Unidentified man in armour, probably Edmund or Thomas Blake

Date of Brass:

c1475

Place:

Swaffham

County:

Norfolk

Country:

Number:

I

Style:

Norwich 1

Description

July 2026

The church of St Peter and St Paul in the mid-Norfolk town of Swaffham retains one medieval brass. It is currently fixed on a wooden board on the north side of the east end of the south aisle, close to where its indent is located at the east end of the nave. A wooden platform now overlaps the end of the indent but two figures with a shield above each head and an inscription are clear. A label below the remaining effigy states ‘This brass formed part of the memorial to Sir John Audley of Swaffham who lived and died during the reign of King Henry the VIII’. The brass is in the N1 style of Norwich brasses, which terminates by 1480. Francis Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, wrote ‘At the upper end of this isle lies a large gray marble stone, with the portraiture of a person in complete armour, on his surcoat are the arms of Touchet and Audley, quarterly, viz. in 1st and 4th ermine a chevron gul. in 2d and 3d gul. a frett or, by which we are assured that it is in memory of Sir John Audley of this town, who lived and died in the reign of King Henry VIII. and the same shield is painted on the glass in the window of the parlour in the vicar's house; the nobility and gentry in ancient days, wore over their armour, rich surcoats of silk and satin embroidery, as the heralds do at this day, whereon was curiously wrought the arms of their house and family in their proper colours, &c.’ The effigy has no surcoat, so cannot be Audley’s.

Blomefield was referring to the south aisle when describing Audley’s stone but he also wrote ‘At the upper end of the nave (before the old rood-loft) lie several old marble gravestones. On one is the portraiture of a man in complete armour, that of his wife, with the shields, &c. of brass, that were thereon, are stolen and gone. Adjoining to this lies another stone, with the portraiture of an armed man in brass, with a dog couchant at his feet, but that of his wife, &c. is reaved and lost.’ One of these two gravestones is presumably the one that lies in that position now and corresponds to the surviving brass and its stone. The upper part of the brass is heavily worn, which led Cotman, in his engraving to mistake his mail collar for a small ruff. This was not published the first edition of Cotman’s engravings of brasses in the late 1810s but was subsequently included in the much enlarged two volume 1839 edition. His engraving of the rest of the figure appears to be correct although simplified and shows a figure very like those at Frenze in Norfolk to Ralph Blenerhaysett, died 1475 and at Sotterley, Suffolk to a member of the Bumpstead family but with the sword hanging diagonally, as on the larger figure of Sir John Curson, died 1471, at Bylaugh, Norfolk.

The church at Swaffham was largely rebuilt during the second half of the fifteenth-century although the tower was not completed until early in the following century. The donors to the building work, what they contributed and how it was used were recorded in the bede roll, incorporated as the fourth part of the Black Book of Swaffham. The book was the idea of the rector, John Botwright, STP, begun in the mid 1450s. Originally, there were three parts to the book: a terrier of the church lands made in 1454, an inventory of the church goods, also of 1454, and third an attempt stemming from a 1457 meeting to sort out the muddle into which the finances of the church had fallen. The bede roll was added to the book after Botwright’s death in 1474 but refers to donations made from the 1420s onwards to the end of the century. There is a distinction made in the book between those given for the old church and those for the new. One entry refers to the falling of the church in which the organs were broken, perhaps indicating that reparations had begun before the fall necessitated entirely new construction. One entry refers to donations for the old rood loft, the overall impression being that the damage caused by fall of the church had also destroyed other recent fittings. Could it be that part of the old tower fell onto the nave during repairs? There is much Purbeck marble paving surviving in the church and there are donations to paving by Thomas Blake in the old church, by Thomas Styward (died 1432) and his wife Cecily for the nave from the choir entrance to the cross aisle between the old doors, by John Chapman (the pedler of Swaffham) and his wife Catharyne in marble for their new north aisle, by Robert Payne for the nave of the old church in marble and Symon Blake and his wife Jone for paving the cross aisle in marble before the chancel door. The latter couple also set up a chantry in the south transept, in operation by Symon’s death in 1489.

The list of donors could provide an indication as to the identity of the couple commemorated by the brass. The list includes no knights and only one esquire, Thomas Blake, who donated £8 to the ‘augmentation’ of the church. He was possibly the same man who was responsible for diverse paving in the old church as well as providing a gilt chalice and the clock bell. Thomas Blake esquire of Swaffham, the nephew of Symon Blake, died as late 1506 and earlier Swaffham men of the same name had died in the first half previous century and are not known to have been esquires. However, Thomas’s father was Edmund Blake esquire who died in 1460, leaving his widow Elizabeth and his brother Symon as his executors. Although Edmund’s Norfolk home was at Holme Hale, a village near Swaffham, by 1472 his widow was living at Swaffham. Symon’s will of December 1487 left 40d per annum for his father’s obit and includes his parents among those whose souls were to be prayed for in his chantry, a list which also includes Thomas Blake esquire and his wife Elizabeth. It looks like the leading contenders for the identities of the couple commemorated by the brass are either Edmund and Elizabeth Blake, laid down around the death of Elizabeth, or Thomas Blake and his first wife Jane, laid down after her death. Thomas’s second wife, Elizabeth, whom he had married by 1493, was later Sir John Audley’ s second wife and lived until 1542.

The indent that now lies at the west end of the nave is more likely to be that of Sir John Audley and his first wife. It is of Unio Purbeck marble and has a man in armour with his head on a helm and his wife in a mantle with a foot inscription and four shields. What could be the other one described by Blomefield is also no longer in its original position and is of a man in armour with a wife wearing a butterfly headdress with a foot inscription with a dependant shield. It was another Norwich-made brass of the late fifteenth-century but a little later than the effigy that is the subject of this piece. Perhaps both Edmund and Thomas Blake had brasses in the church originally adjacent to each other.

Copyright: text & photos: Jon Bayliss

References:

Rev. J F Williams, ‘The Black Book of Swaffham’, Norfolk Archaeology, vol 34, part 3 (1964), 243-253.

F Blomefield, History of Norfolk, vol 3 (1769), 504, 510-513, 518 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951002167939s&seq=7