The Aumbry
An aumbry is a small cupboard which was used to store the chalice and pattern when they were not being used at the Mass. They were often added from valuable materials so aumbrys often had a substantial locked wooden door.
The cavity in the wall to the right of the tomb arch can be identified as having once been an aumbry by the remains of the catch which secured to door on its left hand edge. Damage to the right of the cavity indicates where the hinge pins were located.
The Window
Earlier glazing in this window provided a connection with Francis Lovel, because when Robert Thoroton visited the church in 1677 he reported that he had seen the arms of the Bardolf family quartered with those of the Beaumonts in the stained glass of the east window of the north aisle.[2] The union of the two families came about when Francis’s grandmother, Elizabeth Phelip married John, the first Viscount Beaumont and provides further evidence of Francis Lovel’s connection with Gedling church.
The parclose screen
The parclose screen was built to a much more modest and discrete design that was that of Lovel’s great-grandparents at Dennington. It was removed from the chapel in the restoration of 1872 and part of it was adapted for use elsewhere in the building. The remaining section is now preserved in the south aisle and has similar tracery to that of the chantry chapel window as can be seen below. These are the only two examples of Perpendicular style tracery in the building. The glazing was removed from the window in 1925.
Could the Gedling chantry chapel have commemorated someone else?
Someone from outside the parish?
Everyone had the right to be buried in the church or churchyard of the parish in which they died, so it is very unlikely that the person buried under the tomb died outside the parish of Gedling.
On rare occasions, bodies were transported to another parish to enable them to be buried with their ancestors in their family's mortuary chapel but that does not apply here because there is only one tomb.
Someone from within the parish?
Records of the 1525 Subsidy show that none of the inhabitants of the parish were wealthy enough to have paid for an alabaster slab which cost £10-20 from the quarry, let alone build and furnish a chantry chapel.[3]
The Lord of the Manor?
The Lords of the Manor were the Bardolf family who did not live in the parish after about 1350. The Stanhope family were Lords after 1537 but they too lived elsewhere. From 1304 when the first Lord Bardolf died, to 1547 when chantries were abolished, the Bardolfs and their descendants provided eight lords of which six were recorded as having been buried elsewhere. Only the burial sites of the first Lord and the third one who died in 1363 remain unidentified. They too can be eliminated because details of the masonry of the chapel at Gedling show that it was built later than the date of their deaths.
Full details of the Bardolf and Stanhope families and where they were buried, together with information of the number of alabaster slabs that were produced at the time are provided in Lords of the Manor of Gedling 1300-1700, their Tenants and the Lovel slab.
Click HERE to download your copy.
Survival of the remains of Richard III and Francis Lovel
The church in which Richard was buried was abandoned about fifty years after his burial and his body has remained undisturbed ever since. Francis was buried in a church which has remained active for five centuries during which time there has been disturbance from further burials and building work which may have affected his remains.
The remains of Richard III were identified by comparing mitochondrial DNA recovered from the bones exhumed from the car park, with that of a living person who had been identified as a descendent by the of Richard’s sister, Anne of York (1439-1476) by tracing her ancestry over seventeen generations of the female line. No such descendent of a sister of Francis Lovel has been identified so identification of any remains by this means is not possible at this time.
Conclusions
1) The combination of Francis Lovel's indenture and Thomas Stapleton's will shows that the Lovel-FitzHugh-Stapleton family held land in Gedling parish from which rent had been used to pay for the chantry priest there and that the most probable person the chantry commemorated was Francis Lovel.
2) The last people to see Francis Lovel alive witnessed his leaving the battlefield ten miles from Gedling. Combined with Lawson Lowe's witness statement to the effect that he saw the date of the battle on the alabaster slab show again that Francis is the most likely person to have been buried there having died within the parish.
3) The receipt recording the payment of money for pikes, recently discovered by the Missing Princes Project, demonstrates that Lovel's purpose was to overthrow Henry VII and replace him with Edward V.
4) The high quality of the masonry evident in the mouldings of the Tomb Arch and the tracery of the window and the joinery in the parclose screen demonstrates that substantial wealth was necessary to have built the chantry chapel but that money was not available from either the lords of the manor or their tenants in Gedling so the chantry chapel must have been built with money that came from outside the parish but commemorated someone who died within it.
5) Any remains of Francis Lovel could have been disturbed by later burials and building work. No living person has been identified to enable his remains to be identified by mtDNA analysis.
Invitation
If you wish to visit the church to see the evidence for yourself you are most welcome to do so. The church is open to visitors from 10.00am until 12.00noon every Wednesday when coffee and biscuits are served. Details of regular services can be found by clicking the link from the homepage of this website.
The church is located at NG4 4BE and can be reached by taking the Red44 bus from Nottingham
Click HERE to learn of Francis' connection with Edward V, one of the Princes in the Tower.
References
1 The Nottinghamshire Guardian, Local Notes and Queries, January 26th 1883
2 Robert Thoroton, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, (1677), page 282
3 Raymond Henry State, The Alabaster Carvers,(2017), page 849
An aumbry is a small cupboard which was used to store the chalice and pattern when they were not being used at the Mass. They were often added from valuable materials so aumbrys often had a substantial locked wooden door.
