HANTS FIELD CLUB, 1894. Plate I. r E. H. M. FEC II>-O SPKAGUE • e« LONOON BRASS OF THOMAS WAYTE (OB. 1482). STOKE CHARITY. OLD STOKE CHARITY. THE MONUMENTAL BRASSES AND HERALDRY OF THE ALLIED FAMILIES OF HAMPTON AND WALLER- IN THE PARISH CHURCH, WITH ILLUSTRATIVE PEDIGREES AND DESCENT OF THE MANOR. BY B. W. GREENFIELD, M.A., F.S.A. The condition of the ancient brasses and sepulchral monu- ments in Stoke-Charity Church is another example to be added to the large list throughout the kingdom of heedless neglect, and injury to costly memorials of the dead. This is especially to be regretted where, as in this instance, the antiquary and local historian have no means of supplying lost data respecting the gentry and land owners of the parish in bygone times. THE BRASS OF THOMAS WAYTE. On entering the church the first memorial that attracts attention is a raised tomb under a pointed arch in a recess of the south wall of the Nave. On the slab of Purbeck marble 4-ft. 7;in. by 2-ft. i-in. is the brass and inscription of Thomas Wayte, who died ioth April, 1482. (Plate I.) Though there is no trace of his connection with the possessors of the manor there can be no doubt that he must have dwelt and held land in the parish. At the four corners of the slab were four brass shields of arms, of which only one remains, that in the right upper corner. This shield is charged with the arms of Wayte, viz. (argent) a chevron (gules) between three bugle-horns stringed (sable) impaling Skilling, viz. (argent) two chevronels (gules) on a chief (of the second) three roundles (bezants). In the window of two lights at the. west end of the nave are two shields in stained glass, one in each light; that in the south light represented the same impalement of which only the coat of Skilling, on the sinister side of the shield, remains. The shield in the north light is damaged. The family of Skilling was of Lainston, near Win- chester, and afterwards of Stockbridge. The pedigree is entered in the heralds' Visitation of Hampshire, of 1634. 2 A pedigree of .Wayte, of Segenworth, near Titchfield Abbey, and of Wayte's Cour.t in Brighstone, in the Isle of Wight, also registered in the same visitation, is printed in Berry's • Hampshire Pedigrees. John Wayte, Esq., was sheriff of the county in 1397. ' The coat of arms assigned to this family corresponds in the charges and tinctures with the shields at Stoke Charity. This is probably a branch of the family pi Edward Wayte, who died about 1447, of Barton-Stacey, Hants, in right of his wife, Margaret, daughter and heir of Philip Popham, of Barton-Stacey. They had issue Thomas Wayte, of Barton-Stacey, who died in 1449 [Escheats 27, H. VI. No. 12] and was buried in the Temple Church, London, s.p., when he was succeeded in Barton-Stacey by his two sisters, Matilda, wife of William Viall, and Margaret, who died 2nd February, 1461 [Esc. 1 R. III. No. 1], wife of John Long, of Draycot-Cerne, Wilts, and ancestress of the Longs of Draycot, Semington, Wraxall and North Bradley. Another member of the family was William Wayte, of Wymering, under Portsdown Hill, who married Anne, one of the four sisters and co-heirs of Edward Mompesson, of Bath- ampton-Wyly, in the parish of Steeple-Langford, and of Seagry, Wilts. Their daughter and heir, Elizabeth Wayte, brought the manor of Seagry to her husband, Sir Richard Norton, Kt., of Rotherfield, Hants, who died in 1592. Their grand- son, Sir Richard Norton, of Rotherfield, was created a Baronet 23rd May, 1622, and died in 1645. His son, Sir Richard, the 2nd Baronet, sold the manor of Seagry in 1648, and died in 1652, leaving an only daughter and heiress, Elizabeth Norton, who, at the age of 18, in May, 1664, married Francis Pawlett, of Amport, grandson of the fourth Marquis of Winchester. Sir Richard was succeeded in the title by his brother, Sir John Norton, as 3rd Baronet, who died 9th January 1686—7, s.p. when the title became extinct. A little further up the nave on the north side, under the arch of the eastern bay that separates the Nave from the Aisle, is a large raised tomb of Purbeck marble, 3-ft. i-in. high, covered with a ledger stone, 5-ft. 10-in., by 2-ft. 11-ih., also of Purbeck marble, without brass or inscription, haying a moulded edge, bevelled and champed. The foot of the slab HANTS FIELD CLUB, 1894. Plate II. John de Hampton. ( ? ) Fig. 2. Thomas Hampton (Ob. 1483). Isabella, his Wife (Ob. 1475). HOTO LITMO 5 " B«C0E I C U1MD0 TOMBS AT STOKE CHARITY. 