William Julius

In the south choir aisle of the Abbey is a small marble tablet for Captain William Julius. The border is decorated with flowers and cherub heads with a winged death's head at the base. The coat of arms was re-painted in the 1960s when the tablet was cleaned. The inscription reads:

Near this place lyeth interr’d the Body of Capt. William Julus [Julius] late Commander of His Ma. Ship the Colchester who departed this life ye 3d of Oct. 1698 Aged 33 years

The name is definitely Julius in the Abbey burial register so the painter of the inscription made a slight mistake. The arms are "argent, a fess azure between three mullets of six points gules, a crescent for difference or" (ie. a silver ground with a blue horizontal bar across the centre and three red six-point stars). The crescent, which indicates a second son, was re-painted red instead of gold. These seem to be the arms of the family of Julius of Richmond in Surrey. William served in the ship Chester on the West India station and had an illegitimate son William, of the island of St Kitts, and an illegitimate daughter Jemima, of the island of Nevis. They were provided for in his will and the rest of the estate was left to his sister Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Westcott of St Kitts.

Further reading

William's will is at The National Archives