) was the first buried non-Japanese.

Willis was NOT buried here, as some people misunderstood. His widow set up his memorial on the bottom of his mother's grave, when she revisited Japan in 1925  [Reminiscences, pp.168-69].

In Loving Memory of

WILLIS NORTON WHITNEY M.D.

Oct. 26 1918

who rests at Banbury, England

Well done good and faithful servant

The last phrase is from Matthew 25:21.

宜いかな、善かつ忠なる僕（マタイ25:21）

[ First Section for foreigners, N1-i1, Aoyama Cemetery ]

A: Anna Lavina Whitney (1834-1883)

B: Memorial of Dr W. N. Whitney

C: George Braithwaite (1855-1931) and his wife Letitia (1876-1932) 

D: Alice Louisa Neitz (1852-1892), wife of Rev. F. C. Neitz

E: Frederick C. Krecker  (1843-1883)

George Braithwaite was brother-in-law and a great supporter of Willis. I shall write about him and his wife later on.  

Rev. F. C. Neitz and Dr Krecker was missionaries of Evangelical Church of North America. Dr Krecker, a patient of Dr Willis, died of typhoid fever just nine days later of Mrs Whitney's.

All photos taken by Yagitani, November 2014.

* Aoyama Cemetary Guide  from Japan Talk site 

Last updated 14 March 2015