Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/194

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books, their hands joined in prayer, and between them on a scroll: "Sufferance dothe Ease." Behind him are four sons and behind her five daughters, all with hands joined in prayer and with their names engraved on labels above them. The next compartment shows three shields with the arms of Hussey, Disney and Ayscough, in which Hussey has three squirrels sitting up, Disney has three fleurs de lys, and Ayscough three asses coughing. In the compartment below these are the half-length figures of Richard Disney, full face in armour with very high shoulder-pieces, and his two wives who are three-quarter face; and below are their names engraved thus:  "Nele daughter of Sr Wilton Husey Knyght, Richard Disney, Janne daughr of Sr Wilton Ayscoughe Kt." Behind the first wife are ranged in two tiers her seven sons and five daughters and their names were engraved above them. "Sara, Ester, Judeth, Judet and Susan" are still there, but the sons' names are gone; a bit of the brass which held them, about six inches by one and a half, having been cut out, in connection, it is said, with a lawsuit arising out of Richard Disney's will. They can be supplied from Gervase Holles' MS. as William, Humphrey, John, Daniel, Ciriac, Zachariah and Isaac.

The lowest compartment has this inscription:—

"The lyfe, conversacion and seruice, of the first above named Willm Disney and of Richard Disney his Sonne were comendable amongest their Neigbours trewe and fathefull to ther prince and cutree and acceptable to Thallmighty of Whome we trust they are receved to Saluation accordinge to the Stedfast faythe which they had in and throughe the mercy and merit of Christ or Savior. Thes truthes are thus sette forthe that in all ages God may be thankfully Glorified for thes and suche lyke his gracious benefites."

No dates are given, but William Disney's will was proved in 1540; Richard Disney's in 1578; and that of Jane, the second wife of Richard, in 1591. She was the younger sister of Anne Askew, who was so cruelly burnt for heresy at Smithfield in 1546, because she had read the Bible to some poor folk in the cathedral. She had previously been married to George St. Poll of Snarford, by whom she had a son. Canon Cole, in his "Notes on the Ecclesiastical History of the Deanery of Graffoe during the 15th and 16th centuries," says that "such demi figures as these are rare in the 16th century, and helmets are seldom seen