Thomas Lambard, who had suffered ill-health for many years, died in 1811 at the age of fifty-three. The tablet by John Bacon junior placed in his memory on the south wall of the chancel in Ash church is large, but has little symbolic embellishment. In the latter respect it is uncharacteristic of the sculptor's work, which suggests that Bacon may have been commissioned to match the tablet that it flanks and which is to the memory of Lambard's young wife, who had died so many years before.
   Like his predecessor, the new rector, Thomas Bowdler, came to Ash as a young man; he had not quite reached his thirtieth birthday. He, too, was also rector of Ridley. Bowdler was of an old family once settled at Hope Bowdler in Shropshire and, through his grandmother, was a direct descendant of Sir Robert Cotton, the famous antiquary. His father, John Bowdler, author and pamphleteer, was a man of strong views who was at pains, notably in his pamphlet ‘Reform and Ruin’, to expose the irreligion and immorality of the nation. He was also largely instrumental in the founding of the Church Building Society, of which in later life Thomas was to become secretary. The rector’s uncle was Dr Thomas Bowdler, whose ‘Family Shakespeare’ brought a new word to the English language.

   Some seven years before coming to Ash, Bowdler had married Phoebe, daughter of Joseph Cotton, by whom he had nine children. Although four died in infancy, the story that numerous Bowdler children met their end from drinking infected well water at Ridley seems to be apocryphal. Other children may perhaps have died from such a cause and to the extent that Bowdler cleaned and deepened the roadside well near Ridley church and erected its thatched well-house, local lore is likely to be true. It is still known as ‘Bowdler’s well’.
   During the brief remaining life of the ancient registers, Thomas Bowdler substantially retained the detailed headings initiated by his predecessor. If some expurgation was to be expected of him, it was limited to the rather sensible replacement of the word ‘Profession’ by ‘Occupation’. One of the last entries made in these registers was of the burial in 1812 of his son, Thomas Cotton Bowdler, who died at the age of nine months, but not from drinking well water.
   It is possible, if unlikely, that some old Ash bookshelf still harbours the wisdom that Thomas Bowdler addressed to his parishioners; the first, but by no means the last, collection of his sermons was