This post gives access to a number of sources of information for the history of All Saints church in Oakham – church guides from 1932 and 1972 and a compilation of article from issues of the Rutland County Magazine and Historical Record from 1903 to 1906, Clearly this is not material I have written. My role has been to put the hard copies of the guides into pdf format, and to extract the relevant pages from the Rutland Magazine and put these into pdf format. They are presented here as an aid to further research.
Note that a more up to date church guide was written in 2000 by Nigel Aston and can be accessed from the Oakham Team Ministry website.
A guide from 1932 of the Castle, Church and School written by the then vicar, Rev. A Edward Fraser. It contains a number of adverts for Oakham business that are also of historical interest which have been presented in Oakham Adverts 1932.
Two large inscribed boards at the west end of All Saints church list the vicars of the church from 1227 to the present day (figure 1). This list matches those found in church guides written over the last 100 years and date back to the primary research found in a 1903 article in the Rutland County Magazine and Historical Record of 1905. Whist this list is quite comprehensive, a more detailed resource is now available – the The Clergy of the Church of England Database 1540-1835 (CCEd) which contains information from a wider variety of sources than were available in 1905. In this post we look at the information that can be obtained from this database about the life and times of Vicars of Oakham for the period 1540-1835 – roughly corresponding to the top half of the second board in figure 1.
Figure 1. The Vicar boards at All Saints Church
The database listing
A listing of the Vicars of Oakham from the database is given in Table 1 below. The table gives the names and the year and type of the event recorded. The hyperlinks on the names link to the information held in the database of the career that particular person, both at Oakham and elsewhere, and the hyperlinks in the “View” column link to details of the particular event recorded. The types of event are as follows.
Appt (Admission) – Definition not clear
Appt (Collation) – Candidate appointed by the Bishop as Patron, combining presentation and institution
Appt (Institution) – Appointment of the candidate to the living by the Bishop
Appt (Licensing) – Appointed with a Bishop’s license
Appt (Presentation) – Patron presents the candidate to the Bishop
Disp (Dispensation) – Some variation of normal practice
LibC – Liber Cleri – Name found in Visitation records
Not only does the database list the Vicars of Oakham, but also those who were curates or licensed preachers, and these are shown in Table 2. The intermittent nature of this listing suggests that this list is far from complete. Indeed the database also lists curates in the associated parishes of Egleton, Barleythorpe, Langham and other chapels, who were probably under the oversight of the vicar of Oakham.
In what follows we delve deeper into the database to learn more about the clergy named in the above tables.
Reformation, counter Reformation and the Elizabethan settlement (1540 -1596)
Henry VIII died in 1547, and was succeeded by his son Edward VI (1547-1553). In his reign the Protestant Reformation took hold, with the publication of the 1549 Prayer book in English. The situation rapidly changed when his sister Mary (1553 to 1558) came to the throne, with the Catholic Counter Reformation. This period was a time of turmoil for the church, with loyalties tested amid persecution and martyrdom. The situation stabilised when Elizabeth I came to the throne, with a return to Protestantism, but acceptance, if not approval of catholic worship as long as it was carried out discretely.
George Daddley, who appears on the board for 1528, does not appear in the database, presumably because all the information about him precedes 1540, the start date for the database. The first vicar recorded in the database after that date is William (Willimus) Archebolde who resigned in 1561. He was Vicar of Blakeskey from 1551 and presumably resigned at some time after that to take up the position at Oakham. He was also Vicar of Bugbrooke from 1560 to1561 and Vicar of Kislingbury 1559-1568. How he fared in the reigns of Edward and Mary is unknown – but he at least survived to the reign of Elizabeth. He was succeeded at Oakham by Thomas Tarte in 1561. Tarte presumably resigned after two or three years and was succeeded by John (Johannes) Bartlett (again not on the board) who himself resigned in 1565. This rapid turnover of clergy then came to an end with the appointment of Thomas Thyckpennye, who had been a curate at North Luffenham from 1562, who remained in post until 1596.
