Part 20 (1/2)

[31] Query, if the fine effigies of a knight and lady in Kings-Carswell church in south Devon do not represent this Sir John Dinham and his _first_ wife, Maud Maltravers. The Knight has the arms of Dinham on his surcoat, and the s.h.i.+elds on the tomb below display Dinham impaling a _fret_ or _frette_. There is another interesting effigy of a lady in the same church, that may possibly be intended for the _second_ wife of Sir John Dinham who was a daughter of John, Lord Lovel.

Elizabeth, the second wife of Sir Humphrey died the 15 Oct., 1413, and the knight himself survived her sixteen days only, dying on the 31 Oct., 1413, and both were buried beside her first husband, Sir John Maltravers, in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury. He was the first of his line that bore for his arms, _Or, a chevron gules within a bordure engrailed sable_.

All the foregoing coats of arms including also D'Aumarle, _Per fess gules and azure, three crescents argent_, are found among the heraldic display on the tomb of their descendant the Lady Elizabeth Willoughby-Greville at Alcester.

Sir Humphrey Stafford--only child of the foregoing--was of Suthwyke in right of his mother, and of Hooke, _jure uxoris_. He was surnamed ”_with the Silver Hand_,”--a 'periphrasis' whose meaning has not been explained,--and married Elizabeth, the second daughter of his father's second wife, by her first husband Sir John Maltravers. By her he had three sons, Richard, John, and William, and one daughter Alice.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EFFIGY OF SIR JOHN DINHAM, KINGS-CARSWELL CHURCH, DEVON. CIRCA 1428.]

Sir Humphrey, having thus married the heiress of Maltravers, probably removed to Hooke, their antient seat, and made it his residence. c.o.ker says of Hooke House, that ”in foregoing ages the Cifrewasts, men of great antiquity and note dwelled there.” Maltravers married Cifrewast's heir, and the old historian continues, ”Humphry Stafford who married Maltravers' heir, was the great builder of it. This place hath since been much beholden to William Pawlitt, Marquis of Winchester, who augmented it with new buildings and often lived there, but his successors have not thought so well of it, wherefore it is like to run to decay.” Paulet held it through his wife Elizabeth Willoughby, by inheritance from Cheney and Stafford.[32] Arms of Cifrewast of Hooke,--_Azure, three bars gemelles or_,--also found at Alcester.

[32] See page 33.

Sir Humphrey died 27 May, 1442, his wife had pre-deceased him, dying about 1420, and both were buried in the Abbey Church of Abbotsbury, in the Chapel of St. Anne therein, which he had founded.

Before proceeding further with this descent of Stafford, our little annals confront us with its most distinguished representative--albeit by a side issue--John Stafford, consecrated Bishop of Bath and Wells 1425, Archbishop of Canterbury 1443, Lord Chancellor to Henry VI., and who died in 1452. Who were his parents, and where is his position in the family pedigree? The recognized 'authorities' on the subject describe him as being _another_ son of the first Sir Humphrey, and brother to him ”_with the Silver Hand_.” Yet no definite proof thereof has been forthcoming. His presumed father Sir Humphrey made his will at Hooke 5 April, 1413, with codicil dated 30 Oct., same year, but in it he does not even mention him. Yet Sir Humphrey's second wife Elizabeth Maltravers in a codicil to her's, dated 14 October, 1413, does refer to him by bequest, _Item, Magistro Johanni Stafford, &c._

Sir Humphrey Stafford also, the only son of Sir Humphrey (the Archbishop's presumed father), in his will dated 14 Dec., 1441, includes bequests to the future Archbishop, thus recorded,--

_”Item, do et lego Johanni fratri meo divina pietate Bathoniensis et Wellensis episcopo, unum par de fflacons argenteis et deauratis._

”_Item, eidem Episcopo unam ymaginem argenteam et deauratum decollationis sancti Johannis Baptiste, ac unam magnam peciam de Aras vocatam doser._”

He also appoints the said bishop _his brother_, and William his son, with others to be his executors.

An extraordinary confusion appears to have enveloped the statements of historians and antiquaries as to the pedigree of Stafford, and the Archbishop's origin; this however has of late been satisfactorily cleared up by the researches of an accomplished and accurate genealogist. He _was_ the son of the first Sir Humphrey, but not born within the legal pale of wedlock, and his mother's name was Emma, that she was subsequently admitted to the Sisterhood of the Priory of the Holy Trinity, Canterbury, of which her son the Archbishop was a Brother, but _who_ she was has not as yet been recovered. She died 5 Sept., 1446, and was buried in a mortuary chapel in the north aisle of the parish church of North-Bradley, Wilts, in which Suthwyke is situated.

”As her son was elevated to the primacy in 1443 he is here (on the gravestone) correctly described as Archbishop at the time of his mother's death, which could not have been done had she died in 1440. Considering that the archbishop raised this mortuary chapel as a resting place for his mother's remains,--if not for his own--in the church of the parish in which Suthwyke manor house is situate, and that his father resided at Suthwyke until the period of his marriage with his second wife, when he removed to her dower house of Hoke in Dorsets.h.i.+re, it is not unreasonable to infer that the archbishop was born in the parish of North-Bradley.

