Averham St Michael and All Angels

Monuments and Memorials

Chancel

North Wall

A monument to Sir William Sutton, who died in 1611, aged 52, and his wife Susanna, to whom he was married for twenty-seven years. This is a painted alabaster Renaissance Revival style tomb with a moulded rectangular base with corner pilasters with panels of Arms, recessed central panel with two scrolled cartouches with Arms, and above, two inscribed tablets. Sir William wears plate armour and the shield shows Sutton arms quartered with those of Pierrepont, Lexington, Bingham and Musters. Above, a pair of Ionic type columns on strapwork bases carry a projecting entablature with strapwork frieze, Arms and dentillated cornice flanking a pair of reclining figures.

This monument was vandalised in 1984, when the hands were chopped off and it was sprayed with red paint.

The inscriptions read:

M. S.
ILLUSTRISSIMO DO GULIELMUS SUTTON DE
AVERHAM EQUITI AURATO GENERIS NOBILITATE
VIRTUTUM DOTIBUS ORNATISSIMO QUI
POST ANNOS XXVII CUM CONJUGE
AMANTISSIMA PERACTOS OCTO FILIORUM
TOTIDEMQUE FILIARUM PATER FACTUS DEO
DILECTUS PATRIAE CARISSIMUS SUIS
DISIDERATISSIMUS CITA NEC IMPROVISA
MORTE OBIIT IN CHRISTO ANNO DOM
MDCXI AETATIS SUAE LII
A SUSANNA CONJUX
MAESTISSIMA OFFICII PIETATIS ERGO

 

Siste. Morae necte pigeat, nisi nosse recuses
Quo juvet exemplo vivere quove mori,
Vive Deo, patriae, vicinis, conjugi amicis
Charus quoq’ortus sanguine vive memor
Et quo qunq vocet sati Deus impiger ito;
Alea sed vitae jacta suprema daret
His titulis surgit lapis hic tibi cantabunt
Suttonus quali carmine, dignus eris.
 
Sir William Sutton’s Corps here Tombed Sleeps,
Whose Happy Soul in better Mansions keepes.
Thrice nine Years lived he with his Lady fair,
A lovely, noble, and like Virtuous payer.
Their generous of-spring (Parents joy of heart)
Eight of each sex: of each an equal part.
Usher’d to Heaven their Father, and the other
Remain’d behind him to attend their Mother.

North wall, up high

TO

THE MEMORY OF

ROBERT NASSAU SUTTON

ESQ’RE

YOUNGEST SON OF

SIR RICHARD SUTTON, BAR

OF NORWOOD PARK

DIED APRIL 7th 1833

IN THE 57th YEARE OF HIS AGE

AND

MARY GEORGIANA, HIS WIFE

DAUGHTER OF

JOHN MANNERS SUTTON ESQ’RE

OF KELHAM

DIED NOVEMBER 9th 1846

IN THE 67th YEARE OF HER AGE

South wall

A monument to Sir William’s son Robert, first Lord of Lexington, who died abroad.

His heart is said to be in the lead receptacle in the large urn at the top.

The inscription is as follows:

HERE LYETH THE BODY OF THE RIGHT HONOBLE ROBERT LORD
LEXINGTON DESCENDED FROM YE ANCIENT FAMILY OF YE SVTTONS,
HE HAD THREE WIVES, YE FIRST ELIZABETH SISTER TO THE RIGHT
HONOBLE IOHN NOW EARLE OF RVTLAND. YE SECOND ANNE WIDDOW
OF SIR THOMAS BROWNE BARONET AND DAVGHTER OF SIR
GVY PALMES KNIGHT. THE THIRD MARY ELDEST DAVGHTER
OF SIR ANTONY ST LEGER A VERY ANCIENT FAMILY. THIS LADY NOT
SVRVIVING HER LORD 12 MONETHS LYES HERE BY HIM AS DOE HIS
TWO FORMER. BY HER HE HAD SIX CHILDREN VIZT: ROBERT, BRIDGET,
CHARLES, ST LEGER (A SONNE) MARY, AND ANNE, WHO WAS BORNE A
FEW DAYES AFTER HER FATHERS DEATH WHEREOF TWO ARE NOW
LIVING VIZT: ROBERT, THE NOW LORD LEXINGTON & BRIDGETT
BY HIS TWO FORMER WIVES HE HAD NOE ISSVE. HE WAS A
LOYALL SVBJECT, AND LOVER OF HIS COVNTRY A GOOD HVSBAND
FATHER, FREIND, LANDLORD, MASTER & NEIGHBOVRE. HE DIED
OCTOBER 12TH ANNO DNI. 1668 IN THE THREESCORE AND

FOVRTEENTH YEARE OF HIS AGE.

