SEDDING, EDMUND (1836–1868), architect and musician, son of Richard and Peninnah Sedding of Summerstown, near Okehampton, Devonshire, was born on 20 June 1836. John Dando Sedding [q. v.] was his younger brother. He early displayed antiquarian tastes, which led to his visiting cathedrals, abbeys, and churches in England and France. In 1853 he entered the office of George Edmund Street [q. v.], where he devoted himself to the study of Gothic architecture. For some time he resided as an architect in Bristol, and, after again spending a period in London, removed about 1862 to Penzance, where he obtained a large practice. In Cornwall he built or restored the churches of Gwithian, Wendron, Altarnun, North-hill, Ruan, St. Peter's, Newlyn, and St. Stephen's, Launceston, while he had in progress at the time of his death a new church at Stockport, a rectory, and two churches in Wales, the restoration of Bigbury church, and a mansion at Hayle for Mr. W. J. Rawlings.
Sedding was a performer on the harmonium and organ, and an admirer of ancient church music. He was for a time precentor of the church of St. Raphael the Archangel, Bristol, and organist of St. Mary the Virgin, Soho. He greatly exerted himself in the revival of carol singing, and his books of Christmas carols were very popular. In 1865 his health failed, and he died at Penzance on 11 June 1868, being buried at Madron on 16 June. He married, on 18 Aug. 1862, Jessie, daughter of John Proctor, chemist, Penzance, by whom he left four children.
His chief musical compositions were:
- ‘A Collection of Nine Antient Christmas Carols for four voices,’ 1860; 6th edit. 1864.
- ‘Jerusalem the Golden: a hymn,’ 1861.
- ‘Seven Ancient Carols for four voices,’ 1863; 2nd edit. 1864.
- ‘Five Hymns of ye Holy Eastern Church,’ 1864.
- ‘Sun of my Soul: a hymn set to music in four parts,’ 1864.
- ‘Litany of the Passion,’ 1865.
- ‘The Harvest is the end of the World,’ 1865.
- ‘Be we merry in this Feast: a carol,’ 1866.
To F. G. Lee's ‘Directorium Anglicanum,’ 2nd edit. 1865, he supplied fifteen quarto pages of illustrations.
[Julian's Hymnology, 1892, pp. 211, 212; Western Morning News, 17 June 1868, p. 2; Church Times, 1868, vi. 230, 241; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. 1878–82, pp. 641, 1334; Street's Memoir of G. E. Street, p. 20.]
SEDDING, JOHN DANDO (1838–1891), architect, second son of Richard and Peninnah Sedding, and younger brother of Edmund Sedding [q. v.], was born at Eton on 13 April 1838, and in 1858, like his brother, entered the office of George Edmund Street [q. v.] He made a close study of ecclesiastical architecture and decorative work connected with churches. After his architectural training was completed he mainly confined himself to designing embroidery, wall-papers, chalices, patens, and other goldsmith's work; but in 1872 he achieved a success in planning the church and vicarage of St. Clement's, Bournemouth. Thenceforward his architectural practice steadily grew. In 1876 he made the acquaintance of and submitted sketches to Mr. Ruskin, who told him that ‘he must always have pencil or chisel in hand if he were to be more than an employer of men on commission.’ Sedding took this adjuration to heart. He endeavoured to form a school of masons and of carvers and modellers from nature, and succeeded in exerting a remarkable influence over his workmen by his vigilant interest in the details of their craft. He himself was tireless in drawing and studying flowers and leaves, and from such studies he derived nearly all his ornamental designs. Elected F.R.I.B.A. in 1874, by 1880 he had an office in Oxford Street, London, and between that date and his death he built, among other works, the church of the Holy Redeemer at Clerkenwell; St. Augustine's, Highgate; St. Edward's, Netley; All Saints, Falmouth; St. Dyfrig's, Cardiff; Salcombe Church, Devonshire; the Children's Hospital, Finsbury; and Holy Trinity Church, Chelsea (unfinished). He became diocesan architect for Bath and Wells, designed the pastoral cross for the cathedral, and did much valuable work upon the churches of the diocese. He probably excelled in the additions and restorations which he executed in many of the small parish churches of the west of England, notably at Holbeton, Ermington, and Meavy in Devonshire; and in designing chancel screens, reredoses, altar crosses, and decorations he showed a happy originality. He moved his residence in June 1888 from Charlotte Street to West Wickham in Kent, and became an enthusiastic gardener, with a strong prepossession for cut-yew hedges and arcades, and other topiarian devices, writing in 1891 his very suggestive ‘Garden Craft, Old and New.’ Before it was published he died at Winsford Vicarage, Somerset (where he was engaged on some restoration) on 7 April 1891. A few days afterwards died his wife, Rose, daughter of Canon Tinling of Gloucester. Posthumously appeared his ‘Art and Handicraft’ (1893), embodying his views on the claims of architecture, some of which had already been expounded in an original paper
