Ancient Stained Glass in Bishopsbourne Church

( 113 ) ANCIENT STAINED GLASS IN BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. BY N. E. TOKE. THE church of St. Mary, Bishopsbourne, has, like many others in Kent, to lament the loss of the greater portion of the mediaeval stained glass which once adorned its windows. At what period, and by what means, the glass was destroyed is unknown. Some of it may have gradually disappeared in the reign of Queen EUzabeth when, as we read in Harrison's Description of England in 1577,1 " All images, shrines, tabernacles, rood loftes, and monuments of idolatrie are taken down and defaced : onhe the stories in glasse windows excepted, which, for want of sufficient store of new stuffe, and by reason of extreame charge that should growe by the alteration of the same into white glasse throughout the realme, are not altogether abolished in most places at once, but by little and little suffered to decaie that white glasse may be provided and set upon their roomes." In the seventeenth century the iconoclastic energies of fanatical Puritans, like the notorious Richard Culmer— " Blue Dick "—who prided himseU on having, in 1643, in the great north window of the Martyrdom Chapel in Canterbury Cathedral, " rattled down proud Becket's glassie bones," may have been responsible for further destruction, but some of the loss must have occurred at the end of the eighteenth or beginning of the nineteenth century, for the Rev. PhUip Parsons, in his Monuments and Painted Glass in Upwards of One Hundred Churches (published in 1794), gives the following account of the mediaeval stained glass which he saw in Bishopsbourne Church. " In this church there is much [painted glass]. In the Chancel are several neat figures of saints and angels. An 1 PreExed to Hollinshed's Chronicles, Book II, c. I, p. 223. 11 114 ANCIENT STAINED GLASS IN escutcheon, ' Party per pale, the Archiepiscopal PaU : Quarterly, 1st and 4th, gules, a goat's head erased argent: 2nd and 3rd, erminois.' In the church, at the bottom, in one window three good figures, fuU length. A man imperfect: two women, very perfect and neat; one has the tower of a church in her hand. In the opposite window, an escutcheon, ' or, a cross engraUed, gules.' In the top of the window four beautUul figures : 1st, A Bishop. 2nd, A King, robed, crowned and sceptred, very elegant. 3rd, A Queen, the same. 4th, A Bishop with mitre and crosier. In another window is an imperfect figure, which seems to have been St. George and the Dragon, or St. Michael." Most of the mediaeval glass mentioned by Parsons seems to have disappeared about the beginning of the nineteenth century, for Hasted, in his History of Kent (second edition, 1797-1801) mentions only the escutcheon in the chancel, and a shield with the arms of Haut: Or, a cross engrailed, gules, impahng, Argent, a lion rampant guardant. azure, which, he says, was in a window of the south aisle. The impalement, it wiU be noticed, is not mentioned by Parsons. The shield may possibly have been that of WiUiam Haut, Sheriff of Kent in the eighth and ninth years of Henry V, who, by his wiU dated 1462, left " to the Image of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Church of Bourne one piece of that stone on which the Archangel Gabriel descended when he saluted the Blessed Virgin for that image to rest its feet upon." The handsome window of sixteenth and seventeenth century glass in St. Catherine's Chapel, which is described both by Parsons and Hasted, stiU exists intact, but the only remains of mediaeval glass in the church are now in the chancel, where can be seen the figures of four beautiful Uttle angels, two on either side, in the quatrefoils at the top of the north and south windows, the escutcheon of arms abovementioned, and some lovely fragments of fourteenth century glass in the lofty little north window. The four angels, which are contained in circular medallions surrounded by ornamental foUage in grisaUle, BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. 115 date from the fourteenth century. Each one is represented with out-stretched arms holding a golden crown in each hand, and kneehng on one knee. Below the angels there are some fragments of mediaeval glass in the heads of the windows. The escutcheon, which is at the bottom of the westernmost of the windows on the south side, is composed of a Cardinal's hat, gules, surmounting a shield containing the arms of the See of Canterbury : Azure, the cross-staff of an archbishop in pale, or, surmounted by a pall proper, charged with four crosses pate'e, fitchde, sable ; impaling : Quarterly : 1st and 4th, gules, a goat's head erased, argent, attired, or. 2nd and 3rd ermine} Hasted ascribes the impaled arms to Archbishop Warham, but this is obviously an