Introduction
The Lady Chapel at All Saints Church in Oakham is to the south of the chancel and is entered from the south transept. It is a high roofed open space dating from around 1480, that has had a number of functions in the recent past – as a location for the organ, as a choir vestry, and as a small side chapel. Indeed there is still an altar with its associated communion rails at the east end of the chapel. It is currently mainly used as an area for after church coffee, small meetings etc.
The floor of the chapel consists of memorial slabs from the late 17th to the early 19th centuries, a number of which contain inscriptions indicating that there are burials beneath them. Thus it would seem that in the 18th century this area was an internal burial space of some sort. Why this area was used in this way and what determined who was buried in this area is not clear. Now over the years some of the memorials have been worn down very badly, particularly those between the priest’s entrance and the vicar’s vestry on the south side of the chapel and the entrance to the chancel on the north side. With its current use as a fellowship area, it is likely that the other memorial slabs will experience a rapid deterioration over the coming years. Thus the purpose of this post is twofold – firstly to record the current layout and inscriptions that are still visible, and secondly to try to come to some understanding as to why the area was used as a mortuary space.
The layout of the Lady Chapel
Figure 1 shows a view of the Lady Chapel from its entrance from the south transept, looking east. The altar and communion rail can be seen in the background. It can be seen that the floor consists of a regular grid of memorial slabs, separated by a pattern of tiles. In total there are seven rows of slabs between the entrance and the communion rail (which will be denoted by the letters A to G, with A being at the transept entrance. There are five columns of slabs, which will be denoted by the letters A to E, with A being on the south side to the right of the view of Figure 1. Thus, for example, slab AC is the one in the near centre of figure 1 – row A and column C. Most of the slabs are a soft brown stone, with the exception of AA and BA (to the right of the view in Figure 1) which are of a darker colour, although they are both badly worn.. The grid of memorials is regular in columns B, C and D, but the rows are displaced somewhat in columns A and E due to the presence of structural columns at the transept end.
Figure 1. The layout of the Lady Chapel
Figure 2 shows a view of columns B to D in rows F and G from just in front of the altar rail at the east end of the chancel. It can be seen that the rail cuts across a number of slabs, and there is a carpeted area that obscures part of columns B and D and all of columns A and E. Indeed very little can be seen of the slabs in row G, which extend beneath the altar. In this region the regularity of the grid in columns B to D is lost and the slabs become staggered – presumably to fit into the space available at the east end of the chapel beneath the current altar.
Figure 2 Detailed view of the slabs in front of the Lady Chapel altar
The memorials
The layout of the meorials is shown in Figure 3 below. The photos of the slabs are in roughly the correct position relative to each other, although the correspondence with the actual layout in the Chapel is not exact. They are identified using the notation given above. The discontinuity in the photographs of slabs FB, FC and FD indicates the position of the altar rail.
Figure 3. The layout of the memorial slabs
The inscriptions
In the inscriptions that follow, I have (deliberately) not reproduced the details of the typogrpahy on the memorials (capitalisation, punctuation etc.) but have tried to put them in a form where they are more easily read with modern typography. The texts in italics are not on the memorials.
AA. …Bradford….Widow of … of Henley in Ox… departed this life .. 20th May 1802 aged 66 years ….. Undecipherable verse
AB. … body of …. 12th 1772….
AC. Here lieth the body of Mary Lawrence, late wife of Mr William Lawrence, dec., one of ye daughters of Mr William Maxon, who died March 5th MDCCLXXIV (1774) aged 39 years. Also the body of Anne Maxon…her sister who died February 2nd MDCCLXXIII (1773) aged XXXIII (33) years.
AD. Sacred to the memory of Elizabeatha Doris Bullivant, wife of Thomas Bullivant who departed this life on the ….. 1798 aged 42 Years……….
AE. … remains … Benjamin Cramp Esq. He served the office of High Sheriff for the County of Rutland in the year … departed this life on the 2nd February 1800 aged 59 years. Time flies; Eternity succeeds; of bliss or woe; according to our deeds.
BA. Not readable
BB. Beneath this stone rests he mortal remains of Mary Ann, daughter of the late Adam and Mary Ann Hicks of this place who died April 3rd 1835 aged 62 years,
BC. Sacred to the mortal remains of Mrs Dorothy Twentyman, consort of Mr William Twentyman who departed this life February … 1809 in the ,,, year of her age after a very long and severe illness which…..Christianity can alone inspire. This stone is here deposited by an only child as the last but perishable memorial of one who has seldom been surpassed, as a tender parent, an affectionate wife and a virtuous woman. Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord!
BD. In memory of Mrs Elizabeth Whitehead, widow of the Revd William Whitehead MA, Rector of Stanground in the county of Huntingdon. She was ye youngest daughter of Andrew Love Esq. formerly of this place, and died on the 10th of October 1789, in the 75th year of her age.
BE. …. Hind Gent who died February the 17th MDCCLXXI (1771) aged LXXIX (79) years. Likewise ….are buried the remains of Elizabeth …who was buried March …MDCCII (1702) Also five … sons if the above died…infants
CA. No inscription visible
CB. Beneath this stone are deposited the mortal remains of Edward Hicks, Gentleman who departed this life December 3rd, 1812 aged 56 years.