The cavity in the wall to the right of the tomb arch can be identified as having once been an aumbry by the remains of the catch which secured to door on its left hand edge. Damage to the right of the cavity indicates where the hinge pins were located.
The Window
Earlier glazing in this window provided a connection with Francis Lovel, because when Robert Thoroton visited the church in 1677 he reported that he had seen the arms of the Bardolf family quartered with those of the Beaumonts in the stained glass of the east window of the north aisle.[2] The union of the two families came about when Francis’s grandmother, Elizabeth Phelip married John, the first Viscount Beaumont and provides further evidence of Francis Lovel’s connection with Gedling church.
The parclose screen
The parclose screen was built to a much more modest and discrete design that was that of Lovel’s great-grandparents at Dennington. It was removed from the chapel in the restoration of 1872 and part of it was adapted for use elsewhere in the building. The remaining section is now preserved in the south aisle and has similar tracery to that of the chantry chapel window as can be seen below. These are the only two examples of Perpendicular style tracery in the building. The glazing was removed from the window in 1925.
Could the Gedling chantry chapel have commemorated someone else?
Someone from outside the parish?
Everyone had the right to be buried in the church or churchyard of the parish in which they died, so it is very unlikely that the person buried under the tomb died outside the parish of Gedling.
On rare occasions, bodies were transported to another parish to enable them to be buried with their ancestors in their family's mortuary chapel but that does not apply here because there is only one tomb.
Someone from within the parish?
Records of the 1525 Subsidy show that none of the inhabitants of the parish were wealthy enough to have paid for an alabaster slab which cost £10-20 from the quarry, let alone build and furnish a chantry chapel.[3]
The Lord of the Manor?
The Lords of the Manor were the Bardolf family who did not live in the parish after about 1350. The Stanhope family were Lords after 1537 but they too lived elsewhere. From 1304 when the first Lord Bardolf died, to 1547 when chantries were abolished, the Bardolfs and their descendants provided eight lords of which six were recorded as having been buried elsewhere. Only the burial sites of the first Lord and the third one who died in 1363 remain unidentified. They too can be eliminated because details of the masonry of the chapel at Gedling show that it was built later than the date of their deaths.
Full details of the Bardolf and Stanhope families and where they were buried, together with information of the number of alabaster slabs that were produced at the time are provided in Lords of the Manor of Gedling 1300-1700, their Tenants and the Lovel slab.
Click HERE to download your copy.
Survival of the remains of Richard III and Francis Lovel
The church in which Richard was buried was abandoned about fifty years after his burial and his body has remained undisturbed ever since. Francis was buried in a church which has remained active for five centuries during which time there has been disturbance from further burials and building work which may have affected his remains.
The remains of Richard III were identified by comparing mitochondrial DNA recovered from the bones exhumed from the car park, with that of a living person who had been identified as a descendent by the of Richard’s sister, Anne of York (1439-1476) by tracing her ancestry over seventeen generations of the female line. No such descendent of a sister of Francis Lovel has been identified so identification of any remains by this means is not possible at this time.
Conclusions
1) The combination of Francis Lovel's indenture and Thomas Stapleton's will shows that the Lovel-FitzHugh-Stapleton family held land in Gedling parish from which rent had been used to pay for the chantry priest there and that the most probable person the chantry commemorated was Francis Lovel.
2) The last people to see Francis Lovel alive witnessed his leaving the battlefield ten miles from Gedling. Combined with Lawson Lowe's witness statement to the effect that he saw the date of the battle on the alabaster slab show again that Francis is the most likely person to have been buried there having died within the parish.
3) The receipt recording the payment of money for pikes, recently discovered by the Missing Princes Project, demonstrates that Lovel's purpose was to overthrow Henry VII and replace him with Edward V.
4) The high quality of the masonry evident in the mouldings of the Tomb Arch and the tracery of the window and the joinery in the parclose screen demonstrates that substantial wealth was necessary to have built the chantry chapel but that money was not available from either the lords of the manor or their tenants in Gedling so the chantry chapel must have been built with money that came from outside the parish but commemorated someone who died within it.
5) Any remains of Francis Lovel could have been disturbed by later burials and building work. No living person has been identified to enable his remains to be identified by mtDNA analysis.
Invitation
If you wish to visit the church to see the evidence for yourself you are most welcome to do so. The church is open to visitors from 10.00am until 12.00noon every Wednesday when coffee and biscuits are served. Details of regular services can be found by clicking the link from the homepage of this website.
The church is located at NG4 4BE and can be reached by taking the Red44 bus from Nottingham
Click HERE to learn of Francis' connection with Edward V, one of the Princes in the Tower.
References
1 The Nottinghamshire Guardian, Local Notes and Queries, January 26th 1883
2 Robert Thoroton, The Antiquities of Nottinghamshire, (1677), page 282
3 Raymond Henry State, The Alabaster Carvers,(2017), page 849
