Glass and Monuments formerly in the Church of Gillingham

GLASS AND MONUMENTS FORMERLY IN THE CHURCH OF GILLLNGHAM By C. R. COUNCER, F.S.A. I. THE RECORDS THE often-quoted account, by Baptist Tufton, parish clerk of GiUingham, of the glass and monuments remaining in the church early in the seventeenth century was first printed in Thorpe's Registrum Rojfense, in the year 1769. It is a record of considerable importance, because nearly everything described by Tufton has since disappeared from the church, and for most of the subjects represented in the glass he is the sole authority. It seemed worth while to reprint Tufton's text from the Registrum, and, on a diagram of the church, to work out the former position of the things he describes ; but I soon came to the conclusion that if this study was to be of any value it would be necessary to offer some comment on the Beaufitz and other families who were responsible for so much of the work described by Tufton, and who have been dealt with very inadequately by the county historians. FinaUy, a chance hint from Mr. Phihp Rogers, of the Freckleton Training CoUege, in Lancashhe, that there was MS. material relating to GiUingham in the Bodleian, led to the discovery there of Tufton's original MS. A series of photostats, kindly obtained by Mr. R. H. D'Elboux, F.S.A. (to whom I am much indebted for other help connected with the preparation of this paper) enabled me to use the original text instead of Thorpe's printed version. I cannot altogether blame the critic who may dislike the work U he complains that the apparatus criticus which has emerged from these studies notably exceeds in bulk the text which it is designed to elucidate, and poses more questions than it answers. Tufton's MS. (Bodl. Gough : Kent 44) is bound up with a number of pages of MS. notes on GiUingham, probably by Thorpe, dated 1726. It consists of four f ohos, showing signs of having been folded in four hke a lawyer's packet, written on both sides and endorsed " old noates of the Antiquities in GiUingham Church coUected by Mr Baptist Tufton the parish Clarke, 1616 " in a cursive seventeenth century band. The main text is written in an elegant court hand, with a number of corrections and interpolations, mostly heraldic, in the more cursive hand of the endorsement. CoUation of the MS. with the printed version in the Registrum shows a number of points of difference, for which Thorpe was doubtless 160 Ortecf the canon isecCviwii B.VM tfOutt Fiaureof stUcm Wife of P? BeaMfttz, TCain. shield. supj>orte£ )u ajweCs InscrtpuM. of Wm. beak w..cIer!L 1 jHUtme* tangere V r *** vvaq o 111 'wf-\ Nave VJnuQodJrey, 15x0, Or'2. wives UnJsnamjnan Sr' two wives M Car ! Art8tcyFtUfrrfa>! hj^ ^EastcourC or \Jofvn. BeaufiZz, Jf-33 1 &t*fc%CicL «-» TAVVCCCLCC CflccpeC Doroifffybi Rufgttr JotvrvBveqoeMfar (new in nave) (hour in. nave) JofmBeaufifziK? VwifelsaBeC CfvxnceC Sr'wi&.Sara, Joftn Bamnv2.,tifkEQ.z,. JoanB"t cmme^i 1612, &'co. Alice mnqvyo£ Jo ffjri&J pnhmqv psmpojsfl •puv JSOUglT gsngdyq " -OS ' QTCUKJC CfLapeC ? cR.Cowcyct-R fXCun FIG 1. GILLINGHAM. Diagram (not to scale) showing the arrangement of the glass and monuments as described by Tufton and Philipot. [face p. 160 GLASS AND MONUMENTS IN CHURCH OF GILL1NGHAM responsible. His most serious error was in the date, which for some unknown reason he has altered from November, 1616, to September, 1621. On the other hand he adds a description of the monuments in the south (Grange) chancel which no longer exists in the MS. The version which foUows is taken word for word from the MS., the seventeenth century interpolations in the cursive hand being printed in itaUcs, and any helpful additions made by Thorpe in the printed text being given in square brackets. The letters in heavy type in the margin are inserted to faeiUtate reference to the lettered windows in my diagram of the church which accompanies the text. One liberty taken by Thorpe with the text has been aUowed to stand. Tufton describes the windows in the foUowing order : D,A,E,B,F,G,G,H,J. I have foUowed the more logical order adopted by Thorpe. A second MS.,- which must be nearly coeval with Tufton's and supplements the latter, is John Philipot's book of church notes, B. M. Harley 3917. In this the notes on GiUingham occupy three fohos, 65b-66b. Extracts are here printed as an appendix to Tufton's text.' About the end of the eighteenth century Thomas Fisher, F.S.A., made a series of admirable drawings and rubbings of the brasses then remaining at GiUingham. His drawings of the foUowing five subjects are in the British Museum, and rubbings of portions of all except No. 4 are in the coUection of the Society of Antiquaries. Much of this work of Fisher's was reproduced by Griffin and Stephenson in theh List of Monumental Brasses in Kent, 1922 (hereafter as G. & S.). 1. John Beaufitz, 1427, and wfie Isabel. G. & S., Plates XXII and xxrv. 2. WiUiam Beaufitz, priest, 1433. G. & S., PI. XXI. 3. John Beaufitz, 1433, and wife Alice. G. & S., Pis. XXIII and xxrv. 4. Joan, wife of Richard Bamme, in shroud, 1431. G. & S., PI. XXV. 5. John Bamme, 1488, and wtfe Ehzabeth. G. & S., PI. XXVI. GiUingham church to-day exhibits aU too clear evidence of the drastic " restoration " to which it was subjected about 1868. The only brasses remaining are those of the two priests, John Bregge, vicar (undated; he d. 1425) and WiUiam Beaufitz, 1433, the latter less complete than in Fisher's day but retaining one shield of arms. Both have been moved from theh original position and placed in the nave. In the north chancel, which was converted into a vestry and organ chamber, and in the quhe, the restorers made a complete clearance, though it is just possible that the indents of the Beaufitz brasses may remain beneath the modern wooden flooring. The monument of WiUiam Haward has disappeared, but the incised slab which covered it, 161 u GLASS AND MONUMENTS IN CHURCH OF GILLINGHAM iUustrated in Arch. Cant., VI (1866), 300, remains, set in the floor of the south chancel. As early as the eighteenth century practicaUy aU the glass had disappeared, the sole surviving fragment in 1808 being " the remains of a figure of a bishop " in the east window of the north chancel.1 It is difficult to see which of Tufton's figures this can have been, and it was probably a piece obtruded from some other window. There is now no vestige of ancient glass remaining in the church. II. TUFTON'S TEXT A MemoriaU of such Monuments as are now extant in the parrishe Church of GiUingham in the Countie of Kent as well such as are paynted upon the glasse windowes as also such as have ben erected over those who have ben buried in the said Churche, ChanceU and ChappeUs as they are now to be seene the first daye of November in the yeare of our Lord God one Thousand Sixe hondred and Sixteene. [First, in the Westerne windowe, on the South syde of the said churche, there is no picture.] A. [Item,] First begynning at ye west end In the first windowe Southwards [on the South syde of the churche, in the first fight thereof,] there is the picture of the blessed virgin Marie, sitting with her sonne upon her knee, and in her left hand a golden scepter, with this inscription on her right hand much broken and defaced, Misericordiam memento nostri and wth this inscription on her left hand also broken and defaced, Secundum peccata nostra que. %And beneath is the portraicture of Robert Beaufitz who deceased in the yeare of our Lord God 1381 and lyeth interred in the ChanceU. ^In this uyyndowe is the Coate of Stanhop [or Thomas of GiUingham.] viz1 Quarterly E. r 3 3:«, «.<*