Notes of the Brasses, Memorial Windows, and Escutcheons formerly existing in Ashford and Willesborough Churches
By Herbert L. Smith, Esq.
The Englishman whose span of existence was allotted during the middle of the fifteenth century, or the thirty years' wars of the Roses, had but little settled peace. Whether he were prince, noble, or plebeian, the buckling on of his armour was not for the mere parade of chivalry or ornament of the gallant. The violence of partisanship cut asunder the dearest ties of family circle and friendly board.
It was through this period that he whose effigy lies before us lived.
Sir John Fogge, Knight, Privy Councillor, Treasurer, Comptroller of the Household, personal friend, faithful adherent, and, by the Woodvilles, a family connection of Edward IV., - for his first wife, Alice Haut, was first cousin to the Queen, her mother having been Elizabeth Woodville, a sister of Lord Rivers. According to the evidence of the Patent Rolls, he received numerous grants from the Crown, and consequently may well be supposed to have played no trifling part in the stirring events of the agitated age in which he existed.
His devotional attitude in the brass, and that in which he appears in the memorial window of our third plate (although in most monumental representations a mere conventional form), and the many and still enduring acts of munificence which enshrine his name at Ashford, in his case seem almost the natural expressions of a mind alive with gratitude to that divine Providence which carried him through such vicissitudes, and ultimately gave him rest, and restoration of affluence, under the happy union of the long conflicting Roses.
We may reasonably suppose that when the romantic Edward raised the supplicating widow, and placed her at once on the throne of his affections and his realm, he drew around him all the adherents of her house, and among them Sir John Fogge; for, bearing in remembrance the fact that the first husband of Elizabeth de Woodville, Grey of Groby, perished as a Lancastrian in the second battle of St. Alban's, and that Sir John Fogge himself had been Keeper of the Wardrobe to the unfortunate Henry in the last year of his reign, we can scarcely fail to admit that his change of badge, from red to white, was due to this marriage.
It is by no means improbable that Sir John may have been with his kinsman Grey in the battles of St. Alban's on the side of Henry, and wearing the red rose on the snow-clad field of Towton, and at the subsequent sanguinary battle of Hexham. After which events occurred the marriage of Edward, and with it the family changes we have suggested.
At this period Sir John was a young man in the vigour of life, and henceforth must have played a conspicuous part in the stirring events of that distracted time, such as the banishment of Warwick and Clarence, and their return, the expulsion of Edward, and the restoration of the feeble Henry.
Much as the passions were excited by these events, we will hope that, though cognizant of the end of the unhappy master whom he once served, he in no way contributed to bring about the miserable death of that monarch, or the hard usage of the gallant Margaret. His counsels, if not his personal services, assisted doubtless in the subsequent invasion of France, and the many curious negotiations which ensued.
The trial and tragical end of the Duke of Clarence in the butt of Malmsey were events of his day, if not actually with his concurrence. Finally, it is very probable that he was about the King during his last hours, and, as a near kinsman and faithful servant, was among those who pledged their fidelity to the interests of the infant successor and his brother.
How, under the protectorship of the artful Gloucester, he escaped the fate of Hastings, Rivers, Grey, and others, seems surprising; for no time was lost by Richard in the attainder of Sir John, and in depriving him of all his possessions. Perhaps he lay concealed, or escaped abroad. Possibly he might have been found amongst the two thousand followers of Richmond, when he landed in England, or was one of those who immediately repaired to his standard and played a part in the field of Bosworth; for the removal of the attainder, and the restoration of his honours and estates, are enrolled as occurring in the first year of Henry VII.
The ensuing six years of his life seem to have been a period of peaceable possession of his restored fortunes, and to have been occupied in setting his house in order, and in preparing for the time of his departure, which occurred in 1499, the sixth year of Henry VII.
Some of the offices of Sir John Fogge have been already alluded to, but it may be well to observe some further particulars respecting him. The family of Fogge appear to have come originally from Lancaster, and to have been brought into the possession of Repton House, and large Kentish estates about Ashford, by marriage with an heiress of the house of Valoignes.
Sir John was more than once sheriff of the county. His benefactions to the town and church of Ashford were numerous and valuable, and, so far as we can ascertain, were commenced in the later and more peaceable years of the reign of Edward IV., in whose time he founded the choral college. He restored or rebuilt the church, built the bell-tower, enriched the church-porch, and greatly adorned the high-altar, and bestowed many jewels; "all which," as the inscription observes, "was manifest to the sight, and to be kept in remembrance by posterity to the praise of the Lord." In order more effectually to perpetuate the devotional deeds of his life, he bequeathed to the town of Ashford, in trust, lands and houses, for the maintenance of the repairs of the church and worship of God therein, which bequests at the present time produce about one hundred and twenty pounds a year.
On the decease of Sir John, he was buried beneath a handsome altar-tomb which still stands between the chancel and Fogge Chapel, and which appears to have retained until the days of Dering the greater portion of its original ornamentations: these consisted of brass effigies of himself and his two wives. He is attired in rich plate-armour, and decorated with the Yorkist collar of suns and roses, with the white lion of Marche attached. His head reclines on his helmet, which is adorned with mantlings and crest. At his feet sits an Italian greyhound. On either hand lie his two wives, each the counterpart of the other in attitude, feature, and attire, as in name. Their mantles are fastened with roses; at the feet of each crouches a dog with knotted leading-strings. On one of the three sides of the tomb, which was enriched by panelling of Gothic arches, were three shields of arms, that to the right bearing Valoignes impaling Fogge, which arrangement can only be accounted for by some unknown marriage of a Valoignes with a lady of the family of Fogge, or by an error of the draughtsman in transcribing his notes, dimidiating quarterly Fogge and Valoignes into Valoignes impaling Fogge. The centre shield had the arms of the first wife, Haut, and probably the third contained those of the second wife, Kiriel.
