I love late medieval wills, they are so full of interesting information that tell us about contemporary attitudes towards death, burial memorialisation, about interpersonal relationships and the duty felt by people to provide for those they left behind. I’m currently doing a bit of research on gentry display and memorialisation in Derbyshire, which is taking me into the interconnected world of late fifteenth and early sixteenth century society and a lot of that depends on the evidence of wills. As I was doing this I came across the will of Thomas Babington of Dethick, a Derbyshire landowner, lawyer and member of parliament, who died in 1519. I had first come across his will about sixteen years ago when I was working on the patronage of Derbyshire’s medieval stained glass.
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The tomb of Thomas and Edith Babington at Ashover in Derbyshire. © Copyright Michael Garlick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. |
Babington appears to have had a particular attachment to St Thomas of Canterbury, his name saint and in his will he bequeaths his soul to ‘oure lady, saint John Baptist and Seint Thomas of Canterbury’ that they might pray for him. Glass in the windows here and in the clerestory of the nave referred to Thomas Babington and Edith and also to their son Sir Anthony. Sadly it has all gone.
This demarcation of separate space is not to suggest that the Rollestons and the Babingtons were at loggerheads or were in competition with one another, they were not. Thomas Babington’s sister Anna was married to James Rolleston of Lea and they are commemorated by a brass in the church. Towards the end of Thomas Babington’s life his nephew Thomas Rolleston was in charge of the Lea estate. The demarcation of separate space was to do with status and esteem, more than competition.
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The tomb of Thomas and Edith Babington at Ashover in Derbyshire. © Copyright Michael Garlick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. |
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The tomb of Thomas and Edith Babington at Ashover in Derbyshire. © Copyright Michael Garlick and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence. |
‘I will my body be buryed in my parish church of Ashover, nere by wif Edith, it it fortune me to deceas within xx. myles of the same. And ells in such place as shalbe thought by them that shalbe wt me at the tyme of my diceas; But I will not that the Tombe which I have made in the Church of Ashover be broken or hurt for my carkas, but that it be leyde nere the same, and over that place that I shall lye in, a stone with a scripture after myne executors and supervisour myndis or the more parte of them to be leyde’.
So in other words, he doesn’t want the monument to be dismantled just to admit his body to a grave below it, as he is worried it would damage it, the monument was costly and he was evidently proud of it. Instead he asks to be buried close to the tomb under a flat stone with an inscription, the inscription to be devised by his executors and executors, if they can agree on it!
Sources
On the chantry and the choirs the source is: J. C. Cox, Notes on Derbyshire Churches, vol. 1, p. 33 and vol. 2, p. 183. On the glazing: A. B. Barton ‘The Stained glass of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 1400-1550’, unpublished PhD thesis, York, 2004, pp. 107-111. The will of Babington is published in Derbyshire Archaeological Journal 19, pp. 80-93.
Wonderful tomb an effigies, I recognise the photographer from Geograph. Very interesting story behind it
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They are excellent pictures, I must revisit and take some better ones of my own. I was last here in 2001.
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Hello Allan – I stumbled into your blog while researching something, and enjoyed it so much that I have read it from start to finish (over several days, you understand, not all in one go, fascinating though it was). I see that you have visited the churches of Derbyshire a few times – one of the most interesting, to my mind, is the chapel at Haddon Hall near Bakewell. It's in a private stately home, but at one time functioned as the parish church. It has many surviving medieval wall paintings and a fascinating alabaster reredos… I've spent hours contemplating it, even going to the lengths of buying an annual ticket. The most interesting part, however, is the layout of the liturgical space: it is clear that social standing had a say in whether or not you got to sit near the altar or even whether you had a view of it. I think that it be right up your street. You can see pictures at haddonhall.co.ukAlso, having read your blog from start to finish, I realise that you are the same chap who kept the bookbinders in Walsingham – I'm glad to read that you've returned to ministry.John
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