The Stuarts, the Civil War and the Restoration (1596-1691)
Over the course of the seventeenth century, the stability achieved under Elizabeth was to be lost under the Stuart Monarchs and during the Civil War and the Commonwealth. Again, this would result in far reaching disruption to he life of the church, with conflict between the episcopal Church of England and the Presbyterian parliament. However for the first 40 years of the century there was a sense of stability, with only one, long serving vicar, William Peachie. His career is well documented in the database.
Father Thomas and born in Essex,
Matriculated as a Pensioner at St John’s, Cambridge , Michaelmas 1582
B.A. 1586-7; M.A. 1590; B.D. 1597. Fellow, 1590
Ordained Deacon and Priest on the same day in 1591
Vicar of Exton, Rutland, 1592-6.
Vicar of Oakham, 1596-1643
Father Thomas buried at Oakham in 1602
Rector of Burrough-on-the-Hill, Leics., 1628-43.
Died Oct. 6, 1643, aged 78. M.I. at Oakham.
Father of Josias (1617), John (1620) and Samuel (1614).
Early in his incumbency, a report of a Visitation suggest the church was in poor repair.
The seats on the south aisle are all broken in the bottom and neither paved nor boarded. Pavement in the east and north aisles broken. The chancel and the chapel on the north side neither plastered nor whited…Two bell wheels broken but being mended. The communion table unfit. The linen cloths very old. The north door in decay
Subtus jacet Venerab. Vir Guil. Peachie S.T.B. quondam Coll. D. Joh. Cant. Soc. nuper bujus EcclesiaVic. Morum innocentia satis laudatus, in arte concionandi Versatiss. Quator Trium, Insignum Theologor, Pater Soror Qui OJob. 6. Non tam morbo confectus, quam vivendi tedio lassatus, placide expiravit. Dom. 1643. Etat. 78. Residentia, 47. Noli vexare Quiescit.
The gravestone no longer exists. The English Translation is as follows.
Beneath lies the Venerable. Rev William Peachie S.T.B. formerly of the College of St John, Cambridge. Recently the Vicar of the Church. His innocence of morals is highly praised, he is skilled in the art of preaching. Four Three, Insignia Theologian, Father Sister Job 6 Not so much worn out by illness, as worn out by the tedium of life, he expired peacefully. Died 1643 Age 78 Residence 47 Don’t bother him. He’s resting.
Peachie thus survived through the reigns of James I and Charles I, but by the time of his death, the Civil War was underway and the relative peace of the first half of the century shattered. In this context one can perhaps appreciate the world weariness expressed in the inscription. It may also be that Peachie would have been required to sign the Solemn League and Covenant – a Presbyterian document of 1643 to which all those appointed to livings were required to subscribe. There are other indications in the record that his tenure was not wholly without incident. The records indicate that in 1609 John (Johannes) Green was presented to be Vicar of Oakham by the Patron, King James. No further details are known, and this may simply be a mistake in the original record or the transcription to the database. But it might indicate some sort of conflict over the living. Then in 1612, Nathaniel Gooch was licensed as a Preacher in the parish, having been ordained deacon and priest in 1607. What this role was in relation to Peachie is unknown, and Gooch is next found in the record as being appointed Vicar of Twyford in Leicestershire in 1630. Neither Green or Gooch are on the Vicar’s board. Further to these appointments, in 1639 James Chamberlin was appointed curate of the Parish and Preacher throughout the Diocese of Peterborough. He had been a curate and preacher at Kirkby Mallory, Earl Shilton Chapel from 1633. Again what his role was in relation to Peachie’s is not clear. The record shows him again at Kirkby Mallory, Earl Shilton chapel in 1662 after the Restoration. Again, as a curate he does not appear on the Vicar’s board.