On the front of the tomb the centre ornament was an angel supporting an inscription-plate, within an endless circle formed of rose sapling sticks firmly bound together, perhaps to represent the stability of family unity, the vitality of which is also indicated by four small sprouts of rose-branches with leaves and blossoms. On the tablet are inscribed the Latin verses which are given in our plate: the whole of this is on one piece of brass, and was for a length of time removed from the monument to a place in the wall of the church, but is now restored to the tomb. Four large bosses of the united Roses proclaimed a Yorkist's acquiescence in the peaceable conclusion of intestine commotion. An inscription round the margin of the slab, of which only a part remained in the days of Dering, completed the memorial. It seems to have recorded "that Sir John was a special friend of Edward IV., ... and departed this world universally esteemed by the common people."
Dering has given us the notion that the figures were of a large size, whereas, judging by the chasings still left in the stone, they were smaller than life; they are now wholly gone, with the exception of the helmet and crest. It has been supposed that this destruction occurred at the same time the churchwardens, S. Worthy and another, defaced the high-altar, in 1644, or thirteen years after Dering's notes were taken.
Our next plate exhibits the outline of the complete set of brasses which once existed in memory of Thomas Fogge, Esq., the son of the above Sir John. Of these only the labels, two children, and inscription-plate remain, thus inscribed:
"Here under this stone lyeth the bodyes of Thoms Fogg, esquyer, lately Sergeant Porter unto the moste famous princes Kings Henry the VII. and the VIII., and Eliafir his wyf. The whiche Thomas deceased the XVI. day of August, ye year of or Lord Mc vc XII., and Elianor deceased the day of the year of or Lord Mc V0 on whose Soules I.H. U. have mercy."
Dering, though he gives this inscription, does not do so on the plate we have copied; it was therefore more convenient to introduce it into our text. Having compared the copy with the original brass, we find the spaces left for the date of the wife's decease were never filled up, which would lead to the conclusion that the wife survived her husband; but although every arrangement was thus made for burial with her late husband, whenever her death might occur, from some accidental circumstance her interment took place elsewhere, or if with her husband, the insertion of the dates was carelessly forgotten.
Dering has misplaced the inscriptions on the labels, giving to the man the wife's, and to the wife the man's; in other respects they are correctly rendered. The children should have been on the plinth between their parents, and the two lower shields of arms below the inscription.
Of the history of this Thomas Fogge we have but little to record. The thorough exhaustion produced by the past tumultuous reigns doubtless predisposed him to inaction and rest. Probably his time was divided between the routine of a quiet court, and the peaceable enjoyment of his country possessions. The office of Serjeant-Porter, however, implies an appointment of trust, and proves him to have been employed about the court in a confidential capacity.
In full armour, his feet rest upon his crest, a unicorn; his wife, without any accompaniment or distinction, is by his side. The first escutcheon bears the arms of Fogge; the second Fogge impaling Browne, the coat of the wife's family; the third Woodville and Fogge impaling Haut, which would seem to indicate that he was the son of Alice Haut, not of Alice Kiriel, as stated in the pedigrees, and that this Alice Haut had been the wife of a Woodville before she married Sir John Fogge, else the arrangement of the shield is a mere caprice; we are not, however, in a position to offer anything beyond this conjecture. The fourth shield is that of Browne quarterly.
By our third plate we are brought back to Sir John Fogge, who is represented in the coloured glass of a memorial window, northward in the cross aisle. He is kneeling at his devotions, in full armour, covered by a tabard of his arms, Fogge quarterly with Valoignes. Before him lies an open missal upon a table covered with a cloth diapered with roses, and the rose, probably of York, is repeated as the boss on a pendant over his head. The back was a coloured diapering indicated by the letters B and P. At the side is the representation of a church, the badge of a builder or founder. This window was probably executed in the later years of Edward IV.
In the north window of the gallery was a shield of the arms of Fogge impaling Haut, and another of an unknown coat, gules a fess between six martlets or, within a bordure of argent and sable.
Amongst the coats of arms formerly in the windows of the minister's house is this,- Argent on a chevron between three boars' heads, gules a trefoil, or within a bordure engrailed. Some correspondent may in our next Volume be able to appropriate these two coats and more completely emblazon them.
Our last plate is from the church of Willesborough, and presents us with the portraits of benefactors or builders. The inscriptions appear to have been very defective in Dering's time; the surname in one, and the Christian name in the other, being lost, also the date. Unfortunately one of these persons for whose souls we are invited to pray, has no cognizance by which we may be assisted in filling up the gap, "Rici ... Gen." Both name and tabard of the other indicate an individual of an ancient family flourishing in the period of Edward II., Brent of Charing: he was an ancestor of the Derings, and proprietor of the manor of Willesborough. Each of the above persons is praying before an open missal. The costume is that of the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century.
Below these, the two figures kneeling present us with the portraits of Richmond Bare and his wife Juliana, for the repose of whose souls there occurs the usual invitation to pray: they are both in the civil costume of the early part of the sixteenth century. The Bares were of an ancient family, whose ancestor, Sir John Bare, was a knight of great reputation in the reigns of Richard I. and Henry III. The Bare here represented was of the Mote House, Sevington, who died in 1463, or possibly his son.