John Berney

Date of Brass:

1536

Place:

Reedham

County:

Norfolk

Country:

III

Number:

Style:

Description

June 2025

A stylish and well-engraved plate showing a helmet with a crest and mantling is all that remains of a brass in the church of St John the Baptist, Reedham, Norfolk. There are indents of three missing shields (one of which survived as late as 1938). The slab must have been cut down, for we know from old descriptions that there were formerly scrolls and an inscription as well. 

Suffling's English Church Brasses (1910), a general book but with a marked East Anglian slant, illustrates this Reedham brass under 'heraldry' with the comment, ‘it may have belonged to the Berneys’. The same crest, A plume of six ostrich feathers per pale azure and gules alternately, can also be seen on the stone monument of Henry Berney, d.1584, and the black marble ledgers commemorating Richard Berney, d.1679, and Richard Berney, d.1695, all in the Berney chapel (south chapel) of the church.

Blomefield, in his History of Norfolk, gives the following details. They need to be read carefully, not least because he mentions three different 'John Berneys', all undated. These have been numbered from [1] to [3] below for convenience:

In the chapel, on the south side of the chancel, is buried Henry Berney, Esq. and Alice his wife [i.e. the Henry Burney, d.1584, mentioned above].

Here also under a gravestone lies buried [1] John Berney, Esq. with his 2 wives, Alice, daughter of Southwell, and Margaret, daughter of Wentworth, with their arms: Southwell, Argent, three cinquefoils, gules - Wentworth, Sable, a chevron, between three leopards faces, or.

Also [2] John Berney, Esq. and his 2 wives, Read, and Sydnor of Blundeston in Suffolk. Read bore Azure, on a bend wavy, or, three heathcocks, sable, in a bordure of the same, bezanty, and Sydnor - Azure, on a cross engrailed, five fleurs-de-lis.

Under another gravestone lie [3] John Berney, Esq. and Isabel, daughter of Heveningham, with their arms, also on a brass plate. Heveningham bore Quarterly, or, and gules, in a border engrailed, sable, 8 escallops, argent.

Of Henry Berney Blomefield wrote:

Henry Berney, Esq. married Alice, daughter of  Roger Appleton of Dartford in Kent, Esq. ...; in the reign of Philip and Mary, he removed the old family seat near Redham church, into Redham park, where he built a magnificent seat, yet standing, called Park-hall, with large gardens &c. in 1557, and died in 1584, leaving several sons and daughters; Thomas, his son and heir, Henry, John, Edward, and Richard.

Alice his wife survived him, and erected a handsome marble altar monument over him in the chapel, on the south side of the chancel of the church, with both their effigies thereon, their sons behind him, and daughters behind her, and this distich:

Hunc tumulum Conjux posuit dilecta Marito,
Quemq; Viro posuit, destinat ipsa Sibi.

On it are the arms of Berney, quartering Redham, Gules, a chevron engrailed, between three reed sheafs, or, in the 2d quarter; in the 3d, Caston, gules, a chevron between three eagles displayed, argent, and Berney in the 4th quarter, impaling Appleton, argent, a fess engrailed, sable, between three apples, leaved proper, and - - - - quarterly.

Of the three John Berneys, number [3], who married Isabel Heveningham, died in 1440. His brass no longer survives.

Blomefield's wording, ‘also on a brass plate’, suggests that one if not both of the other two John Berneys also had a brass. Number [1] refers to John Berney, d.1536, son of another John Berney who died in 1475; and number [2] is the latter’s grandson, d.1558. Mill Stephenson opted for the one who died in 1536. His choice was obviously based on what Edmund Farrer found at Reedham when researching his book, Church Heraldry of Norfolk (3 vols., 1887-93). At that time one shield still remained in the slab:

Brass in the South Chapel, with One Shield remaining.

(Much defaced.) Quarterly: — 1 and 4, Berney, with crescent for difference; 2 and 3, Reedham quartering Caston; impaling Three cinquefoils. {Southwell, Argent, three cinquefoils gules.) Crest: A plume of ostrich feathers (Berney, A plume of ostrich feathers per pale argent and gules.)

There is no inscription, but is probably in memory of John Berney, who married 1st, Alice, daughter of Richard Southwell, Esq.; and 2nd, Margaret, daughter of Sir Roger Wentworth of Essex.

Although Blomefield elsewhere mentions a fourth John Berney, d.1475, and his wife Elizabeth Mundeford, he makes no mention of any monument, which was a brass. The figure of Elizabeth survives in the church alongside John’s indent; John’s head is in the possession of the Norwich Museums Service.

Copyright: Jon Bayliss (text and photo)