We have little information on the next vicar other than his name – Richard Tydd, who was appointed in 1644, by when the conflict between Bishops and Presbyterians for control of the church was underway. His incumbency only lasted a year and it might be that he too was required to sign the covenant, but refused to do so. The next incumbent was one of the most consequential of the period under study – Abraham Wright. Details of his career can be found on a Wkipedea page, an obviously AI written Grokipedea page, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Rutland Record 8, 1988. The latter is most succinct and is reproduced below.
WRIGHT, Rev. Abraham (1611-90) Oakham’s notable Vicar, Abraham Wright, was born in 1611. He became a Fellow at St John’s College, Oxford, in 1632 and, in 1636, when Archbishop Laud, a former President, came with King Charles 11 and the Queen to open the new Library, it was Abraham Wright who read his own poem of welcome, later contained in “Parnassus Biceps”. During the same visit, he acted before the Royal Visitors in “Love’s Hospital”. Earlier, he had written a comic interlude, which he called “The Reformation”. Later, he published his own Sermons, including one which he preached at his own Ordination, and another given before the King. Other writings include an essay in praise of Strafford. In 1645, Wright was offered the living of Oakham by William Juxon, his President when he went up to Oxford, and by now Bishop of London but, because he could not accept the interregnum requirement to take the covenant, he was not instituted until 1660. Instead, he was active in Peckham and St Olave’s, Hart Street. When 1660 came, he was offered the Chaplaincy to the Queen of Bohemia, the new King’s sister. However, he refused this and other offers of high preferment and chose to come and remain in Oakham until his death in 1690. He married twice. His first wife bore him James, the writer of The History and Antiquities of the County of Rutland, towards which Abraham Wright provided the cost of two plates, including one of the windows of a former hall of the Hospital of St John and St Anne. As a disciple of Juxon, and as seen in some of his writings, Abraham Wright was a Laudian and, as such, insisted on ceremonial, belief in the Sacraments and the dignity of the Priesthood.
Again there seems to have been problems with the church fabric in the latter part of Wright’s incumbency, perhaps partly due to neglect during the Civil War. From the Victoria County History 1935.
In 1681 an order was made on Mr. Abraham Wright, vicar, and Mr. Burton, tenant of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, to pave the chancel and repair the ceiling, seats and windows; and on the churchwardens to remove the rubbish out of the churchyard, repave the church alleys throughout, repair the seats and the roof and glaze the windows, rebind the Bible, provide a new Common Prayer Book, plaster and whitewash the vestry, provide a covering to one of the pewter flagons, a carpet for the Communion table of fine green or purple broad cloth, to repair the beam in the middle aisle over the minister’s pew and to take away the seats in the middle aisle.
Figure 2. The Abraham Wright Memorial
The memorial to Wright still exists on the west wall of the north transept (Figure 2). It is the only monument in the church written in Latin.
P. M. S. Prope jacet corpus venerabilis Abraham Wright M.A. quondam hujus Ecclesia Vicarij nata Londinensis, eruditione Oxoniensis, olim Collegij d. Johan Baptista in celebeuima ista Academia Socij. qui nons die Maij Salutis Christianæ 1690 ætatis sua 79, Vicariatus 30, pie et tranquille expiravit Beati mortui qui in domino moriuntur, amodo jam dicit spiritus ut requiescant a laboribus suis.
The English Translation is as follows.
P. M. S. Near lies the body of the venerable Abraham Wright M.A., formerly Vicar of this Church born in London, educated in Oxford formerly of the College of John the Baptist in that celebrated Academic Society who died on the 1st of May, 1690 aged 79 Vicar for 30 years, in piety and tranquillity. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on the Spirit says that they may rest from their labours.
The other “vicar” that deserves further mention is the one who replaced Wright during the Civil War and Commonwealth – Benjamin King (1545-1660). His name, unsurprisingly, does not feature on the Vicar’s Board. After the Restoration he was ejected from the living at Oakham, one of six in Rutland to suffer that fate. But he seems to have remained in the area. From the Victoria County History.
