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NAME TYPE MATERIAL DATE John, Elizabeth and Katherine Whatton Relief busts Alabaster by Joshua Marshall 1657:1638:1673

This mural monument, in the north aisle, shows the busts, in oval niches between open curtains, of the bearded John Whatton and his two wives – Elizabeth on the left and Katherine on the right.   Above the monument, between a scrolled pediment, are two skulls and the Whatton arms (Azure, three hedgehogs passant or). Beneath Elizabeth and Katherine are their arms - Whatton impaling Argent, a bend vairy or and gules (Heyrick) and Whatton impaling Argent, ten torteaux, overall a label of three points azure (Babington). The inscription, below the bust of Whatton, reads: John Whatton of the Newark neare Leistr an esq Of ye Body of the late king Charles Justice of Peace for the county of Leistr. His first wife was Eliza Orpwood widow daughter of Mr Robert Herick alderman of this towne. His 2d wife was Katherine daughter of Thomas Babington of Temple Rothly esq and by her onely he had Children viz 3 sons John, William and Thomas and three daughters Katherine, Mary and Sence. He died ye 16th day of Feb 1656 in memory of whom his deare surviving wife erected this monument. Thus stands the triumph of Death's dart That in him wounded many a heart His children's tears his sad wife's groans The widow's and the orphan's moans His friends' complaints that laid him here Best spake his proper character So good, so just, so gracious that All did admire none imitate Virtues heap'd up in him did lie All open by humility He shunn'd in public streams to swim He sought not honour it found him Though balls of gold lay in his race They could not slack his holy pace While if sometimes he stoop'd to take Twas chiefly for the needy's sake To schisms he never did incline Yet was a complete Lay Divine. While Scripture was his doctrine laid His holy life the use he made A stranger's life in th'world he spent Till to his glorious home he went. Where now to him the freedom's given To be a denizen of Heaven. In 1627, John Whatton, an ironmonger by trade, was one of the churchwardens, paying twenty-one shillings a year for his pew. The following year he was selected as one of Leicester's twenty-four aldermen. However, having no wish to serve, nor for that matter pay the mandatory fine of 200 marks for refusing the office, he offered to give the Corporation a piece of land worth two pounds six shillings and eightpence a year in rent coupled with a donation of three shillings and fourpence a week for life to be given to the poor of the town. This offer was turned down and he had to pay the fine of £123 6s 8d. This may be an error in the Borough Records as two hundred marks would have been £133 not £123 – one mark being equal to thirteen shillings and fourpence, or about sixty-seven New Pence. John Whatton's first wife was Elizabeth, the daughter of Robert Heyrick whose memorial is a few yards away in St Katharine's Chapel. Born in 1574, Elizabeth's first husband was Robert Orpwood, a goldsmith, who died in 1609 and is also memorialised in the chapel. Elizabeth died in August 1638 aged 64. On her memorial, in St Katherine's Chapel, she is referred to as Elizabeth the wife of the late Robert Orpwood, also widow of John Whatton. Whatton's second wife, whom he married in 1639, the year he was High Sheriff of Leicestershire, was Catherine Babbington of Rothley, sister of Matthew. Catherine survived her husband and died in 1673 aged 59. 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 Back to top of this page This website does not gather or store any visitor information.