Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/325

 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE. 195 lOH'IS DE BELEWE. Length of the slab, 2 feet 2 inches ; breadth at the head, 1^ niches; at foot, 9 inches. It appears from Domesday that Osbern de Arches held large estates in Yorkshire, amongst which was Thorp, now called Thorp Arch, and appa- rently the chief place of his manors and possessions. His granddaughter, and sole heiress, married Adam de Brus, of the family which founded Guis- borough Priory, in the North Riding. Peter de Brus, who succeeded to these estates, married llelewise de Lancaster, one of the co-heiresses of a family which assumed the name, as being descended from William de Warren, Governor of Lancaster Castle. Peter de Brus, issue of this mar- riage, died s. p. about the last year of Hen. III., or 1st Edw. I., and was succeeded in the property of de Arches and Brus, by his four sisters, Agnes, who married Walter de Fauconberg ; Lucia, married to Marmaduke Thweng ; Margaret, to Piobert de Ros ; and Laduina, to Sir John de Belewe. Thorp Arch fell to the share of the last, with the ancient castle, the foundations of which were discovered and destroyed, about sixty years since : and there, probably, the infant, whose place of burial was marked by this cross-slab, passed his brief life. Whether he were the only male issue of Sir John de Belewe by the heiress of Thorp Arch is not known, but in 29 Edw. I. (1300 — 1) Sir John, having survived his wife, died, leaving as his heirs Nicholas Stapleton, set. 15, son and heir of his daughter, Sibilla, deceased, who had been wife of Sir Milo de Stapleton ; and Johanna, another daughter, then living, aged twenty-four years and upwards, the wife of Fitz Henry. This diminutive memorial may, then, be attributed to the earlier part of the reign of Edw. I., probably about 1280 — 85. It would appear, from the inscription being only on two sides, that it was intended to be placed oia the north side, probably, of the chancel. The wall in which it was discovered was rebuilt about 1730. This memorial is interesting, as cross-slabs commemorative of children are not of frequent occurrence, and it is rarely that the precise date of memorials of this class can be ascertained. It is a good example of the kind of tomb, and a representation will be given in a future number of the Journal. Mn. J. A. BusFiELD communicated an engraving of a poetical inscrip- tion, to the memory of PJchard Ferrant, from a brass plate in Beverley Minster, dated 1500; accompanied by some genealogical memoranda, and extracts from his will, illustrative of the manners of the times. The Rev. H. Maclean, Vicar of Caistor, Lincolnshire, reported the recent discovery of a curious sepulchral cist in Rothwell Churchyard, near Caistor. It was composed of rough upright slabs of limestone, and covered with the same. It was broken into by some workmen, who were making deep holes for the purpose of erecting scaffolding round the tower. The cist is placed E. and W., and contained the skeleton of a man, of large stature : no remains of wood or cloth were found. A notice of interments in similar cists, discovered at Pytchley, Northamptonshu-e, has been given in a former volume of the Journal.' The Rev. Joseph Hunter made the following communication in refer- ence to the remarks made by Mr. Franks, at the previous meeting, regarding the engravers of sepulchi-al brasses, and how rarely the name of any such artificer has been commemorated, as on the examples at Llanrwst : — ^ Vol. in.,p. ]0.i.