Great Malvern Priorypriory Rebuilding of the Quire in the 15Th Century
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Maidenhead Civic Society Ockwells Project Great Malvern PrioryPriory Rebuilding of the Quire in the 15th Century Ann Darracott THE REBUILDING OF THE QUIRE OF GREAT MALVERN PRIORY IN THE 15TH CENTURY AND ITS LINK WITH RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, EARL OF WARWICK, HIS WIFE ISABEL DESPENSER, RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK AND JOHN CARPENTER, BISHOP OF WORCESTER by Ann Darracott Maidenhead Civic Society Ockwells Project i The Rebuilding of the Quire of Great Malvern Priory in the 15th Century. By Ann Darracott Published by Brian W. Darracott 6, Medallion Place Maidenhead Berkshire SL6 1TF Copyright © Ann Darracott ISBN 0 9544919 1 2 First published 2005 ii CONTENTS PREFACE v SUMMARY vii 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. THE START OF REBUILDING 3 THE GREAT EAST WINDOW and Richard Beauchamp 4 ST ANNE’S CHAPEL 5 THE EAST WINDOW and Richard Beauchamp 5 THE SOUTH WINDOWS 7 First Window from East John Monington Esq 8 Walter Corbet, Knt 8 Second Window from East Hugh Mortimer Knt 11 Robert Whitney Knt 13 William Walwin Esq and his wife 13 Jane/Joan Whitney Richard Ruyhale and his wife 15 Elizabeth Brugge (Bridges) Third Window from East William Croft Esq 16 John Pauncefot Knt 18 William ap Thomas Knt 19 Simon Hanley 22 3. WHO REBUILT THE QUIRE? 24 HERALDIC GLASS OF THE QUIRE 24 THE NORTH CLERESTORY 24 THE SOUTH CLERESTORY 26 First Window from East Henry VI 26 Richard, Duke of York 28 Second Window from East John Beauchamp Lord of Powick 31 De Burgh, Earl of Ulster 31 Third Window from East Humphrey Stafford of Grafton Knt 32 Maurice Berkeley of Beverstone Knt 34 PORTRAITS OF PERSONS CONNECTED WITH 34 THE HISTORY OF THE PRIORY WALL TILES AND FLOOR TILES 35 THE 1453 TILE SCHEME – The Benefactor’s Wall 36 FLOOR TILES 39 HERALDIC BADGES ON THE QUIRE STALLS AND TILES 40 Richard, Duke of York 41 Berkeley or Lyttelton 42 Herbert or Clifford 43 Stafford of Grafton 43 John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury 43 4. THE ROLE OF JOHN CARPENTER, BISHOP OF WORCESTER 44 5. CONCLUSION 47 APPENDIX: STAGES IN THE REBUILDING OF THE PRIORY 51 BIBLIOGRAPHY 59 LIST OF FIGURES 67 Figures 1 - 35 69 to 105 iii iv PREFACE This study began because it was hoped that the identification of who was represented by the Mortimer of Chirk coat that can still be seen on medieval tiles at Great Malvern and that once occurred in a window of St Anne’s chapel there would help identify who was represented by the same coat, in stained glass, that can still be seen in the great hall of Ockwells Manor house, near Maidenhead in Berkshire. The study of the history of this house, built circa 1450, by John Norreys (Norys, Norris) Esquire to the Body of Henry VI, is a project of Maidenhead Civic Society. The work at Malvern has helped identify the Mortimer of Chirk coat at Ockwells as representing Sir Hugh Mortimer d 1460. The paper could not have been written were it not for the work of early historians. Thomas Habington, in the 17th century, confined to Worcestershire because of his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot, made the first record of heraldry in stained glass and on tiles in the Priory. He was followed by Dr William Thomas who added to Habington’s work and by Arthur Way who first identified the Founders Window and published the first drawings of some of the tiles. James Nott transcribed much useful material. In the 20th century the monumental work of Gordon McNeill Rushforth on Malvern’s stained glass was of invaluable help in identifying who was represented by many of the shields that are or were once in the Priory. I would like to thank several people associated with the Priory for their help, particularly John McGregor, former Custos and co-author of a useful booklet on the tiles, who gave much helpful advice, and Geoff Fearnehough and Alan Pardoe who both helped with digital photography of the 1453 Tile Scheme and the shields in St Anne’s Chapel respectively. I would also like to thank Linda Clark of the History of Parliament Trust for making available to me unpublished work on the Berkeleys of Beverstone and for answering many queries and Professor Ralph Griffiths of University of Swansea, our foremost authority on the reign of Henry VI, for reading an earlier draft of the paper and making many helpful suggestions. Beverley Nenk, Curator of Medieval Ceramics at the British Museum, was a great help in resolving a query relating to Abbot Seabrooke’s pavement at Gloucester and I am also grateful to Brian Sanderson, a member of Maidenhead Civic Society, for designing the front cover Finally I would like to thank my husband Brian (John McGregor called him “your very