Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/326

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��Close by this in the sacrarium was the tomb, with a canopy of alabaster or coloured freestone, of Katherine the fifth daughter of Richard Elyot the elder, erected by her sister Rachel, wife of Roger Trappes, late of Chatham." 8 The kneeling figure, a good example of the dress of the period, and finely carved the features showing a family likeness to those of the other Elyot effigies is now very in- congruously placed in the niche, or sedile, in the south chapel. She ' put off this mortal life at her age of 28 years,' A.D. 1623. Above these Elyot tombs in the sacrarium was a tablet to Sir Edward Thurland, kt., solicitor to James, Duke of York, afterwards James II, and a baron of the Exchequer."' His only son Edward was married to Elizabeth, another daughter and co- heiress of Richard Elyot, who died in 1641. Edward died 1682, his son Edward Thurland, gent., in 1687, leaving three sons, the eldest of whom, Edward, ' married Frances daughter of Sir Edward Alford of Offington, Sussex.' Frances died in 1694, and their son Edward, the last of the race in the male line, 19 December 1731, aged 62. Their tombstones lie before the altar.

On the left of the Elyot tomb, at the east end of the north chapel, is that of Sir Thomas Bludder and his wife Mary, the daughter of Christopher Herries, csq., of Shenfield, Margaretting, Essex. Sir Thomas, who was First Commissioner of the Victualling Office in the reign of James I, purchased the manor of Flanchford (q.v.) His wife died Saturday, 25 Oc- tober 1618, and he just a week later. In a window sill in the north chancel is the diminutive figure of a female child, removed from its position at its parents' feet on this monument. Over the vestry door was the tablet to the memory of Sir Thomas Bludder, the younger (died 29 September 1655), erected by his third wife, Elizabeth daughter of Robert Bret.

There is a small brass inscription on the north wall of the north aisle : 'To the memory of Anthony Gilmyn. 23 August 1575.' It is said that there was formerly a second tablet bearing this inscription on the north side of the chancel.

The monument to Richard Ladbroke, esq., of Frenches (d. 1730), unfortunately almost entirely hidden from view by the organ, is a fine piece of 18th- century allegorical sculpture, costing l, 5 oo. It stands against the western part of the north wall of the north chapel. That ' zealous member of the Church of England ' is habited in Roman costume and attended by Justice and Truth, with angels, and trumpets, suns and palm-branches.

There is a monument, formerly in the south chapel, but now in the bell-ringers' chamber, to Lieut. Edward Bird, d. 1718, whose claim to fame rests on the fact that he ' had the misfortune to kill a waiter near Golden Square,' in a disreputable tavern, and was hanged for this deed in February 1718, there- by achieving what a writer unkindly calls ' a County History immortality.' Bird, who was a lieutenant

��in ' the Marquis of Winchester's regiment of horse," appears against a background of warlike instruments, a half-length figure, truncheon in hand, in armour, full-bottomed wig, with a cravat round his neck, which popular belief has converted into a halter.**

In a large vault beneath the chancel * 31 lie buried Lord Howard of Effingham and the first and second Earls of Nottingham. It is strange that although Lord Howard left directions that a monument should be raised to him, neither he nor his family had been commemorated in this fashion, until in 1888, the ter- centenary of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a brass tablet was set up on the south wall of the sacrarium in memory of Elizabeth's famous Lord High Admiral. There are three lead coffins in the vault, standing one upon another, and ' the lowermost of the three is sup- posed to contain the body of the first Lord Howard of Effingham, who died in 1573, as the other two are known by their inscriptions.' n * One of the other coffins bears the following inscription : ' Heare lyeth the body of Charles Howarde, Earle of Nottinghame, Lord High Admyrall of Englande, Generall ofQueene Elizabethe's Navy Royall att Sea agaynst the Span- yard's invinsable Navy, in the year of our Lord 1588 ; who departed this life att Haling Howse, the 14 daye of December, in ye yeare of oure Lorde 1624. CEtatis sve 87.'

There are many other tablets and other memorials in the church and bell-chamber, but of no special in- terest.

A few masons' marks and other scratchings are visible internally, as in the porch, where interlaced triangles are found, and the soft Reigate stone has in general preserved the axe and broad chisel tooling in the early work of the nave arcades.

The eight bells were recast in 1784, but the first bears date 1789. Their inscriptions record conse- cutively the names of the donors, contributors, vicar, churchwardens and founder, Robert Patrick of London. In the Edwardian inventory it is recorded that there were ' In the steple iiij belles and ij hand belles.'

The plate is modern, with the exception of a silver spoon-strainer, of c. 1 770, resembling one at St. John's, Richmond, being originally intended for removing ob- structions from the spout of a teapot.

The registers, which commence in 1 546, contain many entries of exceptional interest relating to the Howard interments. 233

The churchyard is of great size and is still used for interments. It contains many 18th-century and later monuments, among them an obelisk to Baron Maseres (d. 1824), the editor of some valuable tracts relating to the periods of Elizabeth and Charles I.

The chapel of St. Cross on Reigate Heath was formerly known as Mill Chapel, the original building used having been a mill. There is also an iron church on the heath. These are both served from the church.

The church of St. Mark, built in 1860, is in stone in 14th-century style, with chancel, nave, aisles, tran- septs, and tower with a slender spire.

��428 Manning and Bray say 'alabaster,' but Ambrose Glover says ' freestone.' The inscription is given at length by Manning and Bray.

Reigate) writes : ' Even the stone in honour of Sir Edward Thurland, a faithful servant of Charles I, and an esteemed friend of Jeremy Taylor, has been swept away,though
 * Mr. R. F. D. Palgrave (Handbook to

��his were those " silent excellencies," which so specially need commemoration.'

480 The story is not without its true pathos. Bird seems to have sunk into dissipated courses owing to being left a widower at twenty-two years of age. His mother on every anniversary of his execution came and shut herself up alone in the church for hours.

244

��ml This vault, belonging to the manor of the Priory, was ' made by the Lord Howard of Effingham, the first grantee of that estate.' Manning and Bray, Hist, of Surr.

m Ambrose Glover, MS. Hist, of the Priory.

"See Surr. Arch. Coll. xi, 189-201.

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