SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
By R. H. D'ELBOUX, M.O, M.A., F.S.A.
CHALLOCK
Two brasses are recorded by 18th-century writers in this church.
No traces remain of either.
I. Hasted1 gives : " In the middle isle, a brass plate for Robert
Throston and Joane his wife. He died in 1480."
The Rev. Bryan Faussett,2 who visited the church in 1776, has
more detail, and places the brass in the nave : " On a white stone on
ye Floor, enlay'd with a Plate of Brass. Pray for ye Soull of Rob'
Thorston and Johan his Wif, which Rob* deceased y° 6 Day of November,
y° year of Our Lord 1480 upon whos Soull Jesu have Mer."
The Thurston family were of some repute in the parish from the
15th to 17th centuries. Wilham Thurston, who died in 1480, left
Parrock in Challock to his son John; Propchauntis in Challock to
his son Thomas; Bartholomew Buns's tenement in Throwleigh
to his son Richard; Baylys in Challock to his wife Juhan, and also
had a daughter Agnes. The Challock properties are mentioned by
Hasted as having belonged to the family.
I have been unable to trace a Robert Thurston who died in 1480,
and suspect an error in transcription by Faussett, accepted by Hasted.
The will3 of Robert Thurston is dated 3rd November, 1485, and
proved the 16th January following. He had two sons, John and
Robert, and a daughter, Alice. His wife's name was Joane, as in the
inscription, and her will as his widow was proved in 1502, when the
son John had a daughter Ehzabeth. Robert Thurston desired burial
" before the hyghe crosse " in the church, and this, the cross above
the rood loft, suggests the position in the nave, as reported by Faussett.
II. Faussett gives in the north chancel, " On a Brass Plate, on a
Flat Stone. Here Lyeth y° Bodies of John Wanstall, and Susan
his Wife Daughter of John Bing, of this Parish. She died 2 April
1737 Aged 66 years. He died 14 July 1737 Aged 72 years. Who
had Issue 1 Son and 1 Daughter, viz John and Martha."
Parsons4 repeats this, save that he gives the name erroneously as
Thomas Wanstall, and for viz. writes namely.
1 Hasted, III, p. 1Q6 n. (r).
2 I am indebted to Mr. V. J. Torr for the transoription. 3 P.R.O. c.3.80. 4 Parson's Monuments, p. 70.
116
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
The Wanstall family was at Molash in the late 15th century, and
spread actively thence into neighbouring districts.
John Wanstall of Molash, yeoman, had hcense to marry Martha
Haslewood of Ashford, spinster, at St. Margaret, Canterbury, 27th
December, 1694.1 On 6th April, 1701, he had hcense2 as widower
to marry Susan Bing of Challock, maiden, at St. Margaret, St. Alphege,
or S.M. Bredin, Canterbury.
MAIDSTONE
The parish church of All Saints received attention from three
early 17th-century antiquaries. Phihpot3 (about 1612, presumably,
since the manuscript which contains his account, dovetails with that
of the Harleian CoUection at the British Museum) entered its heraldry,
and wrote briefly of the major monuments ; Weever's Funerall Monuments,
pubhshed in 1631, has one or two items ; and Sir Edward Dering's
Church Notes, in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries, under date
22nd March, 1631, has much heraldry and detailed drawings of the
Woodvill and Wotton tombs, copies of which by H. L. Smith were
reproduced in Archceologia Cantiana, Vol. I.
In November, 1788, Thomas Fisher did a series of drawings for
an article on Maidstone. The article appeared in Archaeologia without
the brass illustrations, which have since remained at the Society of
Antiquaries. His notebook, containing various subjects in Maidstone,
including one brass, and also dated 1788, is in Maidstone Museum.
Save for a doubtful entry by Gilbert in 1866, other writers have been
merely repetitive.
Thanks are due to the Society of Antiquaries and Maidstone Museum
for the illustrations by Fisher.
I. In Fisher's notebook at Maidstone Museum is a sketch of the
lower part of a 14th-century slab, showing the bases and part of the side
shafts of a canopy, the base of an indeterminate figure, probably
ecclesiastic, and the accompanying surround of Lombardic lettering.
