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 at the east end of the south aisle, close to where its indent is located at the east end of the nave. The brass shows a man in armour in the N1 style of Norwich brasses, which terminated by 1480. 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.’ A wooden platform now overlaps the end of the indent, but two figures with a shield above each head and an inscription are clear. 

The identification with Sir John Audley is not correct, and is based on a misinterpretation of a passage in Francis Blomefield's History of Norfolk. This reads,

‘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 surviving brass figure has no surcoat, so cannot be Audley’s. Also, Blomefield was referring to the south aisle when describing Audley’s stone.

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.’

The second of these two gravestones seems to correspond with the surviving brass and its stone. The upper part of the brass is heavily worn, which led Cotman in his engraving to mistake the mail collar for a small ruff. This particular image 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 edition of 1839.

Cotman's rendering of the rest of the figure appears to be correct although simplified. It shows a man in armour very like those at Frenze in Norfolk (to Ralph Blenerhaysett, d. 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, d. 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, and begun in the mid 1450s. Originally there were three parts: a terrier of the church lands made in 1454; an inventory of the church goods, also of 1454; and an attempt, stemming from a meeting in 1457, to sort out the church finances. The bede roll was added after Botwright’s death in 1474, and mentions donations made from the 1420s until the end of the century.

Donations given for the old church are distinguished from those for the new. One entry refers to the 'falling' of the church in which the organs were broken, which may indicate that repairs had already begun on the old church before the fall necessitated entirely new construction. Another entry refers to donations for the old rood loft, giving the impression that the damage caused by the 'fall' of the church had also destroyed recent fittings. Did part of the old tower fall onto the nave during repairs?

Much Purbeck marble paving survives in the church. There are donations for paving by Thomas Blake for the old church; by Thomas Styward (d. 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 by 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 indicate the identity of the couple commemorated by the brass. The list includes no knights, but does include an esquire, Thomas Blake. He donated £8 to the ‘augmentation’ of the church. Someone of the same name had paid for diverse paving in the old church as well as a gilt chalice and the clock bell, but this is likely to have been the grandfather of Thomas Blake the esquire.

Thomas Blake esquire of Swaffham died as late as 1506. Earlier Swaffham men of the same name died in the first half of the previous century and are not known to have been esquires. Thomas’s father was Edmund Blake esquire. He died in 1460, leaving his widow Elizabeth and his brother Symon as his executors. Edmund’s Norfolk home was at Holme Hale, a village near Swaffham, but by 1472 his widow was living at Swaffham. The leading contenders for 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 1487, was later Sir John Audley’ s second wife and lived until 1542.

The indent for the brass of Sir John Audley and his first wife is probably now lying at the west end of the nave. 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. Another indent no longer in its original position has a man in armour with a wife wearing a butterfly headdress and a foot inscription with a dependant shield. It was for 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 originally had brasses 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

J S Cotman, Engravings of Sepulchral Brasses in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1st edn late 1810s, 2nd edn in 2 vols, 1839