Nave

North wall, west end

TO THE GLORY OF GOD

AND IN

LOVING MEMORY OF

JOSEPH WALKER

FOR 51 YEARS RECTOR

OF THIS PARISH

DIED JAN 19th 1907

AGED 79 YEARS

THIS NAVE WAS RESEATED

AND PANELLED WITH OAK

BY MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY

North wall, east end

A fourteenth century depressed ogee-headed tomb recess with the Sutton family rebus and blank shield spandrels, containing a slab with moulded edges, foliate cross and a Norman French inscription.

South wall, east end

Effigy Detail of the effigy

An alabaster effigy lies in a niche and is unfortunately broken in two with the parts not matching along the fracture line indicting that a part probably containing the belt is missing. The effigy is a man in civilian clothes with long hair and is bearded and holds a heart in his hand, a rarity after 1300. He wears a long tunic with closely-fitted buttoned sleeves. At his feet is the crest of the Sutton family which is a wolf's head. The shield on each side is blank and was probably painted but the recess holds another which has the same as those on the adjacent tomb of William de Sutton (died 1611).

An incomplete inscription records:

. . . eque pal . . . de Sutton cuius corpus . . . viii kalendas octobris anno domini MCCCmo lxix

This can be roughly translated as: '. . . of Sutton whose body . .  the 8th day before the Kalends of October 1369' [i.e. 24th September].

The effigy has been identified as that of John de Sutton who died in 1369. At this date it is the first effigy in alabaster to depict a civilian. John was married to Joana Musters; however, his son Roland was disinherited from the Musters lands and it is thought he was the issue of another wife.

South wall, west end

There is a early fourteenth century tomb slab showing an effigy of a knight with long curling hair, wearing a short sleeved hawberk, over which is a long surcoat, he also has a sword and dagger.

Vestry

West wall

IN

A VAULT BENEATH THIS CHAPEL

LIE THE REMAINS OF

ANN SUTTON   DIED 1787
JOHN SUTTON   DIED 1801 AGE 32
SIR RICHARD SUTTON   DIED 1802 AGE 69
REV R. SUTTON   DIED 1820 AGE 49
MARGARET SUTTON   DIED 1824 AGE 86
R. NASSAU SUTTON   DIED 1833 AGE 56
MARY GEORGINA SUTTON   DIED 1846 AGE 66
HENRY JOHN SUTTON   DIED 1847 AGE 32
ROBERT CHAPLIN   DIED 1824 AGE 27
ISABELLA FRANCES CHAPLIN   DIED 1824 AGE 50
ANN GEORGINA CHAPLIN   DIED 1826 AGE 52

North wall

The inscription is only partly legible:

WITHIN THE VAULT ARE INTERRED THE REMAINS

OF

SIR RICHARD SUTTON, BAR

OF NORWOOD PARK IN THE COUNTY

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON Xth JUNE MDCCCII

IN THE LXIXth YEAR OF HIS AGE

.
.
???
.
.

He first married SUSANNA daughter

Of

CLAUDE CRESPIGNY, ESQ of CAMBERWELL

Secondly ANN eldest daughter of W.P.WILLIAMS, ESQ

Of CADHAY in the county of DEVON

Who left him three sons and three daughters

His eldest son JOHN died on the 15th Sepr 1801

Having married SOPHIA, daughter of C. CHAPLIN, ESQ

Of TATHWELL in the county of LINCOLN

By whom he left an infant son

In grateful memory of the best of husbands

This tablet is inscribed by his afflicted widow

MARGARET youngest daughter

Of JOHN PORTER ESQ of WANDSWORTH

In the county of SURRY

Below the above

A plaque with a Latin inscription reading:

Intus sepultum jacet corpus
Johannes Smith Rectoris de
Averham qui cum in isto
satis saciendo munere Trigesi
mum nonum complevisset
annum ex hac vita discessit dic
January vicesimo nono Ætat
suæ septuagesimo secundo Ano Dni

The Latin is obscure, but it is clearly to John Smith, Rector of Averham, who died in the 72nd year of his age.

North wall

NEAR THIS PLACE

LIE THE REMAINS OF

THE REV’D RICH’D SUTTON DD

PREBENDARY

OF THE METROPOLITAN CHURCH OF CANTERBURY

RECTOR OF WHITWELL IN THE CON. OF DERBY

AND FIFTY-ONE YEARS RECTOR OF THIS PARISH

DURING WHICH TIME

HIS UNIFORM HUMANITY AND BENEVOLENCE

GAINED HIM THE ESTEEM AND AFFECTION

OF HIS NEIGHBOURS AND DEPENDANTS

WHILST HIS CHEERFUL AND SOCIAL DISPOSTION

AND GENEROUS HOSPITALITY

JOINED TO ELEGANCE OF MANNERS AND A TASTE

FOR THE POLITE ARTS

ENDEARED HIM TO NUMEROUS FRIENDS

HE MET THE LINGERING APPROACHES OF HIS DISSOLUTION

WITH EXEMPLARY FORTITUDE AND RESIGNATION

AND DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 14th DAY OF NOV’R 1785

AGED 76