Two pins, the device for separating words, are shown in place ; where
one would expect another pair is shown as a blot, but Fisher's reading
of the lettering is Quiesoit: Nomen Si. His S in the manuscript has the
appearance of being a second thought. Beside the drawing is written :
" Fragment of a very antient monumental stone formerly inlaid with
brass, now lying before the High Altar of Maidstone church."
I t is mentioned by Airport* in 1842 : " Immediately adjoining it
1 Cowper's Canterbury Marriage Licences, 4th series, 699.
2 Ibidem, 6th series, 493.
3 B.M. Egerton 3310, fo. 38.
i D. Allport, Maidstone, p. 23 n.
117
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
[the Courtenay slab] there is the fragment of another memorial,—part
of the word [Requ]IESCIT being all that remains of the inscription."
Beale Poste,1 in 1847, wrote : " A fragment of a stone, however, there
is near that of Courtenay, bearing the latter half of the word
REQUIESCAT, the rest of the inscription broken off, which, as the
characters are in an ancient form, may possibly have been part of one
of their memorials [i.e. the Masters of the College]."
I t is obvious from this misleading sentence that Poste had only a
rudimentary knowledge of early monuments, since this slab, of early
rather than late 14th century, was a sure indication, of the sort he
sought2 but could not find, that a church earher than 1395 had existed
on the site.
I t is still beside the Courtenay slab, very worn, and its identity
unknown.
I I . The indent of Archbishop Courtenay's brass hes level with the
floor in the centre of the quire. Cave-Browne gives the measurements
of the slab as 11 ft. 5 in. by 4 ft. 6 in., and attempts to illustrate it.
As, however, Fisher has far more detail (though his figure of the archbishop
is somewhat dumpy) his drawing is here reproduced.
The figure, as far as one can judge, appears to be robed as was
normal for an effigy of an archbishop, as, for example, the brass to
Thomas Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin, 1417, at New College, Oxford.
On either side, level with the neck, is a separate shield indent, one of
which possibly held the arms of the see, the other the arms of Courtenay.
The side shafts spring from, the base, level with the figure's robes,
direct to an embattlement which is right across the head of the brass.
In each shaft there are five canopied niches containing saints ; the
canopies appear flattened, probably because some part of the interior
vaulting was shown. Level with the fourth figure on either side,
counting from the base, is an elaborate canopy, of which the central
triple canopy, over the figure is akin to that over Archbishop Cranley.
Centrally above this is what may have been a Trinity, but is more
likely to have been Our Lady and Child, set beneath a canopy, and this,
judging from the irregularities shown, may have had an angel on each
of its side shafts. On either side is a saint in a canopied niche, similar
to, and level with the topmost of those of the side shafts of the whole
composition. There is a narrow space at the base of the indent, which
judging from other brasses, possibly was patterned with a series of
quatrefoils. There is no place for an inscription.
Archbishop Courtenay obtained hcense to convert Maidstone
into a collegiate church from Richard ii at Leeds Castle, 2nd August,
1395. He died the following year, leaving the college and church
1 Beale Poste, History of the the College of All Saints, Maidstone, p. 91.
2 Ibid., pp. 93, 94.
118
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
unfinished. By a odicil to his will, dated 28th July,1 " languens in
extremis in interiori camera manerii de Maydestone . . . vomit et
ehgit sepulturam suam in cimeterio ecclesiae collegiatae de Maydeston
in loco designato Johanni Botelere Armigero suo." He died on the
31st July, and according to Cawston, who wrote in 1496, was buried
at Canterbury. From the 16th century onwards, antiquaries argued
as to his exact place of burial, until in 1898 M. Beazeley proved from the
Acta Sede Vacante, 1348-1414, that he was, in fact, entombed at
Canterbury.2
The style of this indent is circa 1400, and the tomb may well have
been constructed soon after the archbishop's death. That it was a
raised table-tomb was ascertained when it was opened in 1794 for an
inconclusive search for the archbishop's body, " it having been found
to be grooved underneath on all four sides, near the edges where the
panels had been fitted."3 Newton* in 1741 writes of the slab as " raised
a httle above the Pavement, with the rough Marks of the Portraiture
in i t ; but the Brass and Epitaph are gone," but gives" the epitaph as
brass on the verge of the slab.
Phihpot briefly states : " Bishop Courtney founder of this church
& Colledge lyeth lowly buried in the quire under a fayre flat stone."
