The Lady Harley Memorial...

Perhaps one of the most striking artefacts in Cuxton’s history is also one of the hardest to find and appreciate. Hidden away on the south-western wall  of the Lady Chapel in St. Michaels and All Angels Church (and not accessible to the public) is the Lady Harley memorial...

Commissioned by Sir Robert Harley in remembrance of his late and first wife Ann (who died in 1603) the marble installation is a richly-coloured classical wall monument and one that (rather perversely) is now completely obscured by the church organ. It deserves so much better and needs some repair and restoration, although the work undertaken on it in 1723 by Lord Edward Harley (the famous parliamentarian and son of Sir Robert and his third wife) has lasted well. 

The Harley family is of ancient lineage (with one source suggesting that it pre-dates the Norman Conquest) and by 1221 were in possession of the Shropshire manor from which they took their name. The property subsequently passed out of the family through an heiress, but by that time a family branch had established itself at Brampton Bryan, ten miles south west of Ludlow. Situated in the extreme north of Herefordshire, Brampton Bryan lay close to the borders with Radnorshire and Shropshire.

From the fourteenth century the Harleys played a leading part in those two county communities. The first member of the family to make a place in national life was Sir Robert Harley (1579-1656), who became Master of the Mint under Charles I and M.P. for Radnor Boroughs in 1604, for Herefordshire in 1624, 1626 and 1640 and for Evesham in 1628.

On 13^th. Feb. 1602, Sir Robert married Ann Barrett. Born in 1583, she was the daughter of Sir Charles Barrett of Belhus, Aveley, Essex and Christian (nee Mildmay) Barrett and the sister of Sir Edward Barrett. When Anne Barrett-Harley's father died, her mother married Sir John Leveson on 9th June, 1586.

Heraldic symbols on the Harley memorial: the red and white chequer is associated with the Barrett family, whilst the other devices are those of the Harley dynasty...

Ann was thus the step-daughter of Sir John Leveson, then owner and resident of Whorne’s Place, thus establishing the link between the Herefordshire-based Harley dynasty and Cuxton.

The match probably arose as a result of Harley’s close connection with the Shropshire branch of the Leveson family, for the brother of Sir John Leveson Junior, (Sir Richard Leveson of Lilleshall Lodge, Shropshire) was his first cousin. Although marriages within the aristocracy in those days were often merely arrangements driven by politics and property, it seems that there was genuine love between the young Robert Harley and his equally youthful wife.

Sadly, their marriage was cut short after just less than two years – Lady Ann Harley and her new-born baby son Thomas both died in childbirth on 1st. December 1603.

It seems possible that the couple were staying with Sir John Leveson at Whorne’s Place at the time, as records show that Sir Robert was latterly acting on behalf of at least two Kentish Lords (Sir Henry Crispe of Quex House, Birchington and Thomas Crayford, the son of Sir William Crayford of Great Mongeham) making representations for them in the Houses of Parliament.

What is certain is that Ann and her child were laid to rest at St. Michaels and All Angels Church, with Sir Robert Harley instigating the remarkable monument to her memory that still exists today.

The text of the main plaque on the memorial leaves us in no doubt as to the extent of Sir Robert’s grief...

"HERE DEATH HATH SPORTED, TYRANT-LIKE IN BLOOD,

IN TAKINGE LIFE FROM YOUTH AND WOMANHOOD,

ACTINGE THE DOOME OF HIS INFORCED DUTY,

REGARDLES OF MODESTY OR BEAUTY,

BUT I AM MUCH IN LOSS OF SO GREAT BLIS,

THOUGH NOT REPAIRED YET COMFORTED IN THIS,

THAT DEATH IN HIS PROUD CONQUEST HATH NO JOTT,

OF THIS UNTIMELY SPOILE FOULEN TO HIS LOTT,

EARTH HATH POSSESSION OF HER EARTHLY PARTE,

WICH SHE INCLOSETH IN A MOTHER'S HEARTE,

HERE SOUL IN HEAVEN, HER MEMORY ALIVE,

AND THAT WHICH EARTH DETAINES NOW SHALL REVIVE,

AND IN DESPITE OF ALL DEVIDINGE DEATH,

MEETINGE THE REST SHALL DRAW A JOYFULL BREATH"

The plaque below reads:

