A Christmas Party of sorts: Family connections across different churches and memorials

This is going to be a little bit of a haphazard tour of historic churches, not entirely unlike our Historic Church Tours, but with a wider geographical spread. So, strap in and hold on tight.

When taking a closer look at the people commemorated by effigies and other memorials in CCT Churches, one might come across some curious connections. Is this surprising? No. The grandest and best documented monuments in our churches tend to represent members of the aristocracy, and members of the aristocracy tend to know each other. But is it interesting? To that we say: Oh, yes, very much so. And it is an excellent excuse for an imaginary tour of some of the finest historic churches in the country.

So, let’s begin. Imagine you have been invited to a Christmas party at Nonsuch Palace. It is the year 1560. You will have to get a little creative, because Nonsuch Palace, built by Henry VIII to rival all other palaces of the Tudor period, no longer exists. It was razed in 1683 and building materials were sold to pay off the gambling debts of Charles II’s mistress, Barbara Villiers. She certainly wouldn’t have been invited to this kind of party. Present would have been, first of all, the hosts: Lord and Lady Lumley.

Lord John Lumley, who was made 1st Baron Lumley, when the title was re-created for him in 1547, after it had been previously destroyed following the implication of his grandfather in a Catholic uprising, and Lady Jane Lumley, nee Fitzalan, whose memorial at Lumley Chapel, Cheam, contains the only surviving contemporary depiction of the interior of Nonsuch Palace. From this and contemporary written descriptions of the palace, we can tell that at this gathering we might find ourselves in a palace with a timber framework typical of the Tudor period but decorated in a style inspired by the Italian Renaissance. The exterior would have been adorned with plaster statues and reliefs depicting various classical figures and scenes. Even the timbers themselves would have been embellished with slates that were painted gold, so that the building gleamed in the sun. Surrounding this would have been a large neatly kept park with elm-lined avenues and decorative sculptures, for example an obelisk, depicted on Lady Lumley’s tomb. Inside there would have been three courtyards. Lavish apartments would have been located inside richly decorated towers and light would have streamed in through latticed windows. 

Lady Lumley was a well-known writer and translator during her lifetime. She was the first person to translate a classical play into English: Iphigeneia by the Greek playwright Euripides. She translated many other Greek and Latin texts, drawing on her father’s and husband’s vast libraries and was a respected scholar. If you attended a party at Nonsuch hosted by the Lumley’s classical texts would have almost certainly come up as a topic of conversation. 

Through her mother, Lady Jane Lumley was a first cousin of the famous Lady Jane Grey. Her father, who owned Nonsuch until his death in 1580 was Henry Fitzalan, the 12th Earl of Arundel. You might have found the powerful Earl in his library. The Fitzalans were very distant relations of the Arundells of Trerice in Cornwall from whom Sir Richard Arundell descended, who rebuilt St. Martin’s Church, Allerton Mauleverer near Knaresborough in 1745 (link). This church holds some fascinating cross-legged 13th Century knight’s effigies. In Lord Lumley’s time “ancient” cross-legged effigies were all the rage, and Lord Lumley himself actually acquired a similar 14th Century effigy for the family mausoleum, which he passed off as his 12th Century ancestor William de Lumley. However, unlike the effigies at Allerton Mauleverer, this effigy can no longer be found at Lumley Chapel today.

Lord Lumley had some interesting relations himself. His maternal grandfather was Sir Richard Knightley of Upton in Northamptonshire. A monument to Sir Richard can still be found at St. Michael’s Church, Upton, now in the care of CCT. This is a splendid 16th Century monument showing Sir Richard in full armor and his wife Lady Jane Spencer (originally of nearby Althorp and hence an ancestor of Lady Diana and Prince William) in a historically accurate dress. Traces of paint have been found on the tomb chest, suggesting that it was once painted, probably in a similar fashion to the monuments at Cheam and Snarford.

Following the death of Lady Lumley in 1578, Lord Lumley married secondly Elizabeth Darcy, whose tomb displaying both the Lumley and Darcy arms can now be found next to her husband’s tomb and opposite that of the first Lady Lumley at Lumley Chapel.