Weever5 is more explicit, though possibly neatly hedging over the
burial, and gives the epitaph : " He lyeth buried according to his will
here in his owne Church, under a plaine grave-stone (a lowly Tombe
for such an high borne Prelate) upon which his pourtraiture is delineated,
and this Epitaph inlaid with brasse about the verge."
Nomine Willelmus en Courtnaius reverendus,
Qui se post obitum legaverat hie tumulandum,
In presenti loco quern iam fundarat ab imo ;
Omnibus & Sanctis titulo sacravit honoris.
Ultima lux Iulij fit vite terminus illi,
M. ter C. quinto decies nonoque8 sub anno,
Respice mortahs quis quondam, sed modo talis,
Quantus & iste fuit dum membra calentia gessit.
Hie Primas Patrum, Cleri Dux & genus altum,
Corpore valde decens, sensus & acumine clarens
Filius hie comitis generosi Devoniensis.
1 Batteley's Somner, Appendix XIII, c.
2 Arch. Cant., XXILT, pp. 31-67.
3 Beale Poste, p. 90, from Archaeologia, X.
4 William Newton, History and Antiquities of Maidstone, 1741, pp. 71, 72, 76.
0 B.M. Egerton 3310, fo. 38. Weever's Funeral! Monuments, 1631, pp. 285,
286.
6 He died in 1396. This may be an error of transcription by Weever, and
Dering, but is equally likely to be the lattoner's mistake.
119
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
Legum Doctor erat Celebris quern fama serenat.
Urbs Herdfordensis, Pohs inchta Londoniensis,
Ac Dorobernensis, sibi trine gloria sedis
Detur honor digno fit Cancellarius ergo.
Sanctus ubique pater, prudens fuit ipse minister
Nam largus, letus, castus, pius atque pudicus,
Magnanimus, iustus, & egenis totus amicus,
Et quia Rex Christe Pastor bonus extitit iste,
Sumat solamen nunc tecum quesumus. Amen.
In 1631 Dering also entered this inscription with some differences,
viz. the omission of " en " in line 1, " praesente " for " presenti " in
line 3, " Aspice " for " Respice " in line 7, " ferebat " for " serenat "
in line 12, " melyta " for " inchta " in line 13, " Dorobornensis " for
" Dorobernensis " in hne 14, " fit " for " fuit "inline 16, and " quietus "
for " pudicus " in line 17.
Curiously, he annotated the entry in no way, though he draws
both the Wotton and Woodvfil tombs with their brasses. The brass
cannot be presumed lost, and therefore not illustrated, for he draws
indents in other churches he visited. Nor can the inscription be deemed
an interpolation, for it is followed by heraldry on other monuments
and in glass.
III. The tomb of John Wotton, first master of the college, who
died in 1417, hes behind the westernmost sedilia in the chancel, and
has been described in considerable detail, as far as its architecture
and mural painting are concerned, by most writers on the church.
Wotton, in his will,1 desired burial " ad altare Sancti Thomae
Martyris in Ecclesia prefata exparte australi consecratum et sumptibus
meis honorifice constructum." The tomb would appear to have been
constructed in his lifetime shortly before, or at the same time as the
sedilia, since some stones run completely through and are common
both to the sedilia and the tomb. Some of the vertical stones of the
sedilia are placed directly on part of the brass, and traces of the latter
can still be seen beneath the walling, as is shown in Fisher's drawing,
here reproduced. As no man then or now would have laid down a
brass, knowing it was immediately to be partially obscured, the conclusion
is inevitable that the tomb was erected first, and that Wotton
acquiesced in shght alteration, and effacement of the brass for the
sake of the sedilia, and then had his tomb " rounded off " by mural
paintings on the back of the sedilia which walled off the tomb.
For the detail of the brass, the only authority is Dering's drawing
of 1631, a copy of which was reproduced in Archceologia Cantiana,
Vol. I. He omits the canopy with its side shafts each containing
1 Cave-Browne, p. 45, n. 3.
120
PLATE I
INDENT OF PART OF A LOST BRASS, MAIDSTONE.
From a drawing by T. Fisher, F.S.A., at Maidstone Museuir
[face j>. W>
PLATE II
r 1 1
X i
INDENT OF ARCHBISHOP COURTENAY'S BRASS, MAIDSTONE.