error, for Warham was not a Cardinal, and his arms, as given by Hasted himseU on another page of his History of Kent, were : Gules, a fess or, between three escallops argent in base : in chief, a goat's head, couped at the neck, argent, attired or. The arms on the escutcheon are undoubtedly those of Cardinal Morton (1420-1500), Archbishop of Canterbury and ChanceUor under Henry VII, and famous for the dUemma known as " Morton's Fork " which he proposed to merchants and others on whom he wished to levy contributions to a " benevolence." The presence of his arms in the window indicates, in aU probabiUty, that he was a benefactor to this church. The function of the Uttle window high up on the north side of the chancel was to give light to the rood-screen which, by the way, was stiU in existence in 1560. It is doubtful, therefore, if it formerly contained any but clear glass. It is now fined with fragments of fourteenth century stained glass which were probably taken from the windows mentioned by Parsons in the body of the Church. Amongst them can be seen the head of the Blessed Virgin Mary, having on either side a rose argent and a sun or, and that of a female saint, wearing a wreath, who, judging from the fragment of a tower 1 Parsons was mistaken in describing the 2nd and 3rd quarters as erminois. 116 ANCIENT STAINED GLASS IN surmounted by a globe which can be seen on the left hand side, was probably the one Parsons saw " at the bottom " of the church, and represents St. Barbara. These fragments are so beautifuUy executed, and theh colouring is so rich and harmonious that one's regret for the loss of the rest of the glass is greatly enhanced. The fine Renaissance glass in the South, or St. Catherine's Chapel, was inserted by the Beckingham family, who owned Bourne Place in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The estate was originally the seat of Sh Anthony Aucher who died in 1692 leaving two sons neither of whom had any issue. On the death of the younger of these in 1726 the estate devolved upon their sister Elizabeth, the wUe of John Corbet, Esq., LL.D., of Shropshire, who died in 1736. The latter's eldest daughter, Mary Catherine, became ultimately the owner of Bourne Place, and carried it in marriage to Stephen Beckingham, who died in 1756. The Beckinghams held Bourne Place until 1844, when it was purchased by Mr. Matthew BeU. A series of tablets, ten on either side of the window, commemorates members of the Aucher and Beckingham famihes beginning with Sh Anthony Aucher, " MarshaU of CaUis. Governor of Guisnes, Master of the Jewel House in the times of Henry 8lh, Edward the 6, and Queen Mary, slayen at the loss of Callis " [in 1558], and ending with Miss Louisa Beckingham, who died in 1844 and was buried in the Bourne vault in the Church. The lower portion of the window is divided into three compartments of which the two lateral ones contain six shields, three on either side, with the arms of Beckingham and theh various impalements. The centre portion contains the Royal Arms, as borne by the Tudors, together with two finely-wrought pieces of seventeenth century Dutch glass. The bar tracery in the upper part of the window is fiUed with Dutch, or Flemish, glass, showing various scenes from scripture history. The heraldic glass bears the date 1550, and was probably brought from Beckingham HaU in ToUeshunt BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. 117 Major, Essex, where the family of Beckingham was seated at one time.1 In Mr. Herbert Cole's Heraldic and Floral Forms used in Decoration there is an iUustration (p. 90) of a carved oak panel from Beckingham HaU. It shows the arms of Henry VIII—France modern, and England, quarterly, within a garter supported by a Lion and Dragon—with the initials R.H., and the date 1546. On p. 92 of the same work is represented another carved oak panel from Beckingham HaU showing a shield with the arms of Beckingham, viz. : Quarterly of four: 1st and 4th, a fess embattled, counterembattled, between three escallops : 2nd and 3rd, a chevron between three bucks' heads cabossed. This shield is flanked by two dragons, probably for ornamental purposes, and is also dated 1546.2 These arms appear on each of the shields in the window, and the 1st and 4th quarterings are given in the Visitation of Oxfordshire under Beckingham of Pudlicot and Stonesfield in that county. There is no information about the Oxfordshire branch of the family later than 1629 when Thomas Beckingham sold PudUcot to Sir John Lacy. Stephen Beckingham, third son of John Beckingham of SaUsbury, who married Anne Unton, appears also to have been an ancestor of the Bourne Place famUy, since the arms of Unton occur in one of the impaled coats in the window. Another member of the famUy, Robert Beckingham, a wealthy London merchant, founded, in 1507, the Royal Free School in Spital Street, Guildford. In a window of the School are the arms of Beckingham, impahng those of Corbet of Hants : Or, three ravens proper. Mr. C. F. Beckingham has also pointed out in " Notes and Queries " that according to " Alumni Cantabrigienses " 1 Beckingham Hall was granted by Henry VIII, in 1543, to Stephen Beckingham and his wife Anne. Stephen died in 1858, and was buried in ToUeshunt Church. 