4 in dexter chief a crescent,' for Doding field, being the shield of Thomas Hampton, and his wife,, Isabel Dodingfteld, the parents of the four heiresses ; the fourth shield is Hampton alone. At the head, or west end, of the tomb, the shield on the left hand is quarterly, i and 4 (sable) three walnut leaves in bend (or) between two bendlets (argent) for Waller, 2 and 3 (azure) a chevron chequy (or masculy) (or and sable) between three crosses moline (or) for Lansdall, John Waller having married Joane, another of the daughters and co-heirs of Thomas Hampton ; the shield on the right hand is (azure) a fesse between three fleurs-de-lis (or), Wkithed, Morris Whit- tled, of West Tytherly, having married Anne, another of the daughters and co-heirs of Thomas Hampton. The tomb and its position are shewn. (Plate II, Fig. 2.) On the slab of Purbeck marble 6-ft. 7-in. by 3-ft. 2-in. having a moulded and bevelled edge, which covers the tomb, are the full length effigial brasses of Thomas Hampton, and Isabel, his wife (Plate III). At their feet, is the following inscription, in black letter:— Hie jacet Thomas Hampton Armiger et Isabella uxor ejus qui-qdem Thomas II obiit in festo Apostolorum Simonis et Jude A0 dni Mo CCCCLXXXIIlo et dicta Isabella || obiit in festo Sci Andrie Apostoli A0 dni M° CCCCLXXV0 quorum aoimabus propicietur Deus amen. |] Below this, on another brass plate, are the effigies of their eight children (two sons and six daughters); and on labels from the lips of each parent ascend appeals for mercy to an emble- matical representation of the Holy Trinity. At the four corners of the slab are heraldic shields charged, alternately, with the single coat of Hampton, and Hampton impaling Doding- field. The upper part of the wife's figure is missing and lost, and the heraldic shields are much damaged. THE BRASS OF RICHARD WALLER, ESQ. All that remains of this mutilated brass now lies in the pavement of the mortuary chapel affixed, probably when the body of the church was restored by Sir William Heathcote, Lord of the Manor, in 1847, at a cost of ^500, and cemented upon a flagstone of Purbeck marble, 6-ft. g-in. by 2-ft. nin. It consists of a memorial inscription in old English letters of foiir lines on a plate, 26-in. by 3$-in., to Richard Waller, Esq., Lord of the Manor of Old Stoke. Below it are two separate brasses of heraldic shields. Both the inscrip- k HANTS FIELD CLUB, 1894. Plate III. E. H. M. FECT- •OTO LHHO S»1»C0E » C« LONDON. BRASS OF THOMAS HAMPTON (1483) AND ISABELLA, HIS WIFE (1475), STOKE CHARITY. 5 tion and shields have suffered rough usage. The initial letters of the four lines of the inscription have been ploughed off; the lettering is much defaced, as likewise the charges on the two shields, and the lower half of the impaled coat of the left hand shield has been torn away. They are probably remnants of an effigial brass at the foot of which they were placed. The lettering appears to be as follows:— [0]f your Charite I desyre you to praye for the Soule of Richard Waller, Esquyer || [W]hoes bodye here lyeth in earthe and in claye, late Lorde of this Towne & also right |l [Nlear leyd under this Stone being bornn there unto The iiii of Septeber ye yere of || [Ye] Incarnacion of Or Lorde MCCCCCLII God. bring his Soule to his Salvacio ame || The charges on both shields are similar, viz., Baron and Femme : dexter side quarterly, i and 4 (sable) three walnut leaves (or) between two bendlets (argent) for Waller ; 2 and 3 (azure) a chevron chequy, or masculy, (or and sable), between three crosses moline (or) for Lansdall, impaling (argent) on a chevron (gules) between three cinque foils (azure), as many roundles (bezants) for Hampton. MURAL MONUMENT OF JOHN WALLER, ESQ. ' This is in its original site against the north wall of the ctiapel. (Plate IV, Fig. 2). It consists of an altar tomb under a screen, or reredos, in the Tudor style, the whole being 8ft. iojin. high. The tomb, of free stone, is 3ft. in. high, including the slab of Purbeck marble, which is 5ft. 7m. by 2ft. 5in., having a moulded edge bevelled and champed. The front of the tomb is decorated with four panels; the two in the middle are each ift. 5m. square, with deep mouldings. In the centre of each of these two is a Tudor-shaped shield, embraced by the cusps of four trefoils, within an inner square, placed lozenge-wise. In the triangles formed by the horizontal and vertical lines of the outer and inner squares are trefoils within circles.