patient husband”) for taking innumerable photographs, driving me to very many churches (many thanks to their churchwardens also) and for reading and editing several versions of this paper. The printing of this study was financed by Maidenhead Civic Society with the aid of an Employee Action Grant from Shell U.K. Limited. A CD version is also available. v vi SUMMARY This study is a product of Maidenhead Civic Society’s Ockwells Project which is concerned with the study of the history of a fifteenth century manor house - Ockwells Manor, near Maidenhead - which is noted for its armorial stained glass in the Great Hall. Ockwells was built circa 1450 by John Norreys (Norys, Norris) Esq., and his armorial achievements can still be seen there, together with those of his King, Henry VI, and Queen, Margaret of Anjou. Norreys was a retainer of Richard Beauchamp, the famous Earl of Warwick, and his wife, Isabel Despenser, and the achievement of their son Henry and his wife Cecily Neville also occurs at Ockwells. When on a visit to Great Malvern Priory, I noticed the Beauchamp coat and then that of Mortimer of Chirk (a cadet line of the Mortimers) on several of the medieval wall tiles. The latter coat also occurs in stained glass in the Great Hall at Ockwells. As there was no convincing identification of who was represented by this coat at Ockwells, the Malvern study was undertaken to see if it would elucidate who bore this cadet coat in the mid fifteenth century. The study required the reconstruction of the various heraldic schemes put in place when the Priory was rebuilt in the fifteenth century. This was enormously helped by the descriptions of the heraldry made by Thomas Habington in the 17th century when he was confined to Worcestershire because of his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot. The reconstructions can be summarised as follows: Great East Window: Originally had a stone shield bearing the Beauchamp coat above the window, plus perhaps shields bearing the coats of Despenser and Clare. The Beauchamp shield is still extant, though now over a door in the north transept. The window includes some suns and white roses suggesting an involvement of Richard, Duke of York. St Anne’s Chapel: East Window: Originally had heraldry for the marriage of Richard Beauchamp and Isabel Despenser. South Windows: Bore shields, many still extant, representing various families many of whom were related and with connections to the Beauchamp family or to Richard, Duke of York. Of particular interest was a quartered shield recorded by Habington in one of the windows bearing the Mortimer of Chirk coat. Evidence indicates that this represented Sir Hugh Mortimer (d 1460), a contemporary of Richard, Duke of York. There are or where also coats for Monington, Cowley, Whitney, Walwin, Ruyhale, Brugge, Croft, Pauncefot, Herbert, Hanley and probably Corbet. The Quire Clerestory It is suggested that the major donors who paid for the rebuilding of the quire are those lords represented by shields in the clerestory. The south clerestory once or still has shields for Henry VI, Richard, Duke of York (Isabel Despenser’s cousin), John Beauchamp, Lord of Powick, the Earl of Ulster, Sir Humphrey Stafford of Grafton and Sir Maurice Berkeley of Beverstone. The north clerestory has shields for St Edward the Confessor / Westminster Abbey and may once have had shields for the Bishop of Worcester. The 1453 Wall Tile Scheme, a Benefactor’s Wall. This dated tile scheme, the remains of which is still on the apse wall, seems to be a chronology of the founders and patrons of the Priory erected to supplement the Founders window in the north clerestory. The tile bearing the Mortimer of Chirk coat occurs on the same tile as Bohun suggesting that the Mortimer here represented was Roger Mortimer, Lord of Chirk, (d 1326) and his contemporary Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford & Essex, (d. 1322), perhaps commemorating their patronage in the 14th century when some work was done on the Priory. In this scheme and on other tiles the coats of Beauchamp and Despenser and their ancestors also occur. Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and his wife, Isabel Despenser, as Lords of the Manor, were almost certainly patrons of the Priory when alive. They both died in 1439 and while the rebuilding of the Priory may well have begun by then, possibly in 1435, the study suggests that the rebuilding of the quire, where the new altars were consecrated by John Carpenter, Bishop of Worcester, in 1460, was done partly as a memorial to them and also to the founders and later patrons of the Priory. In the quire portraits of donors occur in stained glass and on the armrests of the choir-stalls. The armrests and the misericords of the stalls also feature the badges of some donor families.