File:St Margaret, Ditchling, Sussex - Wall monument - geograph.org.uk - 1505998.jpg

English: St Margaret, Ditchling, Sussex - Wall monument.

North Transept. Text from: Sussex Archaeological Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County, Vol. 28, Lewes, 1878, MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS IN DITCHL1NG CHURCH AND CHURCHYARD, pp.134-6[1],

"A mural half-table monument, with this inscription along the frieze in capitals: " Here lyeth Henry Poole, Esquier, who dyed the 28th daye of Maiche A? D?1 1580. As this monument is now, as it probably was before Horsfielcl's time (1827) " much decayed and injured by whitewash," and the shields of arms " defaced," though not now " concealed by pews " (which prevented Mr. Hutchinson from giving the full description it deserves),7 " Add. MS. 5507. 7 13 S. A. C.,p. 255. Add. MS. 5698. a sketch was taken of the various coats of arras given below (which are there carved perfectly plain, having probably been originally blazoned in their proper heraldic colours), and the tinctures are here inserted from pedigrees and other heraldic works. It is divided by short pillars of Grecian architecture and stylobates into four niches.

I. " In the first niche is a shield of arms, with the following quarterings : " 1st and 4th a lion rampant between eight fleur- de-lys (Poole). 2nd and 3rd, a chevron between three stags' heads cabossed. Crest mutilated, but looks like a hawk with wings expanded.

II. " On a shield, this achievement of arms for Margaret, daughter of George, 3rd Lord Abergavenny, and wife of the above Henry Poole.

1. Gu., on a saltire arg., a rose of the field barbed and seeded proper (Neville of Raby).

2. Or, fretty gu., on a canton per pale erm. and or, a galley sa. (Neville of Bul- mer).

3. Gn., a fesse between six cross-crosslets or (Beanchamp). 4. Barry of ten. 5. A lion rampant.

6. Chequee or, and az., a chevron erm.. (Newburgh), but the chevron is missing. 7. Quarterly arg., and gu., in the 2nd and 3rd quarters a frette or, over all a bend sa.

(Le Despencer) 8. Gu., three chevronels or (De Clare).

Ill" This niche, which is now empty, probably contained the same shield of arms as has been described in II.

IV. " As in I., but the crest is gone.

Sir W. Burrell gives in a note (to " Monumental Inscriptions, Ditchling"), the inscription on a tomb in Lambeth church, preserved by Aubrey, which states that Thomas, son and heir of Henry Poole, of Ditchling, by! Margaret his wife, daughter of George, 3rd Lord Abergavenny, and great-grandson, on the mother's side, of Edward Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, married Eliza beth, daughter, and coheiress of Roger Wingfield, of Great Durham (now probably East Dereham), in the county of Norfolk, Esq. (by whom he left issue one son and two daughters), and died on the 13th February, 1 609.8 Sir W. Burrell also gives for the coat of Poole, Gu., a lion rampant or, over all a bend sa. ("Add. MSS.," 5698), but this is not the coat of Poole on the tomb, which is,: as given above, a lion rampant, between an orle of (or eight) fleur-de-lys ; quartering, a chevron between three stags' heads cabossed. Collins, in his " Peerage, says that Margaret was the wife of John Cheney, and that Jane, another daughter of George, 3rd Lord Abergavenny, was the wife of Sir Henry Poole, Knight (of the Cardinal's family. See Berry's " Hampshire Genealogies"), but it is quite possible that John Cheney may have died, and his widow Margaret married a second time. With regard to the two coats of arms (Nos. 4 and 5), these I cannot make out. I think, after studying the Pedigree of Neville in the above work, that No. 5 may be "Gu., billettee or, a lion rampant of the last," viz., Bulmer of Essex and Yorkshire, as by marriage with an heiress of the Bulmers of the North, one of the earlier Nevilles obtained possession of their lands. Francis Poole, of Ditchling (see Berry's " Sussex Genealogies"), married Ann, daughter of George Covert, of Slaugham, Esq., and Walter, baptised at Ditchling, in 1590 9 and Margaret, baptised there 7th Jan., 1591 10 are probably two of his children.