Click on the heading below to see past brasses of the month:
February 2003 Nicholas Gaynesford, 1498, Carshalton, Surrey
March 2003 George Rede, c. 1492, Fovant, Wiltshire
April 2003 Thomas Stathum, 1470, Morley, Derbyshire
May 2003 Richard Torryngton, c.1380-
June 2003 Adam Ertham, 1382, Arundel, Sussex
July 2003 John Lawe, c.1480, Derby Cathedral, Derbyshire
August 2003 William Frith, 1386, & John Bradwell, Shottesbrook, Berks
September 2003 Sir Richard Fitzlewes, 1528, Ingrave, Essex
October 2003 Joan, Lady Cromwell, 1479, Tattershall, Lincolnshire
November 2003 John Gyger, 1504, Tattershall, Lincolnshire
December 2003 Richard Disney, d. 1578, Norton Disney, Lincolnshire
January 2004 Joan de Cobham, c. 1305-
February 2004 Henry Notingham, c. 1405, Holme-
March 2004 John Wybarne, 1505, Ticehurst, Sussex
April 2004 William Bradschawe, 1537, Wendover, Buckinghamshire
May 2004 Thomas Tompkins, 1629, Llandinabo, Herefordshire
June 2004 William de Wermington, c. 1330, Crowland, Lincolnshire
July 2004 Lucasz de Gorka, 1475, Poznan, Poland
August 2004 Unknown knight, c. 1475, Society of Antiquaries, London
September 2004 Sir Andrew de Herley, 1382, Allensmore, Herefordshire
October 2004 Nicholas Fraunceis, 1526, Combe Florey, Somerset
November 2004 Prior Thomas Nelond, 1432,Cowfold, Sussex
December 2004 Unknown, c. 1500, Cobham, Surrey
January 2005 John Hardman, 1867, St. Mary's Convent, Handsworth
February 2005 Sir John Say, 1473, Broxbourne, Herts
March 2005 Sir Hugh Hastings, 1347, Elsing, Norfolk
April 2005 Sir John Clerk, 1539, Thame, Oxfordshire.
May 2005 Olivier de la Chapelle, 1508, La Chapelle-
June 2005 Katherine Franckleyn, 1552, Sturry, Kent
July 2005 Sir Edward Warner, 1565, Little Plumstead, Norfolk
August 2005 Thomas Tonge, 1472, Beeford, Yorkshire
September 2005 William Wadham, 1411, llminster, Somerset
October 2005 Margaret Chute (d. 1614), Marden, Herefordshire
November 2005 John Strete (d. 1406), Upper Hardres, Kent
December 2005 Edward Grymston, 1478, Thorndon, Suffolk
January 2006 Elizabeth Tempest, 1845, Skipton, Yorkshire
February 2006 Sir Thomas Brudenell, 1586, Deene, Northamptonshire
March 2006 Thomas King, 1523, Rendham, Suffolk
April 2006 Brother Robert Beauner, c. 1450-
May 2006 Lady Anne Danvers, 1539, Dauntsey, Wiltshire
June 2006 Thomas, Lord Berkeley, 1392, Wotton-
July 2006 John Eldred, 1632, Great Saxham,Suffolk
August 2006 Dame Agnes Jordan, 1546, Denham, Buckinghamshire
September 2006 King Eric Menved and Queen Ingeborg, 1319, Ringsted, Denmark
October 2006 Margaret Lambart (d.1608), Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire
November 2006 Archbishop Samuel Harsnett, 1631, Chigwell, Essex
December 2006 John Samwell and wife, c. 1505, Cottisford, Oxfordshire
January 2007 Hugues des Hazards, (1517) bishop of Toul, Blénod-
February 2007 Valentine Edvarod, 1574, St Nicholas at Wade, Kent
March 2007 Edmund Hunt, 1558, Hindolveston, Norfolk
April 2007 Sir Peter Rede, 1568, St Peter, Norwich, Norfolk
May 2007 Sir Adam de Clyfton, Methwold, 1367, Norfolk
June 2007 George Talbot, Fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, 1538, Sheffield, Yorkshire
July 2007 Walter Curson, 1527, and Isabel, his wife, Waterperry, Oxfordshire
August 2007 John Byrkhede, d. 1468, Harrow-
September 2007 Lost brass of a lady, c.1415, Castleacre, Norfolk
October 2007 Christopher Daubeney, 1587, Sharrington, Norfolk
November 2007 Edward Naylor, 1632, Bigby, Lincolnshire
December 2007 William Armorer, 1560, All Hallows-
January 2008 A Lady, probably Agnes de Bradeston, c1370, Winterbourne, Gloucestershire
February 2008 John Strensall, 1408, Boston, Lincolshire
March 2008 Ann Fitch, 1593, Little Canfield, Essex
April 2008 Jeha(n) Buccilier and his wife, Police, 1494, Toul,
France
May 2008 William de Grey [1495] and his wives Mary and
Grace, Merton, Norfolk
June 2008 John Stonor, 1512, Wraysbury,
Buckinghamshire
July 2008 Thomas Cod, 1465, St Margaret at Antioch,
Rochester, Kent
August 2008 John Bartelot, d. 1428/9, and wife Joan
de Stopham, Stopham, Sussex
September 2008 Edmund Clere, d. 1488, and wife Elizabeth, Stokesby, Norfolk
October 2008 Reginald Spycer, 1442, and wives, Cirencester, Gloucestershire
November 2008 Ann Tyrell, 1638, Stowmarket, Suffolk
