Mydidee at St. Paul's, Deptford

St. Paul's, Deptford

St Paul's church was one of fifty new churches proposed for London in 1710 as part of the regeneration programme that followed the Great Fire of 1666. It was designed by Thomas Archer, who also designed St John's in Westminster. Both churches display Archer's passion for the Romanesque Baroque. The fabric of the church and most of the decoration was completed by 1720, but construction work continued right up to the church's consecration in 1730.

from: http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=005ADD000031331U00034000

The first true Tahitian to reach England was Mydidee, brought here by William Bligh on his second breadfruit voyage with the Providence. Nothing is known about him, beyond Bligh logging his disgust at the sight of the occupied gibbets along the Thames Estuary. Mydidee disembarked at Deptford on 7^th August 1793 and died less than a month later, on 4^th September. He is buried in St.Paul’s Churchyard, off Deptford High Street.

from display panel at APT exhibitions: Bounty: A Preposterous Optimism

MYDIDEE

A native of Tahiti

Sailed to England

With Captain William Bligh

In H.M.S. Providence

Died in Deptford 4^th September 1979

Stranger, with solemn step approach, and know,

A fav’rite son of nature sleeps below.

From that fam’d Queen of Southern Islands came,

Fair Otahytey; fir’d by British fame:

And Providence each deep safe wafted o’er,

Yet only gave to hail the promis’d shore;

For here could life alas! No more supply,

Than just to look around him, and to die.

Edward Harwood

Surgeon of the Providence