2 These panels are illustrated also on p. 252 of "Early English Furniture and Woodwork " by H. Cescinsky and E. R. Gribble, who state that they are probably the work of Walloon craftsmen resident in Essex. They are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. 118 ANCIENT STAINED GLASS IN Stephen Beckingham "son and heir of Stephen Beckingham of ToUeshunt D'Arcy. Esq:" was admitted a Fellow Commoner of Jesus CoUege, June 30th, 1665. Apart from the inscriptions on the memorial tablets at the side of the window the above is all the information I have been able to obtain respecting this family. It remains to describe the stained glass with which Stephen Beckingham filled the window of the Chapel in the eighteenth century. In the left hand compartment are three shields of arms of which the uppermost is dated 1550 and bears : Quarterly of four : 1st and 4th : Argent, on a fess embattled, counterembattled, between three escallops sable, a mullet of five points or. 2nd and 3rd : Argent, a chevron gules between three bucks' heads cabossed of the second, attired or. for Beckingham : impahng : Argent, three bars and a canton gules : on the latter a cinquefoil of the first, for Multon. The shield is surrounded by designs. At the top is the figure of Bacchus astride on a wine-cask, and holding a cup in each hand. Beneath this, in a medaUion, is a man's head with a " putto " on either side. At the bottom is also a man's head in a medallion surrounded by " p u t t i " . On either side is a woman's head in a medalhon with a "putto". The designs encircling the shield are strUdngly similar to those which surround a sixteenth century shield with the arms of Paulet impaling Clederowe, which was formerly in the great hall of Wroxton Abbey near Banbury in Oxfordshire, and of which a beautUul coloured illustration is given in the second edition of Mr. F. Sydney Eden's Ancient Stained and Painted Glass. Mr. Eden quotes an article in The Connoisseur for July, 1930, in which the writer, speaking of this Paulet shield, says : " The clasps of the chaplets indicate Flemish influence—the heads on medaUions, supported by naked figures, the cherubs, and the figure of Bacchus astride on a wine-cask." Both in the Paulet shield and the Beckenham one these clasps are of coloured glass instead of white glass heightened with yeUow as was the custom with English craftsmen. It is therefore probable •is «PI Fio. 1. BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. (8. Chapel. Centre shield of left side.) Fig. 2. BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. (S. Chapel. Arms of Beckenham. Lower shield, right side.) BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. 119 that both shields were wrought under the direction of one of the Flemish glass painters who were encouraged by Henry VII and Henry VIII to settle in England in the early part of the sixteenth century. This probabUity is increased by the fact that Pudhcot, near Stonesfield, where, as I have mentioned, a branch of the Beckingham famUy had an estate, is only some fifteen mUes from Wroxton Abbey. It would therefore be natural for both the Paulets and Beckinghams to obtain theh armorial glass from the same artist who, Mr. Eden thinks, may have been Galyon Hone, the Royal Glazier, and a Fleming. The shield below the last (Fig. 1) has the same ornamentation, and is also dated 1550. It bears : Beckenham, as above, impahng : Argent, three rooks' heads erased, sable, for Sharpe of Essex (?). The lowest shield is undated, and is ornamented at the top with a mauve coloured medallion containing the bust of a Queen holding a sceptre, and at the bottom with a simUar medalhon with the bust of a King with a sceptre. Medalhons on either side contain, respectively, a warrior brandishing a sword, and what appears to be a Tartar warrior in a quUted tunic. It bears : Beckingham, impahng : Azure, on a fess, or, a greyhound courant, sable, between three spearheads of the second, for Unton. The shields in the right-hand compartment are almost identical with those on the left as far as the ornamentation round them is concerned. The uppermost one is dated 1550, and bears : Beckingham, impahng : Argent, three hawks' hires, sable, for Bromwich. The centre one bears : Becldngham, impahng : Azure, a chevron between three escallops, or, for Browne