George Henry Lee, 2nd earl of Litchfield

Date of Brass:

1743

Place:

Spelsbury

County:

Oxfordshire

Country:

Number:

Style:

Description

September 2026 

This month’s brass raises the question of definition: when does a metal plate of brass with an engraved memorial inscription not qualify as a monumental brass? Some would answeer that it needs to be flat to qualify, others will question whether it qualifies if it was not meant to be set on a surface, usually a floor or wall, within a church but was to be attached instead to a coffin to be buried or placed in a vault.

The walls of All Saints church in Spelsbury, Oxfordshire, have a number of brass plates on them. That with wording ‘John Earle of Rochester 1680’ is behind glass and very well cut. Its lettering contrasts with that the Italics of that of Richard Welch, which is rather more informative, telling us when and where he was born as well as his date of death in 1680. It colour suggest a composition containing more copper. His wife Anne’s inscription is on a plate cut and shaped along the outer edges of scrolls. It tells us she was the daughter of Thomas Orton of Clardon in Warwickshire, also her husband’s place of birth. She died in 1677. Another, wooden-framed tightly lettered plate, is to Francis Henry Lee, baronet, of Ditchley, died 1639 (and son to Henry Lee, Bart, died 1631, commemorated by a large alabaster monument in the church) and also to Eleanor, youngest daughter of Francis Henry Lee and his wife, Anne, countess of Rochester, who died in 1640. The first words of her part of the inscription ‘In hac Capsula’, reveal that this was a coffin plate. This is not listed in Mill Stephenson’s List, nor is the earl of Rochester’s but he does include both of the Welch inscriptions although they may also be coffin plates.

The plate engraved with the mostly Italic inscription ‘The Right Hon^ble: George Henry Lee Earl of Litchfield. Viscount Quarindon. Baron of Spelsbury Bar^t: died Febr:15^th 174²₃ Aged 52: Years’ is entirely more decorative and is a this plate that is decorated by a mixture of other metal working techniques, namely repoussé and embossing, mostly the former, where the backside of the plate is hammered to created raised patterns. The front of the plate is also hammered (embossed) to sharpen the images created by repoussé. The thinness of the plate explains the lightness of the engraving as it would be very easy to puncture it were it to be engraved with more force.

George Henry Lee was descended from Charles II and Barbara Palmer, countess of Castlemaine, through their daughter Charlotte Fitzroy, who married Edward Henry Lee, the first earl of Litchfield. He was born in 1690 and became 2^nd earl after his father died in 1716. He was the sixth son of his parents, becoming heir after the death of their 2^nd son Edward Henry in 1713. In 1718 he married Frances Hales in Lichfield and had the present mansion designed by James Gibbs at Ditchley Park built from 1722 onwards. The earl also had the chancel of All Saints rebuilt.

Copyright: Jon Bayliss (text and photo)