File:All Saints' church in Hawstead - C18 memorial - geograph.org.uk - 2174292.jpg

Monument to Christopher Metcalfe, eldest son of Philip Metcalfe, a friend of Dr Samuel Johnson. Text from "Eight Friends of the Great by William Prideaux Courtney A Friend of Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds"[1]:

Christopher the eldest son, was born in 1732 and died at Hawstead near Bury St. Edmunds on 24 June 1794. This estate, which originally consisted of a house known as the "Walnut Tree" adjoining Fillet's manor on the parish green and some lands, came to him through his marriage with Ellen, the only child of Christopher Barton of West Ham and Bromley St. Leonard, who had purchased it from Mr. Pytches and other small owners in the parish. He greatly improved, almost rebuilding in 1783 with the white-brick made at Woolpit in Suffolk, the old house to which he gave the new name of "Hawstead farm" and he also added to the landed property. His wife died on the 6th March 1775, aged 41 on which day her newly-born son, Philip was christened (he died 1809), but her mother, Margaret Barton, survived until 19 June 1780 aged 88. Four of the daughters of Christopher Metcalfe died before him; another Frederica Sophia, baptised 20 Nov. 1763 married James Mure of Great Saxham, Suffolk on 8 Nov. 1790. His eldest son, Christopher Barton Metcalfe, distiller at West Ham, died on 15 August aged 42, having devised the estate to his wife who in 1809 sold it to her husband's uncle, Philip Metcalfe. He in his turn bought more land and gave the house the higher-sounding appellation of "Hawstead House." At his death the estate consisted of nearly 600 acres.