CC. In memory of Ann, daughter of Thomas and Ann Exton, who departed this life August the 22nd 1808 aged .9 years. Also in memory of Thomas Exton who departed this life April the 17th 1809 aged 73 years. Also in memory of Ann, wife of Thomas Exton, who departed this life November …18… aged 88 years.
CD. Here lieth the body of Frances Davie, the wife of Thomas Davie Senior who died January 12th 1721 aged 67 years. Full happy man that dies in faith, His good works follow him…; …….are his saints …. to be; To live with Christ his face to see. Also the remains of Frances Ashby, who died September 6th 1792 aged 66 years, The sweet remembrance of the just … shall flow … they sleep…..
CE. ….year 1706 .. year of his age ….peace
DA. No inscription visible
DB. No inscription visible
DC. No inscription visible
DD. No inscription visible
DE. No inscription visible
EA. …memory of ….. wife of … John Bellaers of Barleythorpe, who died the 12th May MDCCLXXXVI (1786) age 37 years, Her lies beneath…; A tender mother, a loving wife; A quiet neighbour, to the poor a friend; Happy is he who finds a …. Also in memory of John Bellaers who died the … of September 1787 in the 49th year of his age.
EB. Here lies the body of John Bellaers who died August 18th MDCCCIX (1789) aged .2 years. Affliction … long time I bore; Physician skill was vain; Till Christ the chief sent me relief; And cured me of my pain.
EC. Underneath are deposited the remains of John Healy, Gent.. who departed this life on 13th August in the year of our Lord 1767 aged 57 years.
ED. Underneath are deposited the remains of Mr Mary Burton, wife of the Reverend Bartin Burton, who departed this life November 8th 1750 aged 47 years.
EE. ……forti et constanti …….opptimiissii vertutis studies…..quibus finerlis est… obit aprilis …4th Anno Domini 1732…19…21. Recordare creatoris tin in oliebus. Juventulis tiroe……Jun 1815 (latin text very uncertain)
FA. Covered by altar rail and carpet
FB. Part covered by altar rail and carpet. In memory of Martha Ades wife of …..this day .. year 1846 … years.
FC. Part covered by altar rail. Sacred to the memory of Thomas …on the …. April … Aged 37 years. Vain in our pleasures…..; Bound on the wheel of time … and ….; Yet present wrong eternity repairs; The mighty empires and the …. of all
FD. Part covered by altar rail and carpet. Here lieth the body of … Drury, Gent., who died January 15th 1775 …..
FE. Part covered by altar rail and carpet …lieth the body of William Pante the younger, Gent. who departed this life the second of June Ann. Dom 1672
GA. Covered by carpet.
GB. Partially covered by carpet and altar. …. remains of Healy …. Edward Ealy….
GC. Mostly covered by altar. No inscription visible.
GD. Parially covered by carpet and altar. Inscription not legible
GE. Covered by carpet
When and Who
Two questions arise in association with the floor memorials. Firstly, when was the Lady Chapel used for burials and secondly what sort of people were buried there? To answer the first consider Table 1 below which shows the dates from the memorial slabs where they could be found. The pattern is not wholly consistent, but it is clear that the earlier graves are on the north side next to the chancel and the later ones on the south side next to the outside wall. The earliest grave of all – FE- dates from 1672, and the latest – FA – from 1846. The larger majority date from the 18th century. The pattern suggests that the early graves might have been a continuation of graves in the chancel. In the late 17th and 18th centuries, the chancel was configured very differently and was rebuilt in the restoration of 1858, so if there were similar graves there, the memorial slabs have been lost.
| AA 1802 | AB 1772 | AC 1773 | AD 1798 | AE 1800 |
| BA | BB 1835 | BC 1809 | BD 1789 | BE 1702 |
| CA | CB 1812 | CC 1808 | CD 1721 | CE 1706 |
| DA | DB | DC | DD | DE |
| EA 1786 | EB 1789 | EC 1767 | ED 1750 | EE 1732 |
| FA | FB 1846 | FC | FD 1775 | FE 1672 |
| GA | GB | GC | GD | GE |
Table 1. Memorial dates
In terms of who is commemorated on the memorials, on the eighteen inscriptions where one might expect to find some designation, there are four identified as Gent., two as Esq. and two as clergy (not necessarily referring to the one who is buried). A web search revealed that there are the memorials of four High Sherrifs – William Lawrence 1765, Thomas Bullivant 1771, John Bellaers 1783 and Benjamin Cramp 1789. In addition William Twentyman was the Supervisor of Excise in Oakham Lordshold in 1787. Thus it is clear that those interred in the Lady Chapel were, as one might expect, members of the Rutland Gentry.
Finally it is worth noting that the family of Rev Bartin Burton, whose wife is interred in ED, also has a wall memorial in the south transept (figure 4). It may be that Burton himself and his son are also interred in one of the plots in the Lady Chapel with an illegible memorial inscription.
Figure 4. The Burton memorial
Engineering, history and ecclesiology 