" •„•'
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Grace-cup of John Foche, last Abbot of St. Austin's, Canterbury
( 123 )
ABBOT EOGHE'S GRACE CTTP.
BY THE REV. R. U. POTTS, P.S.A.,
BUE8AB OF ST. ATTGUSTINE'8 COLLEGE, CANTEBBTJEY.
Through the generous gift of Mrs. "W. C. Randolph of
Tate House, Tate, Gloucestershire, the College has become
possessed of the Grace Cup of John Eoche, or Essex, the
last Abbot of this House, who on July 30th, 1538, signed
the Deed of Surrender to the King of all the possessions of
the Abbey (per me Johannem Essex, abbatem ibidem), and
was allowed to retire to the Manor of Sturry on a pension of
£133 a year, and probably died some time before February
1541, when his name no longer appears on the list of
pensioners.
The cup is described in the Proceedings of the Society of
Antiquaries, December 14th, 1893, when it was exhibited by
Mr. George Payne, E.S.A., being then in the possession of
Mrs. Eielding of Rochester:—
" The Cup is made out of a cocoa-nut and is mounted in
silver-gilt, with the following inscription round the run:
' Velcom 0 ze be § dryng § for Q Charite/
The base and stem are of plainly turned wood and of
modern date. Upon the top of the stem is rivetted a collar
of metal, 1£ inch in • diameter. This collar spreads out
into a frill of feathers bound round by a cable. The frill
forms a bed for the cup, which is 3 inches in height and
3£ inches in diameter, the diameter of the rim of the
wooden cup being nearly 2\ inches. Upon this rim rests
a collar of feathers pointing downwards, with a band above,
ornamented with a row of four dots in the form of a square
with a dot in the centre, the pattern- being repeated all
round the rim. The mouth of the cup here widens to
124i ABBOT POCHE'S GRACE CUP.
a diameter of 3£ inches, the band being an inch in height—
in the centre of this band occurs the inscription ; the letters
are slightly over a quarter of an inch in length. Above and
below the inscription are plain bands a quarter of an inch
wide; above the upper one is a band with the dot pattern
before described, surmounted by a rebated band forming the
rim. The band round the rim is united to the collar in base
by three elegant foliated straps, each having a cable down
the centre."
The tradition, handed down through several generations
of Eagges, is that the cup was the Grace Cup of the last
Abbot of St. Augustine's Monastery, Canterbury—John
Essex, who was descended from the Eoche family. Hasted
(Hist, of Kent, 8vo ed., xii., 211) says: " This Abbot's family
name was Eoch, his brother Henry was of Ripple in this
County." The Eagge family is maternally descended from
the Foches. A certain Henry Eoche, Vicar of Higham, died
in 1731, and was buried under the altar in Higham old
Church. John Eoche, of Upper Delce Farm, was buried at
Higham in 1736.
Mrs. Eielding of Rochester, a daughter of Sir John
Eagge, 6th Baronet, found the following entry relating to
the cup in the manuscript book of her mother, Lady Fagge:
" Copy of a memorandum in the handwriting of my father,
Daniel Newman, at the bottom of a curious cup belonging
to his ancestors : ' A description of this cup is to be found in
the Gentleman's Magazme, vol. 29, p. 271, 1759, by Samuel
Pegge, Vicar of Godmersham m Kent.' N.B.—Given by my
mother to her grandson, Sir John Fagge; said to be the
Grace Cup possessed by the last Abbot of St. Augustine's
Monastery, Canterbury."
This inscription in Mr. Newman's writing is still at the
bottom of the cup. The account in the Gentleman's Mugaxine
oceurs in a letter signed Paul Gemsago, an anagram for
Samuel Pegge. The writer, after some fantastic remarks
on the derivation of the word " Bumper," proceeds:
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Churchwardens' Accounts of the Parish of St Andrew, Canterbury, 1485 to 1625: PART V., 159-1625
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