Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury Part 11

=Church Plate.=--The oldest pieces of plate are two silver chalices, one dated 1576, the other 1618. There is also a paten of the latter date. A flagon weighing 54 ounces was given to the church by the bachelors and maidens of the borough in 1688, and another was given in 1724. Curiously they are both fitted with whistle-handles. There are also two cut-gla.s.s cruets, said to be of the fifteenth century.

=The Church Registers.=--These date from 1559, containing baptisms to 1598 and marriages to 1574, but are copies on parchment of an older register (on paper) now lost. Another register, on paper, dates from 1595, and contains baptisms down to 1610, marriages to 1629, and burials to 1608. Thenceforward, with few exceptions, the registers are complete. The register of baptisms, 1607-1629, contains a quaint composition:

"Lo, heare thou maiest with mortall eie beholde Thy name recorded by a mortall wighte; But if thou canst looke but spiritualie Unto that G.o.d which gives such heavenly sighte Thou maiest behold with comfort to thy soule Thy name recorded in the heavenly roule.

And therefore praie the Register of heaven To write thy name within the booke of life; And also praie thy sinns maie be forgeven, And that thou maiest flee all ceare and strife: That when thy mortall bodies shall have end, Thy soule maie to the immortal bliss ascende.

"_Per me_, GUILIELMUS PARKE, 1609."

=Arms of the Abbey.=--The arms are gules, within a border argent, a cross engrailed or, and are so given by Willis in his _Seals of Parliamentary Abbeys_, and by Tanner in _Not.i.tia Monastica_. In Sir Charles Isham's copy of the _Registrum Theokusburiae_, in a window in the choir, and also on the old organ the border is omitted. It is also a disputed point whether the Abbot was a mitred prelate or not.

Fuller, in his _Church History_, is in doubt about it, while Bishop G.o.dwin admits that some of the Abbots sat in Parliament. The Abbots, without enjoying any prescriptive right, were summoned to Parliament in the reigns of Henry III., Edward I., and Edward II., and the last Abbot (Wakeman) was certainly summoned as a mitred Abbot. It may be that the Abbot received the dignity in the time of Abbot Strensham, who died in 1481.

=Old Tiles.=--In the Founder's Chapel (1397) are some tiles containing the arms of Fitz-Hamon (a lion rampant), impaled with the arms of the Abbey, a cross engrailed, and showing the head of a crosier above the s.h.i.+eld in the centre. In the Warwick chantry there is to be seen a set of tiles with the arms of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Worcester, in whose honour the chapel was built. The arms are a fess between four crosslets with a crescent for difference. There are also some in the Trinity Chapel, showing the arms of the Despensers, impaled with those of Burghersh. Other tiles found in the church at different times give the arms of De Clare, Despenser, Berkeley, De Warrenne, De Bohun, Corbet, and De la Zouch.

ABBOTS OF TEWKESBURY.

=Giraldus= (1102-1109), previously Abbot of Cranbourn, was the first Abbot of the Benedictine foundation. Deprived by Henry I. in 1109.

=Robert I.= (1110-1124). In his time the greater part of the Abbey as it stands was finished, and dedicated in 1123.

=Benedict= (1124-1137).

=Roger= (1137-1161).

=Fromundus= (1162-1178). No new Abbot was inst.i.tuted till--

=Robert II.= (1182-1183).

=Alan= (1187-1202). His tomb is in the south ambulatory of the choir.

He was a friend of Thomas a Becket, having previously been Prior of St. Saviour's, Canterbury.

=Walter= (1202-1213), previously Sacrist of the monastery. He was succeeded by--

=Hugh= (1214), who had been the Prior. Dying in a year, his successor was Bernard, but the latter was never inst.i.tuted.

=Peter= (1216-1231) was a monk from Worcester.

=Robert Forthington= (1232-1254), or =Robert III.= had previously been Prior. A tomb ascribed to him is in the south ambulatory.

=Thomas de Stokes= (1254-1275) had been Prior of St. James, Bristol.

=Richard de Norton= (1276-1282).

=Thomas Kempsey= (1282-1328).

=John Cotes= ( -1347).

=Thomas de Legh= (1347-1361).

=Thomas Chesterton= (1361-1389).

=Thomas Parker, or Pakare= (1389-1421).

=William Bristow, or de Bristol= (1421-1442).

=John de Abingdon= (1442- ), who was probably identical with

=John de Salis, or Galys=.

=John Strensham, or Streynsham= ( -1481). He was Abbot at the time of the Battle of Tewkesbury.

=Richard Cheltenham= (1481-1509).

=Henry Beoly, or Bealy= (1509- ), was Abbot in 1526.

=John Walker= (d. 1531).

=John Wich, Wyche, or Wakeman= (1531-1539). This ecclesiastic was the last Abbot of Tewkesbury. He, unlike the Abbot of Gloucester, seems to have been in no wise unwilling to surrender his Abbey. In return he obtained a pension of 266 13_s._ 4_d._, and also the house and park at Forthampton. When, later, Gloucester was made a bishopric, he was the first bishop. He was buried at Forthampton.

FOOTNOTES:

[7] In point of actual size the Tewkesbury piers are 30 feet 8 inches high, and 6 feet 3 inches in diameter; while the piers at Gloucester are 30 feet by 6 feet. Those at Malvern are considerably less in height.

[8] This boss represents the Virgin as being present at the Table.

[9] The ball-flower here as well as that in the vestry differs from that in the neighbourhood, as there is a curious little side-twist or kink in it.

[10] Mr. W.H. St. John Hope's description of this quoted _in extenso_ in "Gloucester" (Cathedral Series) is most interesting, and should be carefully studied.

[11] Letters in brackets refer to the plan at the end.

[12] This Transept was used from 1813-17 as a temporary National School.

[13] The columns are, with the exception of one which is round, roughly hexagonal.

[14] In some plans this chapel is ascribed to St. Nicholas.

[15] The arch of this chamber shows distinct traces of fire, not mentioned in any records, and the staircase to the tower, which then communicated with this chamber, shows traces for a short distance on the stonework.

[16] The same moulding is found at Durham in the doorway from the nave into the cloisters, but there it is much mutilated; it is also found at St. Joseph's Chapel, Glas...o...b..ry, and in various forms in the West of England.

[17] It is not quite certain whether Sir Guy is actually buried here.

[18] It is generally considered to be that dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The other altar in this chapel may have been dedicated to St.

George, though the chapel of the latter was probably one of those in the nave.

[19] The dedication of this Norman chapel, like that of several others here, is not known.