Quidenham, Norfolk, UK
Church of St Andrew
Monument to Lady Catherine Crompton †1653. Alabaster. South wall of chancel. Commissioned by Sir Henry North.
The inscription is set under a low segmental pediment under another broken one, with a cartouche and coat of arms with fruit swags. At the sides are herms facing outwards (the face on the right now damaged) set above consoles, and a decorated apron.
According to the inscription Lady Catherine (b.1619), the widow of Sir Robert Crompton, was living in the house of Sir Henry North (ca.1635-1695) in Mildenhall (abbreviated to Milnall), when she died in 1653 aged 34. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Holland and one of Sir John Crompton’s (himself the second son) younger sisters. She was a considerable heiress. Her father died in 1626 and in his will left her and her sister £2,000 each when they reached 16, in her case 1635. The date of her marriage to Sir Robert Crompton, born in 1613, is not known, nor is that of his death, except that, according to the inscription, he died before his wife.
Sir Henry’s commission must date from after 1660, when he was knighted (the inscription refers to him as a knight). It was most probably prompted by his inheritance of Sir Robert and Lady Catherine’s estate in 1669. The delay of sixteen years suggests a scenario. This was the time that Lady Catherine had to wait before she came into her inheritance. She may well have died, as so often at this time, in child birth, while staying with the youthful Sir Henry. Her daughter would have come into her inheritance in 1669, the year she died, leaving him to inherit. He went on to marry Sarah Rayney, whose death in 1671 prompted his suicide.
(www.rgcrompton.info/origins/1600info5, accessed 29 March 2016 gives the date of his death as around 1669);Chris Kyle, ‘Holland, Sir Thomas (c.1578-1626), of Quidenham, Norf.’, in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010, both accessed 29 March 2016
Quidenham, Norfolk, UK
Church of St Andrew
Monument to Lady Catherine Crompton †1653. Alabaster. South wall of chancel. Commissioned by Sir Henry North.
The inscription is set under a low segmental pediment under another broken one, with a cartouche and coat of arms with fruit swags. At the sides are herms facing outwards (the face on the right now damaged) set above consoles, and a decorated apron.
According to the inscription Lady Catherine (b.1619), the widow of Sir Robert Crompton, was living in the house of Sir Henry North (ca.1635-1695) in Mildenhall (abbreviated to Milnall), when she died in 1653 aged 34. She was the daughter of Sir Thomas Holland and one of Sir John Crompton’s (himself the second son) younger sisters. She was a considerable heiress. Her father died in 1626 and in his will left her and her sister £2,000 each when they reached 16, in her case 1635. The date of her marriage to Sir Robert Crompton, born in 1613, is not known, nor is that of his death, except that, according to the inscription, he died before his wife.
Sir Henry’s commission must date from after 1660, when he was knighted (the inscription refers to him as a knight). It was most probably prompted by his inheritance of Sir Robert and Lady Catherine’s estate in 1669. The delay of sixteen years suggests a scenario. This was the time that Lady Catherine had to wait before she came into her inheritance. She may well have died, as so often at this time, in child birth, while staying with the youthful Sir Henry. Her daughter would have come into her inheritance in 1669, the year she died, leaving him to inherit. He went on to marry Sarah Rayney, whose death in 1671 prompted his suicide.
(www.rgcrompton.info/origins/1600info5, accessed 29 March 2016 gives the date of his death as around 1669);Chris Kyle, ‘Holland, Sir Thomas (c.1578-1626), of Quidenham, Norf.’, in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629, ed. Andrew Thrush and John P. Ferris, 2010, both accessed 29 March 2016