From a drawing by T. Fisher, F.S.A., at the Society of Antiquaries.
PLATE III
INDENT OF BRASS TO JOHN WOTTON, MAIDSTONE.
From a drawing by T. Fisher, F.S.A., at the Society of Antiquaries,
PLATE IV
THE LOST BRASS OF RICHARD VVYDVIL, MAIDSTONE.
From a drawing by Sir Edward Dering, 1631, at the Society of Antiquaries,
SOME KENTISH-INDENTS. IV
four saints in canopied niches, and the two figures which spring on
columns from the triple canopy, apparently the Annunciation. He
does, however, draw the figure and the shields. Wotton is shown in
cassock, surphce, almuce and cope with morse, but Dering has not
drawn the pendants of the almuce. The shields show Courtenay
differenced by a plain label, and the archbishopric impahng Courtenay
with the label. Dering has a separate inscription plate immediately
below the figure ; Fisher shows that none was there.
The inscription is given by both Dering and Weever. I submit
the latter's rendering: Hie iacet Dominus Iohannes Wotton Rector
Ecclesie Parochialis de Stapilhurst, Canonicus Cicestrensis, & primus
Magister huius Collegii, qui obijt ultimo die Octobris, 1417. Dering
omits " Dominus," puts " Staplehurst," and continues after " die,"
" mensis octoD. A° Dni 1417."
IV. On the north side of the sanctuary hes the top slab, measuring
39 in. by 72 in., flush with the paving? of what was once a table tomb of
Richard Wydvil who died between 1441 and 1442.
Phihpot1 briefly states : " There is an Auntient monument of
Wodvil who dwelt at Thamote wtam this parish on ye north side ye
quire." In his time the only missing part was the first half of the
inscription, and he, a herald could identify by the arms. Weever,2
who was no herald, writes peevishly of it as " shamefully defaced "
since he could not identify it, but to his credit is the transcription of
such of the inscription as remained, viz.
. . . . ad bona tardus vocitando
. . . . namque Deo trino valefecit
December
. . . . Anno milleno C quater X . .
Dering gives no inscription, but draws the complete brass, which he
heads "In ye chancell upon an altar tombe for Woodvill." His
drawing is copied and reproduced in Archaeologia, Vol. 1.
There is some indication that the figures of the brass were still
there in 1719, for Harris3 describes it as a very remarkable, large and
fine altar-tomb, but cannot identify it, " all the Inscriptions, if ever
there were any, and Arms, being obliterated."
Beale Poste4 states that the tomb table was removed, and the slab
placed in the floor, in 1784, " on representation to the archbishop,
as from its position near the rails it was inconvenient during the
administration of the sacrament." In Fisher's notebook, however,
is a drawing of " The top stone of an antient altar Tomb standing
1 B.M. Egerton 3310, fo. 38.
2 Weever's Funerall Monuments, p. 286.
3 Harris's History of Kent, p. 190.
1 Beale Poste, p. 33.
121
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. 3V
1 pr "*?
v M,
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MAIDSTONE TV
INDENT OE BRASS TO RICHARD WYDVIL
122
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
on the north side of the high altar of Maidstone church, dated 1788,"
and since Fisher specifically mentions, in describing the indents, " an
inscription on a fillet in the moulding round its verge," the tomb
was evidently standing at this second date. Of the brass, Fisher
writes, " not a fragment is now remaining."
Dering's drawing agrees in the main with the indents. He omitted
the dagger on the male, and was free with the veil on the wife's head ;
the throne of the Trinity is out of scale ; the shields are placed too close
to the general composition; yet, despite these minor defects, the
whole is convincing.
The brass consisted of an armoured figure, a female, scrolls, the
Annunciation, the Trinity, and a shield at each corner. The armoured
figure is shown with its feet against a hon ; the head is bare and rests
on a helm with the vizor raised. In Mr. J. P. C. Kent's1 classification
of mihtary effigies, this would be one of Series D, but is unusual, in that
it is bareheaded, whereas workshop D at this period is carving helmed
figures. Fifteen years or so later, the bare head is the rule, rather
than the exception. The female figure wears a full-sleeved gown
loose at the wrists, and V-shaped at the neck. The hair has a heartshaped
coiffure, and the veil on the head falls in easy folds on to
the shoulders. At her feet, instead of the normal lapdog, is a rising
bird, possibly a pet hawk, though in Dering's drawing there is httle
hawklike. Each figure has a scroll rising to the Trinity. On that of
the man is " Jhu mercy and ever mercy for in y1 mercy full Trust
y " ; on that of the woman, " Jhu in thy mercy pittie and Grace full
trust y."
