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Museum hopes to acquire 'rackety' baronet's ring

Katy Prickett
BBC News, Norfolk
Andrew Williams/Norfolk County Council Five views of the same gold ring lying on a surface. It is a plain band except for a small enamelled decoration on the outside, showing a stylised image of a skull. With the band is writing. Andrew Williams/Norfolk County Council
Mourning rings - such as this one made for Sir Bassingbourne - were typically handed out at funerals in the 17th and 18th centuries

A gold mourning ring that was made in memory of a dead baronet has been found in a field.

The 20mm (0.7in)-round jewel was discovered by a metal detectorist near Thetford, Norfolk, in August.

Historian Helen Geake was able to connect it to landowner Sir Bassingbourne Gawdy thanks to its inscription. He was a "notable sportsman" who researchers said liked "rackety exploits".

The ring is the subject of a treasure inquest and Norwich Castle Museum hopes to acquire it.

A coroner at a treasure inquest typically decides whether the discovery is treasure, and therefore whether a museum should have first refusal over it.

Sir Bassingbourne died in a hunting accident in 1723.

A baronet was a title in the British aristocracy that was passed down through families.

Andrew Williams/Norfolk County Council Four views of a gold ring. The top image shows the ring on its side with a blob of enamel showing a stylised image of a skull. Below are two views of the ring from above and in the middle is a view of the ring on its side. Andrew Williams/Norfolk County Council
Sir Bassingbourne was a baronet who had inherited his title from his father, but as he did not have a son, the family title died with him

Dr Geake, who is the finds liaison officer for Norfolk, said mourning rings were made to remember a person who had died.

People would leave money in their wills for rings to be created and distributed to family and friends in their memory.

Conservative politician Samuel Pepys wrote about being given one in his 1660s diary.

This find was inscribed in Latin B.G. Bart. ob: 10. Oct: 1723. aet: 56, which translates as B.G. Baronet, died 10th October 1723, aged 56.

Dr Geake's investigations revealed Sir Bassingbourne lived at West Harling, east of Thetford.

He never married and was described as a "notable sportsman" who enjoyed "rackety exploits" by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Helen Geake who has chin-length light brown hair and is smiling towards the camera. Her dark top can just be glimpsed.
The gold band has an enamelled depiction of a skull on it, although Helen Geake admitted it was "almost like a pumpkin than a skull"

"What is also interesting is he was the grandson of the celebrated painter Sir John Gawdy, who was born deaf," Dr Geake said.

He and his brother Framlingham, who was also deaf, were the first known deaf people in Britain to be educated through the use of sign language, according to the British Deaf History Society.

Dr Geake said the ring would not have been classed as treasure if it had been found a year earlier.

This is because the Treasure Act 1996 categorises a find as treasure if it is at least 300 years old and made at least in part of precious metal, like gold or silver.

So if the ring had been found in August 2023 - not August 2024 - the detectorist and landowner would not have had to declare it.

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