Some designs of Funeral Monuments by James Gibbs of 1728

 

This post is was created as an aide memoire.

Images from

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

Posted in order to make swift comparisons with the monuments of Henry Cheere many of which were derived from these engravings.

Plate 123.

Plate 124.

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 nstituted 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.

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The Monument to Jane Rodney nee Compton. (1730 - 57). 

Old Alresford, Hampshire.

Two very fine Monuments from the workshop of Henry Cheere at Christchurch Cathedral, Oxford.

 

Bishop George Berkeley (1685 - 1753).

Bishop George Berkeley was an Irish philosopher and Anglican bishop who is best known for his theory of "immaterialism," which argues that only minds and their ideas exist. He criticized the foundations of calculus and proposed a new theory of vision. Berkeley died in Oxford, England, in 1753.

The Monument is inscribed -

GRAVISSIMO PRAESULI GEORGIO EPISCOPO CLONENSI. VIRO Seu Ingennii et Eruditionis laudem Seu Probitatis et Beneficentiae Spectemus, Inter primos omnium artatum numerando, Si Amans partriae. Viroque nominee gloriari potes BERKLEIVM vixiffe. Obiit Annum agens Septuagefimum tertium Natus Anno Chrifti MDCLXXLX ANNA conjux L.M.P

 

Translation -

 MOST REVERED PRELATE GEORGE, BISHOP OF CLON. A MAN Whether we consider his genius and learning, Or his integrity and kindness, To be numbered among the foremost of all men, Was a lover of his country. And a man who was able to take pride in Having lived with BERKELY He died in his sixty-seventh year, Born in the year of Christ 1685. ANNA his wife Placed this stone In memory.

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The Monument to Henry Aldrich (1648 - 1710).

The Portrait Relief within the rondel is inscribed underneath H Cheere Fect.

Inscribed 1732.

Henry Cheere

A relatively early production from the Westminster workshop of Henry Cheere - production commenced in 1728 with the loose partnership of Henry Scheemakers (1700 - 48)

Aldrich was educated at Westminster School under Dr Richard Busby. In 1662, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and in 1689 was made Dean in succession to the Roman Catholic John Massey, who had fled to the Continent. In 1692, he became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford until 1695. 

In 1702, he was appointed Rector of Wem in Shropshire, but continued to reside at Oxford, where he died on 14 December 1710. He was buried in Christ Church Cathedral without any memorial, at his own request.

The medallion portrait memorial was erected to his memory in 1732.

The question for me is - Although it is inscribed - did Henry Cheere actually carve this relief?

The design and carving is exceptional.

The Monuments by Henry Cheere in St Mary the Virgin Church at Arlingham, Gloucestershire.

 

Neither of these monuments are listed in the Biographical Dictionary of British Sculptors pub. Yale 2009, but both can be confidently ascribed to the workshop of Henry Cheere on stylistic grounds.

The Monument to Charles Yate, died 1738.

From the workshop of Henry Cheere.

For a comparable Mural Monument see -

The Gurnell Monument, St Mary's Church, Perivale.

post 1748.

 John Gurnell, d.1748, aged 36 and his wife Ann [Harrison] Gurnell, d.1750 aged 38.

 Merchant of Throckmorton St London and Anne daughter of John Harrison Lord of the Manor of Greenford Parva or Perivale.

see my recent post for the Cheere use of the Central Urn on the floor standing monument to George Clarke and Doddington Grevile at All Souls Chapel, Oxford.

https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2025/08/some-monuments-in-all-souls-college.html

 Image below courtesy -

 http://www.speel.me.uk/chlondon/perivalech.htm

The Monument at Edenham to the Berties has the central urn surrounded by 6 busts the urn sits on a sarcophagus with typical Cheere hairy paw feet.

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The Monument to John Yate at Arlingham - died 1758.

Workshop of Henry Cheere.

The use of the central relief coloured marble veneers and shaped apron with supporting carved brackets is used by Cheere with variations on several monuments

including that to Lucy Skipwith at St Wilfred's Church, Metheringham, where the relief is almost duplicated.

see the monuments at Chalgrove, Oxfordshire, Winchester Cathedral, Old Alresford,

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

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The Monument to Lucy Skipwith at Metheringham - 1765.