Not much is known about the second Lady Lumley, but she was the granddaughter of Sir Richard Rich of the powerful Rich family. If one was to look for a sort of villainous henchman character in the service of Henry VIII, one would find it in Richard Rich. Born of relatively humble origins, Rich opted for a career in law, eventually becoming Solicitor General for England and Wales in 1533. In this role he assisted Thomas Cromwell in the dissolution of the monasteries and in legally establishing Henry VIII as head of the Church of England. He shared in several trials of Henry’s political enemies and scapegoats, giving evidence against the defendants, which often consisted of information given in confidence by the defendants to their “friend” Rich. He also helped misconstrue facts and was instrumental in the fall of his patron, Cromwell. By changing his colours depending on his monarch, Rich managed to remain at the centre of Tudor politics throughout his life, serving both Mary I and Elizabeth I and the list of his unsavoury deeds is too long to recount here. Compared to him, his grandson Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick looks positively charming, although his wife might have disagreed. Robert Rich was in the same generation as Elizabeth Darcy and they would have been first cousins. A Christmas gathering with the Rich’s, Darcy’s and Lumley’s would have certainly been interesting. 

Robert Rich is commemorated at St. Lawrence’s, Snarford, in Lincolnshire alongside his second wife Frances Wray. The colourful Tudor tombs at Snarford are some of the most stunning memorials you will find in a CCT Church. For both Robert and Frances this was their second marriage, and it wasn’t a particularly successful one. Robert seems to have been primarily interested in his wife’s vast fortune, of which he never actually saw a penny. after nine months of marriage, it was reported that Rich was ‘near crazed... to see himself so overreached by his wife, who hath so conveyed (managed) her estate that he is little or nothing the better by her’. He subsequently purchased the Earldom of Warwick to console himself, then died in 1619 and left Frances a wealthy Countess, who lived on at Snarford, undisturbed by further husbands, until her death in 1634. Frances Wray is actually depicted on two memorials at Snarford, once alongside her first husband and once alongside her second husband.

Frances Wray and Robert Rich were acquainted with another Lady who has a strong connection to two CCT Churches: Lady Anne Clifford. Upon the death of her father George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, her father’s earldom passed to her uncle. Discontent with this circumstance, Lady Anne engaged in a lengthy legal battle for her right to her father’s title. She finally gained possession of her estates in 1649 following the death of her cousin without issue. In her later years Lady Anne acted as powerful landowner and like monarchs of earlier times she travelled between her various castles and houses in Cumbria, staying in each place for a few weeks or several months at a time. She was also a patron of architecture. In 1658, she completely rebuilt the medieval chapel outside Brougham Hall, St. Wilfrid’s. In 1660, she rebuilt and enlarged St. Ninian’s or Ninekirks, then the local parish church, in a design almost identical to St. Wilfrid’s. Even though, her tomb and monument can be found alongside that of her mother in nearby Appleby, her initials can still be seen on the wall at Ninekirks. Lady Anne was friends with Frances Hatton, wife of Robert Rich junior, the 2nd Earl of Warwick and son of the Robert Rich mentioned above. In March 1619, when the 1st Earl of Warwick died, she recorded his passing in her diary and noted that “my Lord of Warwick died at Arlington House leaving a great Estate to Lord Rich and my good friend his Lady, and leaving his wife (…) a Widow the 2nd time.”

In 1590 Lord Lumley returned possession of Nonsuch Palace to Queen Elizabeth I, but stayed on as Keeper of the Palace. This is also the year in which a gentlewoman in the Queen’s service got married. Lady Bridget Chatworth married Sir William Carr. Despite her marriage, she remained in the Queen’s service and stayed by her side until the Queen’s death in 1603. When Lady Bridget herself passed away in 1621, a sumptuous memorial was erected for her at St. Andrew’s Church, Ufford, in Northamptonshire. 

Many churches in the care of CCT are connected through family ties and historical bonds between our churches reach across county borders like ley lines. Even when visiting churches that are many miles apart from each other, you might just be stepping into two different chapters of the same story.

We hope that you will enjoy the chance to journey back through centuries past in one of the many peaceful and quiet time capsules in our care.