In 1672 a licence was granted to Benjamin King, who had been intruding minister at Oakham during the time of the Commonwealth, for Presbyterians to meet at the house of Matthias Barry at Oakham. King had two daughters, one of whom married Vincent Alsop, usher of Oakham School and later an eminent minister in Westminster; the other married Robert Ekins, the first minister in the Northgate Barn.
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (1691-1835)
The eighteenth century again saw two long incumbencies – John Warburton from 1691 to 1736, and John Williams from 1736 to 1782. Curates become more common (or they are recorded more diligently) with six in total recorded during these incumbencies.
After the death of John Williams, his place was taken by his son Richard. He had been ordained deacon in 1771 and priest in 1772, a was curate of Stapleford in Leicestershire and vicar of Skillington in Lincolnshire from 1772. He was vicar of Oakham from 1782 to 1806 – a relatively short incumbency of only 24 years! He in his turn was succeeded by his son, another Richard, whose was ordained deacon and priest in 1801 and 1802. He was a curate in his father’s parish from 1801 until he succeeded him in 1806. In addition he was Usher at Oakham School from 1802-10. curate of Langham from 1801,vicar. of Enderby with Whetstone in Leicestershire from1803-15 and domestic chaplain to George Finch,9th Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham of Burley House from 1806 to 1815 (the patron of the church, and thus the one who presented him to the living). Only two curates are recorded during the incumbencies of the two Richards.
A monument to all three Williams is still in place in the north transept of the church and is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. The Williams memorial
The final vicar in the period of the Clergy of the Church of England dataset is Heneage Finch, grandson of Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Aylesford (History of the Finch Family, Brayan I’Anson, 1933) and a distant relative of George Finch,9th Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham mentioned above, the patron of the living. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1812, and was curate of Harpsden before moving to Oakham in1815. He was also Rector of Great Weldon from 1812 to 1819 and Domestic chaplain to William Legge, 4th earl of Dartmouth and Viscount Lewisham from 1815. He was another long serving vicar and died in post in 1865. It was during his incumbency that the church was restored by Gilbert Scott in 1858. Before that, as can be judged by Scott’s report, the church was again in a very poor state of repair. Indeed a lecture of 1860 that describes the pre-Restoration state of the church mentions
….that old ladies sat in church with their umbrellas up, and the pulpit to the last was in mourning for George III…
In a recent post I have described the exhibition “A sermon in stone” at All Saints Oakham which features photographs of the 13th century nave arcade capitals. That exhibition builds on work set out in an earlier blog post. The carvings feature biblical, classical and folklore themes and between them appear to tell the salvation story from the fall of Adam and Eve to the resurrection of Jesus and beyond. In this post I include a photograph and brief discussion of a carving that didn’t feature in the exhibition, as it was felt to be too badly damaged.
Figure 1. Making faces and praying
Most of the carvings are around the capitals on the pillars in the nave arcade, but two are actually on the chancel arch at the same height as on the arcade. Both have been damaged at some point it the past by the installation of a rood screen. One of these features in the “Sermon in Stone” exhibition – that on the north side of the chancel arch of jesters making faces above the pulpit with a more serious praying figure looking into the chancel (figure 1). The other, on the south side, was thought at the time to be too damaged to include. However when a high resolution photograph was taken (by Richard Adams who took all the photos for the exhibition) it was found that there was considerable detail remaining – see figure 2, which shows a lion like figure, in an oak leaf surround.
The question then arises as to whether or not this carving has any meaning in the overall salvation theme of the carvings. It is clear from the overall arrangement that those carvings on the north side represent the dark side of salvation history – the fall, the devil, temptations to sin – and those on the south side the light side of redemption and restoration – the eucharist, angels and evangelists, the annunciation and crowning of the Virgin. The jester on the north side fits into this theme quite well, as displaying a range of unredeemed human qualities, and on this basis one would expect the figure on the south side to represent something more positive. Now in scripture, the symbolism of a lion is nearly always negative, as a creature that attacks and destroys, except in one place in the book of Revelation where Jesus is described as a lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5.5).
Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals
So perhaps in this carving we perhaps see a representation of Jesus, identified as the Lion of Judah, sat on the throne of God in heaven. This would be appropriate in its position as next to the capital that shows the crowning of the Virgin and the Harrowing of Hell, which are also eschatological themes. But, as ever with these carvings, this identification must be quite speculative.
Of the internal fittings I have but little to say. They exceed in meanness even what is usual in country churches. And there must be but one opinion about them – they must entirely cleared away, and the whole refitted in proper manner with good oak seats
A few years earlier, Baron Stephen Glynne in his church notes had written in a similar, if somewhat milder, vein.
Altogether the interior is not so well kept as it deserves to be. The pews and galleries are shabby and the whole dirty and untidy.
In this short note we present some information contained in the history of the church in the Rutland County Magazine published in 1903 concerning the internal arrangement of the church before the 1858 restoration. In particular Figure 1 shows the arrangements of the pews as sketched by Rev. C. A. Stevens, superimposed on the ground plan of the church – the interior fittimgs so disparaged by Scott.
Figure 1. Box pew arrangements in All Saints church – from the Rutland County Magazine of 1903
For those who know the orderly front facing bench pews in All Saints today, the arrangement shown in the figure will appear very odd. Box pews (for which a rent would have been charged) fill the nave, extending into the Trinity chapel, the Chancel and the Lady Chapel and would have been occupied by the wealthier members of Oakham Society. The sides would have been 3 or 4 feet high and they would have afforded a degree of privacy. As an example of how they might have appeared, see the pictire of eighteenth century box pews from Inglesham church in Figure 2.
The lack of geometric regularity and uniformity in Figure 1 is clear, indicating that this arrangement developed over the years, as new pews were added and old ones removed or adapted. The hoi polloi would have been housed in the free sittings in the double deck gallery at the west end of the church.
The focus of the church was also very different from today. The red square gives the location of the pulpit, the clergy desk and the church clerk’s desk – which are in the centre of the nave, adjacent to the pillar with the Green Man capital. The pulpit is surrounded on all sides by pews, some of which, but by no means all, would have enabled worshippers to face the preacher and vice versa. Unfortunately no indication of how the chancel is laid out is given, but presumably the altar was at the east end as now.
The function of the pews and the names of those families that rented the pews are shown on the figure, but the writing is too small to easily read at the scale shown here. From west to east in the nave we have
In the north transept we have, again from west to east
Wellington; Vicar’s servants
These are presumably names of parishioner families. A final point of interest is the location of what is almost certainly the font, within the blue square. This stands in the middle of the central aisle at the west of church, which is in many ways much more liturgically sensible than its current position, tucked away amongst pews on the north side of the central aisle.
This post shows the poster boards that were produced for an exhibition at All Saints church in Oakham which opened in April 2026. The exhibition highlighted the elaborate stone carvings on the nave capitals in the church. The posters contained photos by Richard Adams, and text based on an earlier blog post by the author that can be found at The good, the bad and the grotesque – the decorated capitals of All Saints church in Oakham.
The posters
Note on Poster 6
In an earlier version of Poster 6, I queried what the third scene – the one that depicts Adam and Eve for asecond time, was meant to depict. This has also puzzled other writers in a range of church histories since the early 1900s. At the opening of the exhibition on April 18th, on viewing the large scale photo below, Prof Elizabeth Tingle, Professor Emerita at De Montfort University, made what I am sure is the correct identification. The scene represents the Harrowing of Hell, with Christ on the left holding the pennant or banner of the resurrection, leading Adam and Eve out of Hell, represented by the serpent at their feet. As such the three scenes are a representation of the Trinity – God the Father holding the orb as he crowns Mary, God the Holy Spirit coming to Mary in the Annunciation, and God the Son leading Adam and Eve out of hell between his death and resurrection. They thus form a fitting conclusion to the overall story of salvation shown on the Capitals.
