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Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland only
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Exton: SS Peter and Paul

NAME

TYPE

MATERIAL

DATE

James and Lucy Harrington

Kneeling knight and lady

Alabaster

1591

Beneath two arches in the choir north wall, supported in the middle by a big corbel, James and Lucy are depicted kneeling, facing one another across a double prayer desk.

James is depicted wearing armour, a ruff, curly hair and beard. Lucy is in a long gown, ruff and a many-buttoned dress. Both are kneeling on cushions that still show signs of the original red and grey colour. Above James are the Harrington arms; while above Lucy are those of Bassett.

Two obelisks and the arms top the whole composition, very similar in style to that of Robert Kelway: Quarterly of eighteen

  1. A fret argent (Harrington)
  2. Barry of six argent and gules (?)
  3. Azure fretty and flory or (?)
  4. Argent, a chevron between three delves gules (?)
  5. Argent, a bend engrailed gules (?)
  6. Argent, a chevron sable between nine martlets gules (Hardeshall)
  7. Or, a cross gules, in dexter chief a martlet azure (?)
  8. Azure, three stags statant or (Green)
  9. Argent, fretty sable, on a canton gules a rose of the first (Rudyard)
  10. Azure, a saltire and a chief or (Bruse)
  11. Argent, an escutcheon with a double tressure flory counter flory gules (Earl of Huntingdon
  12. Argent, a lion rampant sable, a chief gules (Waltheof)
  13. Azure, three garbs or (Earl of Chester)
  14. Azure, a wolf's head erased or (Hugh Lupus)
  15. Argent, a cinquefoil pierced azure (Moton)
  16. Or, three piles meeting in point gules, a canton vair (Bassett)
  17. Or, a fess gules (?)
  18. Ermine, a bend gules (?).

The inscription, in two parts, reads:

Left:

    Hic situs est Jacobus Harington de Exton miles, cum uxore Lucia, Gulielmi Sidnei militis filia, ex qua liberos suscepit 18 quorum matrimonium contraxerunt tres filii, filiae octo. Maximus natu filius Johannes miles heredem duxit Roberti Kelway, Curiae Wardorum, et Liberationum supervisoris, secundus Henricus miles uxorem duxit unam ex haeredibus Francisci Agar a Consiliis hibernicis. tertius Jacobus armiger uxorum habuit unam ex haeredibns Roberti Sapcots armigeri.

    Filia natu maxima Elizabetha nupsit Edwardo Montigue militi. Secunda Francisea, Gulielmo Lee militi. tertia Magareta, Don Benito de Sisneros Hispano de familia Ducum de Fratasgo. Quarta Catherina Edovardo Dimmock militi. Quinta Maria Edovardo Wingfelde militi; sexta Mabilia Andrae Noeli militi. Septima Sara maritum habuit Dominum Hastings. Comitis Huntingdoniae Haeredem, Octava theodosia Dominum Dudley de Castro Dudley.

    Iidem Jacobus et Lucia, quinquaginta annos in matrimonio vixerunt. Illa prior diem obiit annem agens septuagessimuns secundum. Ille jam octogenarius fato faunctus est, anno assertionis humanae 1591. Reginae Eliz 34. Uterque filium jacobum solum Executorem constituerunt, qui ut parentibus suis justa perageret, pietaiisque suae testimonium posteris relinqueret, hoc monumentum in perpetuame illorum memorian, posuit consecravitque.

    (Here lies James Harington of Exton knight with his wife Lucy; daughter of William Sidney, by whom he had eighteen children of whom three sons and eight daughters were married. The eldest son John married the heiress of Robert Kelwey, Surveyor of the Courts of Wards and Liveries. The second, Henry, married one of the heiresses of Francis Agar, an ambassador in Ireland. The third son, James, married one of the heiresses of Robert Sapcot.

    The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married Edward Montague; the second, Frances, William Lee; the third, Margaret Don Benito de Sisneros, a Spaniard of the family of the Dukes of Fantasgo. The fourth daughter, Catherine, married Edward Dimmock, the fifth, Mary, Edward Wingfield; the sixth, Mabel, Andrew Noel; the seventh, Sarah, Lord Hastings heir to the Earl of Huntingdon; and the eighth, Theodosia, Lord Dudley of Castle Dudley.

    James and Lucy lived as husband and wife for fifty years. Lucy died first, in her seventy-second year. James departed this life, age eighty, in 1591. Both appointed their son James as their sole executor, who, to perform his duty to his parents and to leave testimony of his filial affection to posterity, erected and dedicated this monument to their lasting memory.)

Right:

    Si Genus antiquum, veteresque per atria cerae, Si propriae virtutis adorea Clavus equestris, Si soboles numcrosa, et quinquaginta per annos Inter utramque facem cuncta caruisse Querela, Canities si sera, et Mors matura, beatus, Deniqui si census, censuq; beatior omni Larga manus, sincera fides, reverentia Caeli, Foelicem aut vitam aut mortem fecere beatam. Nobis et Vitam et Mortem fecere beatam. Nunc cum fata jubent vixisse, animasq; reposcunt Sidera, compossuit cineres, jussitq; sub isto Haeredis pietas requiescere Mausoleo.

    (If an old family and the ancient busts on the walls; if the badge of knighthood, the reward of peculiar virtue; if a numerous offspring and the absence of all complaint throughout fifty years of married life; if late decay and rapid death; lastly if a happy estate and more happy than any estate, a liberal hand, untainted honour, reverence for home has made a happy life or a blessed death, they have made both life and death blessed for us. Now when the Fates have bid us to have done with life and the stars demand our spirits, the affection of our heir has gathered our ashes and bidden them rest under this mausoleum.)

Sepulchral Effigies of Leicestershire and Rutland
Text copyright Max Matthews 2002. Selected text copyright Bob Trubshaw 2025–6.
Images copyright Max Matthews 2002 or Bob Trubshaw 2002, 2025–6.
No copying or reproduction without prior written permission.
Published by Heart of Albion Press

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