December 2008 Margaret Bacon, 1626/7, Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire
January 2009 Unknown civilian, c 1520, Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire
February 2009 John Alnwyk, 1460, Surlingham, Norfolk
March 2009 Lady Sydney Wynne, Llanrwst, Denbighshire
April 2009 Gotthard and Margaretha von Höveln, 1571, Marienkirche, Lübeck
May 2009 Dorothie Brewster, 1613, Willingale Doe, Essex
June 2009 Sir John de Wyngefeld, 1389, Letheringham, Suffolk
July 2009 Gabriel Pluyette, 1634, Roissy-
August 2009 Incised slabs to lepers, Dijon, France
September 2009 Lost Brass: Ralph de Hengham, St Paul’s Cathedral, London
October 2009 Reginald de Assche, Ash-
November 2009 John Repps, 1561, & wives Margaret & Thomasene, West Walton, Norfolk
December 2009 Francis Saunders, 1585, & wives Elizabeth, Eleanor and Frances, Welford, Northamptonshire
January 2010 Inscription on font to Sir Ralph Pudsay, his third wife
Edwina & his son William, Bolton-
February 2010 John Kyngeston, 1514, and wife Susan, Childrey, Berkshire
March 2010 Anne Bedingfield, 1641, Darsham, Suffolk
April 2010 Ambroise de Villiers, 1503, formerly in the abbey of
Notre-
May 2010 Christopher Playters, 1547 (C17 engraving), Sotterley, Suffolk
June 2010 Nicholas Toke, 1680, and his three daughters, Great Chart, Kent
July 2010 Duchess Zedena, 1510, Meissen cathedral, Saxony, Germany
August 2010 Anne Butts, 1609, Redgrave, Suffolk
Brass of the Month
September 2010 – Thomas Shernborne, 1458/9, and wife Jamon, Shernborne, Norfolk
Copyright: Jon Bayliss
Today nothing remains to show the identity of the two figures on this brass; the inscription, the shields and the crest on the man's helmet are all lost. When Weever was writing in the second quarter of the seventeenth century, it was only the crest, 'a Vulture splaid', that enabled him to identify the man as a member of the Shernborne family. About two hundred years later Cotman was able to quote the inscription as Thomas Sherneborne camerar. d'ne Margarete regine Anglie et Jamine uxoris ejus quondam domincellarie ejusd' regine (Thomas Sherneborne, chamberlain to the lady Margaret, queen of England, and Jamine his wife, sometime mistress of the cellar to the same queen). He gave his source as copied by Gough from Weever and was also able to describe the missing shields as bearing Gules, a lion rampant or, Shernborn, impaling, Three martlets in fess, and a file of three in chief, De Cherneys. He noted that Thomas had died on 2 February 1458, which accords perfectly with the styles of armour and dress on the brass. Cotman further noted that Thomas was lord of the manor of Shernborne in right of his mother and had taken her surname. His father was Richard Ellswick of Ribchester, Lancashire, whose marriage to Margaret Shernborne took place in 1408. The brass is still in its original Purbeck marble slab, having a chamfered edge into which the plates of the marginal inscription were once set. It was evidently once on top of a tomb chest, of which no trace remains, but is now upright against the north wall of the chancel of the church, which was rebuilt late in Queen Victoria's reign.
Records refer to Thomas as chancellor and Jamon as a maid of honour to Margaret of
Anjou, wife of Henry VI, whom she married at the age of fifteen in 1445. Parkin gives
the same inscription for the Shernborne brass as Cotman but spells the name as Jamone
rather than Jamine. She was French and had presumably accompanied Margaret of Anjou
to England. Thomas was a servant of the queen from 1451 until his death and also
served from 1445-
The brass belongs to the London B style and was presumably designed by John Essex alias Herde, the marbler based in St Paul's churchyard in London whom Henry VI consulted about his own tomb in 1454. Although brasses were being made in Norwich by this time, a major commission like this, especially where the family was in royal service, was much more likely to be carried out by a metropolitan workshop. Shernborne is in the west of Norfolk and not too far from the coast, making transport of the slab and the sides of the tomb a straightforward proposition as coastal shipping from London to the port of Lynn.