The memorials of All Saints Oakham. Photographs and brief descriptions of the wall mounted memorials at All Saints church in Oakham (May 19th 2025)
From Oakham to Mandalay. The story of a young curate from Oakham and his brief service as a missionary in Burma before his early death (April 29th 2025)
Kinetic Water Power – some odd words on a memorial in All Saints Oakham led to some interesting findings about how church organs were powered at the start of the 20th century (25th April 2025)
All Saints Oakham – Gothic despoiled, restored and justified. A talk given at the conference “The Rev. Henry Alford, A.W.N. Pugin and the Restoration of St Mary’s Church, Wymeswold: ecclesiology & architecture in nineteenth-century Leicestershire”
The painting of the Holy Family shown below has hung in the Vicar’s Vestry at All Saints church in Oakham for many years, and has, until recently, never been properly identified. Recent expert advice suggests it is a late 18th / early 19th century copy of a composition by Francesco Albani of between 1608 and 1610. It is believed that it was produced by a workshop in Italy, or perhaps the Netherlands, to satisfy the demands of those on the “Grand Tour” for devotional works. Whilst thus not of any great value, it thus does have an interesting back story.
After a composition by Francesco Albani, paint on metal, late 17th / early 18th century
It’s detailed provenance is not known, but a difficult to read caption on the painting frame (below) has the inscription
“Presented to Oakham Church in memory of Harry Ellingworth”.
The Ellingworth family were prosperous shopkeepers in Oakham in the late 19th and early 20th century, and a number of them were named Harry. The most significant of these seems to have been a Harry Ellingworth who was a Town Crier in Oakham in 1881.
Painting in frame (with window reflections)
Dedication label
Interestingly a number of similar copies of the painting can be traced – either painted in Albani’s workshop or elsewhere (see below). The details vary, but the basic composition is the same. The market for such paintings was clearly buoyant.
Print of the original by Francesco Albani housed in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. 1608-1610
Dulwich Art Gallery Holy Family by Studio of Francesco Albani 1610-60
The painting shows a somewhat weary and pensive looking Madonna in a red dress with a dark blue shawl, The Christ child sits on a golden cushion on her lap, partly surrounded by a blue sheet. Joseph looks on from the right, with an open book in front of him, that seems to be placed on a stone chest or altar or perhaps a tomb. It may be that the directions in which the Madonna and her husband are pointing is of some iconographic significance – Joseph, in his contemplation of scripture pointing upwards to God, and Mary, with the Christ child on her lap, pointing down to earth, the direction, if that is an appropriate word, of the incarnation. Two angelic figures look on from the left. There is a figure carved on the stone chest, that, from the original, appears to be some sort of Bachannalia, with wine being poured out for small dancing child like figures. Again there may be some iconographic significance here with a representation of Christ’s blood being poured out at the Eucharist. The mixture of biblical and classical themese seems to have been common at the period of the original composition.
In 1996, All Saints church in Oakham, organised a flower festival. Some photographs from this event were deposited in the church safe for safe keeping, and I have recently come across these whilst searching the safe for other items. It seems to me that these photos are well worth sharing – both for the flower displays but also for the glimpse they give of the church from 30 years ago. Pleas click on the photos below for larger versions of the pictures. The colours aren’t marvellous – they can only be as good as the prints – but they will be of interest to some.
Holy Trinity ChapelHoly Trinity ChapelNorth TranseptHigh altarSouth TranseptSouth TranseptSouth TranseptLady ChapelLady ChapelArea near north doorCentral CrossingCEntral CrossingNorth TranseptNear pulpitEntrance to Lady ChapelWest End
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.
AABACADAEA
ABBBCBDBEBFB
ACBCCCDCECFC
ADBDCDDDEDFD
AE BECEDEEEFE
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.
Engineering, history and ecclesiology 
