Surrey Archaeological Collections/Volume 1/The Warham Monument in Croydon Church
IV.
THE WARHAM MONUMENT IN CROYDON CHURCH.
By GEORGE STEINMAN STEINMAN, Esq., F.S.A.
Against the south wall of the Chantry of St. Nicholas, in Croydon Church, is a Monument erected to the memory—as the arms upon it testify—of a member of the Warham family.
On 3rd September, 1478, one Thomas Warham, citizen and carpenter, of London, whose residence was at Croydon, dated his will, and in it directed his body to be buried in the parish church of St. John the Baptist, at Croydon, in the Chapel of St. Nicholas, "before the ymage of our Lady of Pitie;" and as the monument in question is without inscription, it has not unnaturally been assigned to him.
His epitaph, as copied and carried down to us in one of the Ashmolean MSS. ran as follows:—"Hic jacet Thomas Warham, civis et carpentarius London, et Margareta Uxor ejus, qui quidem Thomas obiit 3 Augusti, 1481." But the name of the wife appears from the citizen's will to have been Ellen.
The Monument, however, was certainly not placed to the memory of this person,—who, it is important to observe, died without issue,—or to one of his humble station. It commemorates Hugh Warham, Esq., of Melsanger, in the parish of Church Oakley, county Hants, and of Haling, in Croydon, as we are now about to prove, by the identity of the arms, and by the appropriation of the indents of the figures, removed, by sacrilegious hands, from it.
That William War ham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and his brothers, Nicholas and Hugh, were the first of their family whe bore arms, is, we believe, without much doubt. There is no evidence of the invention of the coat used by the archbishop; before his time it is of the heraldic fancy of his age, and moreover the monument of his father and mother, at Church Oakley, is, and always has been, devoid of armorial ensigns.
The arms of the archbishop are gules a fesse or, between a goat's head couped argent, attired of the second in chief, and three escellop shells, two and one of the third in base.
The arms of Nicholas Warham, esq., of Malsanger, the same within a bordure engrailed or, the fesse differenced with a crescent azure.
The arms of Hugh Warham, the same within a bordure argent, the fesse differenced with a mullet sable.
The crest of the archbishop is unknown: that of Nicholas, on a wreath argent and purple, a dexter arm couped at the shoulder, the elbow flexed upwards, vested quarterly argent and azure, the hand grasping a sword point downwards, the hilt or, the scabbard sable, charged with three plates, each bearing a cross gules. The crest of Hugh, from what remains of it on his tomb, seems to have been the head of some animal, coloured brown,—very probably that of a goat.
With respect to the monument in question. Inserted in the wall above it is a square stone, bearing in high relief and colour a shield, quarterly one and four, the arms of Hugh Warham, as above described; two and three argent two bars gules; helmet, full-faced and closed, argent adorned or surmounted by a wreath argent and gules, and the fragment of a crest. The colour of the mantling is undistinguishable. The front of the tomb is divided into three quatrefoil panels, each containing a shield of arms; centre, quarterly, as above; dexter, Warham; sinister, two bars. Over the tomb is an obtusely-pointed arch, surmounted by an elaborately-carved cornice; and this is flanked by the shields of Warham and that of the two bars. The soffit of the arch is ornamented with tracery; and at either side, and in the centre of the back of the recess, are niches, separated from each other by two square-headed panels. In the dexter of these are to be found the indents of a brass figure of a man, kneeling, with a label issuing from his mouth, and another from his hands. Above this indent are those of two kneeling figures, and between them, before one and behind the other, the indent of a faldstool. In the sinister panel is the indent of a kneeling female, with a label proceeding from her mouth; and over her the indent of another female, in the same attitude. A brass fillet, containing the inscription, has been taken from the edge of the slab.
The pedigree of Warham, recorded in the Herald's Visitation of Surrey, 1530, shows that Hugh Warham had, by Marian, daughter of Geoffrey Collis, his wife, two sons, Sir William, Richard, D.C.L., successively rector of Clapham (Sussex), Cheam (Surrey), and Tring (Herts); and one daughter, Agnes, the wife of Sir Anthony St. Leger, K.G., Lord Deputy of Ireland—the number of children called for by the brasses on the monument. He was living 1st March, 1536-7, when with William, his son and heir apparent, and describing himself of Malsanger, he conveyed the manor of Haling to the king; and as his name does not appear among the burial entries in the church register of Croydon, dead before 2nd December, 1538.
From the quartered shield, which we have already given a full description of, it would seem that the mother of Hugh was an heiress entited to bear arms, and we cannot but express a feeling of regret that they should be of that simple character which must render any attempt to affiliate her, by their assistance, if not wholly useless, very nearly so. Was she from Cheshire, and a Mainwaring?
The monument of Robert Warham, father of Hugh, is against the wall of the Malsanger aisle of Church Oakley church, and is composed of an altar-slab within an arched recess. On the slab are the brass effigies of a man in a gown, and a woman. Under the man, are the effigies of four sons ; and under the woman, are the indents of two daughters. The inscription is as under:—
"Orate ꝕ. aiabs Roberti Warham, ꝗ obijt pmo die mēe Octobris, Anno Dñi M°CCCCLXXXIJ°, et Elizabeth uxor eiꝰ, que etiā obijt eodē anno Dñi, xv° die Septābris, qui aiabus ꝑꝑiciet Deꝰ. Amen."
The church itself was evidently rebuilt by Archbishop Warham. Above the door of the tower, in the centre, are his arms impaled by the see of Canterbury, having on their left the coat of Hugh Warham, and on their right the indent of a shield, which doubtless bore the arms of Nicholas Warham. On the lintel of the door runs the motto of the prelate, "AVXILIVM MEVM A DÕNO;" whilst in the right spandril is a goat's head couped—the crest, as we suppose, of the said Hugh—and in the left a man's arm, as before described; viz., the crest of the said Nicholas.
With these particulars we conclude, confidently submitting our reasons for thus appropriating the Warham monument in Croydon church to the consideration of the Society.