LET THIS INFORM PROSPERITY THAT HERE LYETH ANN DAUGHTER TO CHARLES BARRET

OF BELHOUSE IN THE COUNTY OF ESSEX, ESQR. WHICH ANN WAS MARIED TO SIR ROBERT

HARLEY, KNIGHT OF THE BATH THE 13th FEBRUARY 1602 AND DECEASED THE FIRST OF

DECEMBER 1603 BY WHOM HE HAD ISSUE A SON NAMED THOMAS WHICH LIES HERE ALSO

BURIED IN MEMORY OF WHOM HER SORROWFUL HUSBAND HATH CAUSED THIS 

MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED AS THE LAST OFFICE OF HIS LOVE

"LINQVENDA TELLVS ET DOMUS ET PLACENS VXOR"

The last line translates from the Latin as “Leaving Earth and home with a pleasant wife”.

In his Registrum Roffense of 1769, John Thorpe tells us that below the monument, on white marble, there was also an inscription that read: “This monument was repaired at the charge of Edward, Lord Harley, 1723”.

I can find no such marble and I assume it was removed during the Victorian "restoration" of the church in the 1860s. 

Death's Head, topped by an hourglass: perhaps a symbol of how fleeting are our lives on earth...

It is recorded that on August 27^th 1723, Lord Edward Harley rode out to Cuxton “through very straight (narrow) lanes” to inspect the monument. When he reached the village, it is said that some poor women of the place strewed mint upon the road out of their aprons (a practice that seems as unlikely as it is bizarre, at least by modern standards).

In terms of the location of the monument, Edward Hasted (in his 1797 “History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3) tells us that it was to be found “in the chancel, within the rails of the south wall”. Similarly, the Registrum Roffense states it was set "within the communion rails, on the South wall". In that position today is a stained-glass window, of a plainer and seemingly later design than the two magnificent windows in the south-east and eastern chancel walls.

This suggests that the Harley monument may have been moved to its current position as part of the church restoration works of the 1860s, which saw the building of the “new” south aisle and restoration of the Lady Chapel, where the memorial now resides.

This proved to be somewhat unfortunate. In 1881, the church organ was duly installed in the Lady Chapel, thus completely obscuring the view of the Lady Harley memorial. If the memorial had been left where it was, it would have been so much better. Why the church officials decided to place the organ in the Lady Chapel really is completely beyond me. It would have seemed logical to place it in the newly-enlarged nave.

Fruit, and in particular apples and pears, were associated with female fertility and here, possibly allude to the death of the young mother. Pears were also associated with mortality or death.

Ironically, it is conceivable that the Lady Harley memorial could well have suffered a much worse fate as a result of the religious beliefs of its creator. Sir Robert Harley was a committed Puritan, supported in his beliefs by his third wife, the splendidly-named Brilliana (daughter of Sir Edward Conway, then a Secretary of State). In April 1843 (against the febrile background of the English Civil War), Sir Robert was made head of the Committee for the Demolition of Monuments of Superstition and Idolatry, which presided over the destruction of a great deal of religious art and architecture. Fortunately, the memorial escaped the fervour of the puritans.

In terms of the photograph you see here, it is a composite of about 20 individual images. There is only about a four foot clearance between the monument and the back of the organ. I therefore had to mount a camera on a frame and move it around to gather the images I needed to put together an overall view, using the magic of image processing software.

(Note that I have taken the liberty of making some small “enhancements”: I have erased the rather thoughtless electrical wiring for the organ that otherwise disfigures the right hand side of the memorial. I have also “replaced” the missing scroll to the left of the gilded lion’s head below the main plaque. Otherwise, what you see is how it is - or how it would be, if the organ wasn’t in the way!)

Whilst the process of compositing from multiple close-ups has resulted in some rather odd perspective effects if you look closely, the final image nevertheless gives a good overall impression of the memorial, one that has not been seen for over 140 years.

References:

1)   The History of Parliament, entry for Sir Robert Harley (1579-1656)

2)   The Harley family and the Harley papers by Clyve Jones, 1989

3)   WikiTree entry for Anne (Barrett) Harley (1583-1603)

4)   Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Cookstone', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 3 (Canterbury, 1797), pp 389-403

5)   Cuxton – a Kentish Village, by Derek Church .p.22, 24 (1976)

6)   Puritan Iconoclasm in England 1640-1660, pp. 75-136 (Ph.D thesis by Julie Spraggon, 2000)

7)  Registrum Roffense, by John Thorpe, pp.769-770.