John Savage

A memorial tablet to the Reverend John Savage was originally erected in the east cloister of Westminster Abbey but has been moved to the Dark Cloister. He died on 24th March 1747 as a result of a fall from the stairs to the scaffold erected for Lord Lovat's trial in Westminster Hall. The Latin inscription can be translated: 

The scholars of Westminster School placed this here for John Savage D.D. in 1750. You were ever mindful of our school while you lived, and the Muse does not suffer us to be unmindful of you. The very Genius of the place, your friend, laments you as a friend, and Piety strikes us with a more personal grief. It was your wont to grow young again with us in learned play, and erudite age shed abroad your native wit. Beloved old man, a boy bestows upon you this poem at least: nor will a boy's poem be displeasing to you

He was the son of William Savage of Westminster and he left Westminster School in 1690 and attended Oxford and Cambridge. For several years he travelled on the continent with James, 5th Earl of Salisbury. He was rector of Bigrave in Hertfordshire from 1701 and lecturer at St George's, Hanover Square and was known as a "very jolly and convivial priest". Also an author, he wrote a volume of "A Compleat History of Germany".