Above the scrolls, but lower than the Trinity, is placed the
Annunciation, the angel on the dexter, kneeling, with a scroll, unlettered
by Dering, in front, and on the sinister, Our Lady kneeling at a desk
on which is an open book, with divine rays directed slanting upon her
from a cloud. It is remarkable that no writer recognized the subject.
Fisher, working from the indent, called Our Lady a monk; Beale
Poste, " a female figure in the attitude of adoration " ; and Cave-
Browne, writing as late as c. 1887,2 and with the use of Dering's drawing,
calls her " a man, also kneeling."
The shields bore:
I. Quarterly 1 and 4 argent a fess and a quarter gules,
Wydvil.
2 and 3 gules, an eagle displayed or, Prewes
or Prowes.
1 " Monumental Brasses—A New Classification of Military Effigies," B.A.A.
Journal, 1949, pp. 70-97.
8 Cave-Browne, History of All Saints, Maidstone, p. 48. The book was reviewed
in Arch. Cant., XVTJJ, pp. 451-54, where the description of the monuments is
described as " lucid."
123
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
I I . Quarterly 1 and 4 or on a bend sable 3 bedles argent,
Bedlesgate.
2 and 3 vair, Beauchamp.
I l l as I ; and IV, I impahng II.
The quartering of Prewes used here by Wydvil was, in Arch. Cant.,
Vol. I, assigned to Gobion on the strength of the eagle displayed used
by the French family of Gobillon. Streatfeild1 queries this, but
offered no other identification. Sir Wilham St. John Hope2 identifies
it as Prowes on the stall plate of Lord Rivers, K.G., 1450-1469. It is
also quartered on the stall-plate of 1488s of " Lord Wodfyld
scheveUer." It is shown named with its tinctures as a quartering
of Wydvil in Harleian MS. 6163, folio 9, so the ascription may be
accepted.
Richard Wydvil was the second son of Sir John de Wydvil by his
second wife (whom he had married before 1379), Isabel, widow of
Robert Passelaw of Drayton Parslow, Bucks.* Richard's eldest
brother, Thomas, son of Sir John by his first wife, died without offspring.
His appropriated and partially palimpsest brass of 1435 still exists at
Bromham, Beds. ; its shields show no quartering of Prowse. It would
seem, therefore, that Richard Wydvil's mother was an heir of Prowse.
He married Joan, daughter and heiress of John BedleBgate, by
Mary daughter and co-heiress of Wilham Beauchamp of Welhngton,
Somerset, and she was still ahve in 1448. It was presumably through
her that the Wydvil family acquired La Mote.
He died probably in December, 1441, and in his will,6 dated 29th
November, 1441, he asks for burial at Maidstone.
I wish to thank Mr. M. I. Herbert and Mr. L. R. A. Grove, F.S.A.,
for rubbing the indent for me, and the latter gentleman for unstinted
help at all stages of the preparation of this article.
V. It should be noted that the brass to Richard Beeston, 1640,
in the north chancel, once had a rectangular plate above it on the stone.
This indent is not noted in Griffin and Stephenson's Monumental Brasses
in Kent, or elsewhere. It probably held an achievement of the arms
of Beeston.
WABBHOBNB
On the north side of the chancel outside the communion rails,
and against the north wall, is a slab showing indents for a kneeling
civilian and wife, inscription, three boys and a girl, and two shields.
1 Drake's Hundred of Blackheath, p. 218.
2 Stall-plates of Knights of the Garter, 1348-1485. PI. lx.
3 Information kindly supplied by W. J. Hemp, E.S.A, 1 De Walden Library, Two Tudor Books of Arms, p. 140. The Complete
Peerage, XI, pp. 15-22.
6 Reg. Ohichele, II, p. 608. Cant, and York Society.
124
SOME KENTISH INDENTS. IV
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