Ketteringham, Norfolk, UK
Church of St Peter,
Monument to the ancestors of Edward Atkyns. Marble. Commissioned by Edward Atkyns 1750. South wall of chancel. Possibly by Robert Page to a design by Sir Henry Cheere.
The monument, framed in a Gothic arch with trefoil head, is divided between a cartouche with coat of arms, a long inscription set in a lugged architrave under a decorative scroll and the funerary monument whose lions’ paws rest a black marble plinth. The frame was introduced in emulation of the monument in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, commissioned by Edward Atkyns from Sir Henry Cheere and ready by the 15 December 1746. In his will Atkyns specified that: ‘my executors lay out a sum of money not less than two hundred pounds and not more than three hundred in erecting a monument of myself and my ancestors in the chancel of the Parish church at Ketteringham, both in model, size and inscription as near as conveniently be (to that in Westminster Abbey) and that I desire that notice may be taken in the monument in Westminster Abbey that another one is set up in Ketteringham church and to take notice on both monuments that they were erected out of the veneration and regard that I had for the memory of my ancestors.’
The ancestors mentioned in the main inscription on both monuments were:
Sir Edward Atkyns †1669, a Baron of the Exchequer;
Sir Robert †1709, his eldest son, Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Lords;
Sir Edward †1698, his youngest son, also Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who retired to Norfolk in the (Cromwellian) revolution;
Sir Robert eldest son of the Sir Robert † 1709, a gentleman scholar, author of a History of Gloucestershire, who died in 1711.
Finally a tablet on the sarcophagus of both added: ‘In memory of his ancestors, who have so honourably presided in the Courts of Justice in Westminster Hall, EDWARD ATYKYNS Esqr. late of Ketteringham in Norfolk, second son of the last named Sir Edward, caused this monument to be erected. He died January the 20th 1750 aged 79 years.’
Atkyns had bought Ketteringham Hall from Henry Heron (ca. 1675-1730) who had inherited the Hall through his marriage to Abigail, Sir William Heveningham’s daughter. The sale was probably around 1695, when Heron inherited his father’s estate of Cressy Hall, Lincolnshire in.
The attribution of the Ketteringham monument remains open. There is no doubt that the monument in Westminster Abbey is by Henry Cheere, two of Cheere’s drawings for it were sold at Christies Dec. 1982 lot 104, but, with the exception of Matthew Craske (The Silent Rhetoric of the Body. A History of Monumental Sculpture and Commemorative Art in England, 1720-1770, 2007, 198-201 and footnotes 30 and 31 on p.467), who believes both monuments are by Cheere, doubts remain and it has been attributed, notably by Pevsner, to the Norwich sculptor Robert Page. The argument was well summed up by Jon Bayliss who noted that the framing arch at Ketteringham, intended to echo that at Westminster Abbey, does not resemble other more up-to frames by Cheere. The Abbey monument rests on four legs, rather than two lion paws, whose ‘furry cuffs’ have no parallels in other comparable monuments. He offered as a possible explanation is that after his work for the Churchman family in St Giles, Cheere was aware that the city had a sculptor in the shape of Robert Page who was capable of matching the standards expected in his own workshop and that he could sub-contract the Atkyns monument to Page.
Matthew Craske, cited above, notes that the family memorial belongs with a group of commissions ‘For great old men planning their death with no sons to inherit, one of the problems was to ensure that their elected heir acted as instructed.’ He interprets the choice of texts with a quote from another scholar working on the same era, Sheerer West: ‘Tory families in particular were intent upon proving their relationship with the past…(and that) their histories sought to prove that their subjects had a long association with the Royal family both before and following the civil war.’
www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/edward-and-r..., accessed 17/07/2015
detail of flowers
Ketteringham, Norfolk, UK
Church of St Peter,
Monument to the ancestors of Edward Atkyns. Marble. Commissioned by Edward Atkyns 1750. South wall of chancel. Possibly by Robert Page to a design by Sir Henry Cheere.
The monument, framed in a Gothic arch with trefoil head, is divided between a cartouche with coat of arms, a long inscription set in a lugged architrave under a decorative scroll and the funerary monument whose lions’ paws rest a black marble plinth. The frame was introduced in emulation of the monument in the south transept of Westminster Abbey, commissioned by Edward Atkyns from Sir Henry Cheere and ready by the 15 December 1746. In his will Atkyns specified that: ‘my executors lay out a sum of money not less than two hundred pounds and not more than three hundred in erecting a monument of myself and my ancestors in the chancel of the Parish church at Ketteringham, both in model, size and inscription as near as conveniently be (to that in Westminster Abbey) and that I desire that notice may be taken in the monument in Westminster Abbey that another one is set up in Ketteringham church and to take notice on both monuments that they were erected out of the veneration and regard that I had for the memory of my ancestors.’
The ancestors mentioned in the main inscription on both monuments were:
Sir Edward Atkyns †1669, a Baron of the Exchequer;
Sir Robert †1709, his eldest son, Chief Baron of the Exchequer and Speaker of the House of Lords;
Sir Edward †1698, his youngest son, also Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who retired to Norfolk in the (Cromwellian) revolution;
Sir Robert eldest son of the Sir Robert † 1709, a gentleman scholar, author of a History of Gloucestershire, who died in 1711.
Finally a tablet on the sarcophagus of both added: ‘In memory of his ancestors, who have so honourably presided in the Courts of Justice in Westminster Hall, EDWARD ATYKYNS Esqr. late of Ketteringham in Norfolk, second son of the last named Sir Edward, caused this monument to be erected. He died January the 20th 1750 aged 79 years.’
Atkyns had bought Ketteringham Hall from Henry Heron (ca. 1675-1730) who had inherited the Hall through his marriage to Abigail, Sir William Heveningham’s daughter. The sale was probably around 1695, when Heron inherited his father’s estate of Cressy Hall, Lincolnshire in.
The attribution of the Ketteringham monument remains open. There is no doubt that the monument in Westminster Abbey is by Henry Cheere, two of Cheere’s drawings for it were sold at Christies Dec. 1982 lot 104, but, with the exception of Matthew Craske (The Silent Rhetoric of the Body. A History of Monumental Sculpture and Commemorative Art in England, 1720-1770, 2007, 198-201 and footnotes 30 and 31 on p.467), who believes both monuments are by Cheere, doubts remain and it has been attributed, notably by Pevsner, to the Norwich sculptor Robert Page. The argument was well summed up by Jon Bayliss who noted that the framing arch at Ketteringham, intended to echo that at Westminster Abbey, does not resemble other more up-to frames by Cheere. The Abbey monument rests on four legs, rather than two lion paws, whose ‘furry cuffs’ have no parallels in other comparable monuments. He offered as a possible explanation is that after his work for the Churchman family in St Giles, Cheere was aware that the city had a sculptor in the shape of Robert Page who was capable of matching the standards expected in his own workshop and that he could sub-contract the Atkyns monument to Page.
Matthew Craske, cited above, notes that the family memorial belongs with a group of commissions ‘For great old men planning their death with no sons to inherit, one of the problems was to ensure that their elected heir acted as instructed.’ He interprets the choice of texts with a quote from another scholar working on the same era, Sheerer West: ‘Tory families in particular were intent upon proving their relationship with the past…(and that) their histories sought to prove that their subjects had a long association with the Royal family both before and following the civil war.’
www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/edward-and-r..., accessed 17/07/2015
detail of flowers