”As his mother survived Sir Humphry's last wife, who died in 1413,--only sixteen days before Sir Humphry--it is impossible the archbishop's mother could have been Sir Humphry's wife, at the time her son was born. His birth must be set as far back as 1387, if not earlier, as in 1413 he was made LL.D. at Oxford, and in the same year he was collated to the Prebendal stall of Barton in the Cathedral church of Wells.”[33]

[33] See a most able and comprehensive account of ”_Stafford of Suthwyke_,” in _Notes and Queries for 1871_, by B. W. GREENFIELD, ESQ., F.S.A., &c., from which we quote; and for other help kindly afforded, we here gratefully acknowledge.

The mortuary Chapel that the Archbishop erected to the memory of his mother, and to which doubtless he had her remains conveyed, and therein interred, occurs at the east end of the north aisle of North-Bradley church, and is of the width of the last bay of the arcade. It is of square form and projects with definite character from the church, to which it forms a kind of transept.

The architecture is Perpendicular, and of rich character. The east window square-headed, of some height from the floor, shewing that there was an altar once below it, and a piscina occurs in the pier of the arch on the south side. The south window is of large size, bay-shaped, and extends to the roof, the side jambs are panelled with window-shaped tracery, and along the top is a string-course of quatrefoil panels with bosses, and these are repeated at the base over the tomb; here they have s.h.i.+elds in the centre, but with no charges on them. The roof, in a good state of preservation, is a richly trussed one of oak, with deeply moulded transoms, again subdivided by smaller ones, the squares between ornamented with quatrefoils, having well-carved bosses in their centres, and others at the intersection of the trusses. On one nearest the chancel is the cross and crown of thorns,--on others the arms of Hungerford, the double rose, and some display, apparently representations of stags, a fox, man on horse, &c.

The tomb of the Archbishop's mother is in the recess of the bay of the north window. It occupies its whole width and depth, and a.s.sumes the form of a plain solid bench rising some height from the ground, with no ornament of any kind. It is composed of white stone, as is also the gravestone, let in on the top, which appears to be of somewhat different kind, and of more friable character.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EMMA, MOTHER OF ARCHBISHOP STAFFORD.

NORTH-BRADLEY CHURCH, WILTs.h.i.+RE.--A.D. 1446.]

On this gravestone the effigy of the mother of the Archbishop is incised, below her feet is a pedestal, and over her head a rich canopy supported on side b.u.t.tresses. Although the lines of the figure are somewhat denuded, yet sufficient remains to shew she was clad in the ordinary costume of a lady of the period. On her head she wears a coverchief that depends to the shoulders, a wimple around her neck, and she is otherwise attired in long gown and robe over. The hands are raised in prayer, and at her feet is a dog, apparently a spaniel, from his dependant ears and clouded coat. The incised lines are filled with a black composition, as is also the inscription that forms a ledger-line around the stone,--

=Hic jacet d'na Emma mater Venerandissimi patris et domini D'ni Joh'is Stafford dei gra' Cantuariensis Archiepi' que obiit quinto die mensis Septembris anno d'ni Millesimo cccc^mo quadra's'mo vi^o cuj' anime p'piciet' de' am'=

On the outside, the Chapel is very noticeable, on account of its height and rich character as compared with the main fabric of the church. The corner b.u.t.tresses have pinnacles at their stages, and the s.p.a.ce below the north window is filled with quatrefoiled panels, and lozenges, traceried, with plain s.h.i.+elds in their centres. A remarkable peculiarity is observable,--the carved ornamentation of the Chapel was never finished, the pinnacles on one b.u.t.tress are completed, the crockets on the other only roughed out, and the cusps of the panel work above the tomb inside, still display the pencil marks of the intention of the carver, which his chisel never gave form to. The s.h.i.+elds also are all perfectly plain and uncharged, and no trace of the armories of Stafford are at present visible anywhere on the Chapel, either within or without.

When Aubrey visited the Chapel in 1669, he notes,--

”By the north aisle is a peculiar chappell of excellent worke, the roof of wood curiously carved. I guesse the worke to be about temp: Henry VI. about which time this kind of Gothique architecture was at the height. This was as n.o.ble a Chapelle as any in the county, now, in the windowe, like a great bay windowe is only one scutcheon left entire; viz: Stafford,--_Or, a chevron gules._ Another was quarterley, _now broken_: another thus Stafford, imp: Beville. At the bottom thereof is a flatt gravestone of freestone well worked, lineally with the figure of a lady in a Gothique niche. In the limbe thereof this inscription ”=Hic jacet d'na Emma, &c=.”

The old antiquary gives the inscription fairly correct as it now is found, but at the end he adds these further words,--”=O Deus trina me John conserva ruina=,”--(_O triune G.o.d, save me, John, from perdition_). But such never could have existed on the face of the gravestone, as the inscription, without this addition completely fills the ledger-line around its edge. Probably he saw it in one of the windows. He then goes on to say,--