[40139] Flitton - De Grey Mausoleum : 6th Earl of Kent

St John the Baptist, Flitton, Bedfordshire.

The De Grey Mausoleum.

Monument (detail) to Henry Grey, 6th Earl of Kent (1541-1614/15) & his wife Mary (1541-1580).

An alabaster monument with two recumbant figures on a tomb chest.

 

Here lieth the body of the most noble vertuous and worthy peere Henry Earle of Kent Lord Hastings, Welsford and Ruthyn. Lieutenant of the County of Bedford; ever loyall to his prince assured to his country, kinde to his friends loving to all good men and charitable to the poore. the first erector and founder of this chappell who deceased the 31 of January 1614.

 

Mary one of the daughters of Sir George Cotton of Combermere in ye county of Chester knight; first espoused to Edward Earle of Derby (after to this Henry Earle of Kent), who deceased the 16 of November in the yeare of our Lord God 1580 and lieth buried at Great Gaddesden in the County of Hertford in tender affection & good respect of which lady. The said Earle of Kent her husband caused this remembrance to be made for her.

 

Among the largest sepulchral chapels attached to any English church, this cruciform mausoleum houses a remarkable sequence of 17 sculpted and effigied monuments, spanning nearly two and a half centuries (1614-1859), to the De Grey family of Wrest Park.

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