Fighting Essex Brasses

Martin Stuchfield gave an interesting talk on monumental brasses at the Essex Record Office Conference recently on the Fighting Essex Soldier.  He began by saying that there are many fourteenth century brasses in the home counties of Kent, Norfolk and Essex.  Overall Essex has 473 monumental brasses – about one per church – 15 of which are fourteenth century.  Another interesting statistic is that Writtle has twice the number of brasses than exist in the whole of Scotland.

His talk focussed on military figures depicted in Essex churches, three of which are considered to be of national importance.

The brass of Sir William Fitzralph in Pebmarsh Church appears on the cover of all 41 volumes of Arthur Mee’s ‘King’s England’ series of books.  Previously thought to be the sixth oldest brass in the country – the oldest is an unknown priest dating c1282 in Ashford, Kent – it has been demoted to the ninth oldest.  The brass is the oldest in Essex.  It shows the transition of armour from mail to plate.  By the end of the fourteenth century the soldier was clothed in plate armour.  Fitzralph raised foot soldiers for the King, serving in 1298 and 1301.  The brass has been re-dated 1331-38, previously 1323.  Montgomery Burnett gives an account of the brass and Sir William’s service in the Transactions of this Society, ‘third series’, Volume 6.  For more see: http://www.pebmarsh.com/history/fitzralph/brass/

Sir John de Wantone is commemorated at Wimbish.  This is dated 1347 and is the earliest brass survival without a shield.  He wears a leather sleeveless garment.  De Wantone was summoned in 1345 to attend the King in France with men and arms.  For more see: http://www.wimbish.org.uk/wimbish-in-1937.html

Sir John Gifford’s memorial at Bowers Gifford is the last brass surviving in England to be ornamented completely in mail.  It has a skilfully engraved shield.  The head has been missing since at least 1715.  When the church was rebuilt in the 1830s the brass was given away but it was repaired in 1898 by the Essex Archaeological Society (now the Essex Society for Archaeology and History) to commemorate its Diamond Jubilee.  “On a Recently Discovered Monumental Brass, belonging to Bowers Gifford Church, by Mr H W King“, may be found in Transactions ‘old series’, Volume I.   Sir John Gifford died 1357/58.  For more see: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=123469 .

The very slim but detailed figure of Ralph de Knevynton is at Aveley.  He died 5 December 1370.  It appeared on the cover of the Monumental Brass Society’s Bulletin (No 125, February 2014).  For more see: http://www.thurrock-history.org.uk/aveley2.htm

The brass of Thomas Stapel, who died in 1371, was once in Shopland Church (demolished 1937) but is now in Sutton Church.  Only the top two-thirds of the armoured figure remain.  It may have once been an altar tomb slab.  The image was used by the Essex Record Office in 2014 to promote the one-day Conference on the Fighting Essex Soldier.  The effigy is discussed in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, Vol XII, page 244, where an illustration is given.  For more see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton,_Essex

In 1849 Chrishall church was restored and the life-size brass figure of John de la Pole was hidden under flooring.  Commemorated in full armour he clasps hands with his wife, and both are placed under a triple canopy.  He frequently served in the theatre of war from 1369: in spring 1378 with John of Gaunt at St Malo.  To see a detailed review of John de la Pole: http://sirgawainsworld.wordpress.com/2011/09/02/a-meeting-with-john-de-la-pole-of-chrishall-essex/

On the night of 21 September 1940 Little Horkesley Church and The Beehive public house was completely destroyed by a bomb.  Staff at Colchester Museum was quickly on site to rescue the remains of the brass of Sir Robert Swynborne and Sir Thomas Swynborne.  It was painstakingly restored over 17 years when the church was rebuilt and reopened in 1957.  The dagger was restored in 1973.  Sir Robert is in full armour.  He died without issue on 6 October 1391.  Sir Thomas died in 1412.  “The Destruction of Little Horkesley Church, and the Discovery of Palimpsest Brass.  By the Rev G Montagu Benton, M.A., F.S.A.” may be found in the Transactions of this Society, ‘new series’, Vol. XXIII Part 1.  For more information see also: http://www.webring.org/l/rd?ring=ukgen;id=1;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebspace%2Ewebring%2Ecom%2Fpeople%2Fau%2Fum_7035%2Fhorkesley%2Ehtml

‘The Monumental Brasses of Essex’ by Miller Christy, W. W. Porteous and E. Bertram Smith is a contribution to ‘Memorials of Old Essex’ edited by A. Clifton Kelway in 1908.  These authors also produced a series of articles for the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, the Essex Review and other publications about the same time.  The contribution includes a review of ‘Brasses of Men in Armour’ and includes illustrations of the brasses at Pebmarsh, Chrishall, Little Horkesley and Aveley.