The Monuments to Katherine Villiers Lewis at Chalgrove, Oxfordshire and to Anne Wyntle at Merton College Oxford by Henry Cheere.

 

The Monument to Katherine Villiers Lewis (1724 - 13 April 1756).

 Wife of the Rev John Lewis who was from 1755 Dean of Ossory in Ireland.

The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire.

 1756.

 Daughter of the Rev. George Villiers (1690 - 1748) vicar of Chalgrove he inherited the title of  Earl of Buckingham but never used it.

 They married 7 Nov 1747 at St Margaret's, Westminster.

It is perhaps no coincidence that the family home of the Villiers was at Westminster

 Mar. Lie. Pac. , 26 Oct. 1747 for John Lewis, of Dartford, Kent. Clerk. and Catherine Villiers, of St Margaret's, Westminster, both single and aged above 21.—He was elected to Oxford from St. Peter's College. Westminster, and matriculated from Christ Church 12 June 1734,' 17, as son of John of London. Esq., and was B.A.24 API. M.A. 1740-1.

 He became Rector of Dartford, Kent. ib 1747. but resigned in 1755, and was instituted Dean of Ossory, in Ireland, 24 May in the latter year. He married a second wife, and died 28 June 1783.

 Of tangential interest - the Wall paintings at Chalgrove - this monument obscures part of some very interesting 14th century wall paintings.

 https://www.oxoniensia.org/volumes/2009/oakes.pdf

 https://chalgrovechurch.org/visiting/heritage/

This is one of a small group of mural monuments of similar designs made in the workshop of Henry Cheere. see - the Monument to Dean Thomas Cheyne (d 1760), in Winchester Cathedral, the monument to Anne Wyntle at Merton College Chapel, Oxford, and the monument to Jane Rodney at Old Alresford Hampshire.

see my post - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/06/blog-post.html

The design of these monuments as are many of Cheere's monuments is derived and adapted from an engraving by James Gibbs - from

A Book of Architecture, containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments. By James Gibbs pub. 1728.

p. 115.

available on line at - https://hdl.handle.net/2027/gri.ark:/13960/t1qg6np0h?urlappend=%3Bseq=1

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The Monument to Anne Wyntle 

1750.

Merton College Chapel.

University of Oxford.

A slightly more restrained version of the design of the monuments above from the workshop of Henry Cheere.

Robert Wyntle was Warden  at Merton College - 1734 - 50.

Anne Wyntle was most likely born in Gloucester, where her brother was born in 1683. She died in August 1746 and was buried in the north transept of the chapel, her life marked by a monument on the west wall, among the most sensitive in the chapel. Her defining characteristic: that she was “the best of sisters” (sorori optimae). 

The registration of her burial was overlooked at the time and was only inserted later into the register, between the entries for Jane Sherwood in 1745 and that of her brother Robert in August 1750 (see below).

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A Book of Architecture, containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments. By James Gibbs pub. 1728.

p. 115.

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Monument to Dean Thomas Cheyne (d 1760).

Winchester Cathedral.

The Monument to Jane Rodney nee Compton. (1730 - 57). Old Alresford, Hampshire.