of Horton Kirby, Kent. The lower shield (Fig. 2) has the arms of Beckingham alone, and is ornamented in the same way as the corresponding shield on the left. The centre compartment contains a shield with the Royal Arms : viz. Quarterly, 1 and 4, France (modern), 2 and 3, England. These were the arms borne by the Tudor monarchs, and, U we can accept the date 1550, which appears 1 2 0 ANCIENT STAINED GLASS IN on the other shield, as applying to this shield also, they must be those of Edward VI. The arms are surmounted by the Royal Crown and are almost identical with those of Henry VII in a stained glass window formerly at Cassiobury, Herts., of which a fine iUustration is given by Mr. Eden in his book above mentioned. Beneath this shield is a panel (Fig. 3) of Dutch glass representing, in the centre, the Massacre of the Innocents at Bethlehem. Above the picture is a shield of arms bearing : Vert, a lion rampant, sable, langued gules, surmounted by a parrot sitting on a cross-bar and holding a ring in his beak. This coat, it wUl be noticed, violates a fundamental law of heraldry, viz. : that colour must never be charged on colour. The violation is due probably to an error on the part of the glass painter. Beneath the shield are the words : M' Qhysbrecht Eelkens'1 Pansz 1615 Below the picture is inscribed : ff erodes doyden al de Kinderen die waren te Betlheem zynde out onder twe Jaren i.e. Herod slew all the children, who were at Bethlehem, under two years old. The panel is executed with great skill and deUcacy, and is a fine specimen of Dutch glass of the first haU of the seventeenth century. Below this panel is a weU-executed Uttle circular medallion (Fig. 4) of Dutch, or Flemish glass, representing the buUding of the Tower of Babel. The heads of the three compartments of this window are also fiUed with Flemish glass. That on the left shows a young man, dressed in a long furred robe and holding a cap in his hand, being presented by another to an elderly man, seated, who is holding out a bag of money to the firstmentioned youth. On what appears to be an altar in the background can be seen an alms dish with a sacred vase on 1 Ghysbrecht Eelkens was probably a relation of the Antwerp family of that name which was ennobled in 1761, and whose arms were : Or, a lion, rampant azure, armed and langued gules. FIG. 3. BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. (8. Chapel. Centre.) m'-mm FTO. 4. BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. (8. Chapel. Centre.) BISHOPSBOURNE CHURCH. 121 either side. The costumes of the three men are those of the first haU of the sixteenth century, and the prevailing colours of the painting are white and yeUow. I have not been able to determine the significance of the picture. The head of the middle compartment contains a picture of Samson and DeUlah, executed in brown monochrome and inferior to those on either side of it. That on the right hand is a beautiful Uttle medaUion representing the Prodigal Son kneehng before his father beneath a tree with spreading branches. The colouring is rich and the picture most pleasing. Six Uttle paintings, also of Flemish glass, fiU the bar tracery at the top of the window. That on the left shows an elderly man giving money to a gravedigger. Another gravedigger is standing by with a spade over his shoulder. The painting is mostly in brown pigment, and was probably wrought in the seventeenth century. Next to this is a highly coloured picture of St. Anne reading to the Blessed Vhgin and Infant Saviour from an open book. The glass has been inserted wrong side out, as can be seen from the inverted inscription which appears to be : " ANNA precipit . . ." with the date 1650. Below this is a nimbed Saint, with a long beard, wearing a mantle over a shaggy yeUow undergarment. He is extending his hand towards a tiny Paschal Lamb holding a banner and cross. The figure probably represents St. John the Baptist, though his raiment is not that in which the Baptist is usuaUy depicted. On the right of the two latter are two smaU paintings of which the uppermost represents the Annunciation, and the lower one Saints Peter and Paul. The last painting shows an aged man, with a long white beard, playing on a golden harp. A boy blowing a horn and a girl holding a cymbal stand on either side of him. The harpist probably represents King David. In conclusion I have to express my thanks to several correspondents of " Notes and Queries " for information 122 ANCIENT STAINED GLA6S. respecting the Beckingham famUy, to Mr. I. N. T. Vachell for helping me to secure the photographs illustrating this article, to M. Jean Squilbeck of Brussels for notes on the Dutch inscription and the arms of the Eelkens famUy, and to Mr. F. Sydney Eden for information on the glass at Wroxton Abbey.