page_title: Thomas Bunn, Frome
section_title: Religion
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Bunn, Frome / Religion
caption_attribution_description: English: Christ Church, Frome, from the southwest; built in 1818
context_page_description: Thomas Bunn, gentleman and philanthropist, was a man of independent means who devoted his energies to improving his native town of Frome. His epitaph in Christ Church aptly sums up his life:
  Note: The text on the plaque was written in block capitals. The quotation in the epitaph is a version in English of Samuel Johnson's epitaph on William Goldsmith: 'Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit'.
context_section_description: Bunn was brought up as a Baptist, his family attending the Sheppards Barton Church.  He himself became a member of the Church of England.  He was almost certainly involved in the building of Christ Church in 1818.  As an adult he was baptised there in 1820. "The distinctions which caused dissent from the established church appeared to me frivolous."  He encouraged the building of a new church in the growing western part of Frome; the construction of the free church of Trinity was begun in 1836 and completed in 1838.  As secretary to the venture, Bunn prepared the contract and oversaw the schedule.  In 1844 he organised a subscription for an organ and saw it installed.  He was distressed by the upkeep of St John's churchyard, "kept in a slovenly, neglected state by a poor gravedigger who was not half paid for his labour".  He sent his own gardeners to sort it out.  He provided land for a non-conformist burial ground, though he commented: "Primitive Methodists .... Their views are narrow like most other peoples."
caption: Christ Church, Frome, from the south-west
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