Monument to William Cheyne, 2nd Viscount Newhaven (d. 1728).
and his Wife Gertrude nee Pierrepont (c. 1663 d.1732).
St Mary the Virgin Church, Drayton
Beauchamp, Buckinghamshire.
Circa 1732/3.
Designed? and made in the Westminster workshop of Henry Cheere.
The monument is inscribed by William Woodman.
The monument to Viscount Newhaven was erected on the instructions of Gertrude Cheyne after the death of her husband, who was the last of his line in 1732/3. He left everything to his wife.
Matthew Craske in his excellent Silent Rhetoric of the Body. pub Yale 2007, makes a strong case for the statue to be returned to its original position and states"it is clearly one of the great portrait statues of this period. I can only agree.
I only hope my photographs posted here do it justice.
Craske also makes the point that the figure of Gertrude is very close to later mourning female figures by Louis Francois Roubiliac who it appears was either carving in the workshop of Henry Cheere or sub contracting to him in the 1730/40s.
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Gertrude Pierrepont was the sister of Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull (1665 - 1726)
Gertrude Pierrepont married William Cheyne 2nd Viscount of Newhaven 6 May 1680, at Saint Luke's Parish Church, Chelsea, London.
For the excellent and fairly in depth investigation into this monument see The Silent Rhetoric.. by Matthew Craske. pub. Yale 2007. See particularly the footnotes page 476/77. I cannot recommend this excellent work highly enough to anyone interested in 18th Century sculpture and Church Monuments!
The London Evening Post 4 March 1732 records "A curious monument is making by Mr Cheere which will shortly be put up in the Parish Church of Drayton Beauchamp in the County of Bucks of the late Viscount Cheyne". ... the contract for the monument was signed 11 December 1731.
The Will of Lady Newhaven PCC 1732 158. is dated the last week in May 1728 immediately after her husbands death .
see also - https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/03/marble-bust-of-lord-chief-justice.html
Biographical Dictionary.......... Yale 2009 references - page 258, Henry Cheere, London Evening Post, 7 March 1732 (Whinney1988 251 and 253-4). co sculptor William Woodman I.
see also Biographical Dictionary .... Pub Yale 2009. page 1406, under Woodman - this entry again references London Evening Post, 7 March 1732.
It seems that the very fine figure of Gertrude was probably added after her death. It now sits slightly uncomfortably on the plinth and overhangs by about 5 inches.
It appears that the figure was originally on a plinth and set at right angles to the monument. The church was restored in the mid? 19th Century and her statue was placed rather awkwardly on the monument to create more space -
Gertrude Cheyne nee Pierrpont died 11 June 1732.
The monument is inscribed on the plinth below the statues.
"William Lord Cheyne Vifcount Newhaven
the Last of his Ancient and Noble Family Lieth here Interrd
He lived to the Age of Seventy one years. He Died on the 26
Day of May 1728.
Beloved for Hospitality Respected for Integrity and Admired
for a well advised Zeal
for the true Interest of his Country.
To his Memory this Monument was begun to be erected by his
Widdow Devisee and Executrix
GERTRUDE Lady CHEYNE sifter to EVELYN PIERREPONT late Duke
of Kingfton.
Forty and Eight years They lived together in Wedlock in a
conftant Emulation of Acts of
Tendernefs and Friendfhip towards each other the only Strife
they ever knew.
Her Social Vertues added luftre to her Birth Her Piety and
Charity were precepts to the World
as well as proofs of her Chriftianity.
She Survived her Lord four years Dying the 11th day of Iune
1732 Aged Sixty nine years
Mrs GERTRUDE TOLHURST her Faithfull Kinswoman
as my Lady stiles her in her Will in which fhe is appointed
her Devifee and Executrix
caufed the statue of her Ladyfhip to be added to the
Monument.
She soon after gave the Strongeft and Alas a fatall Mark of
her Gratitude and Affection.
Grief for the Lofs of her Benefactrefs her Relation her
friend put an end to her Life
on the 17th Day of Iuly 1732 five Weeks after the Death of
my Lady.
She alfo is here Depofited".
It seems that Gertrude Tolhurst committed suicide shortly after
............................
The monument is inscribed by William Woodman - but it is a
moot point whether it was the father or son who carved it.
William Woodman I (d. 1731?).
William Woodman II (d. 1741).
The Cheyne monument is a very fine monument which I wasn't aware of until
very recently.
...................
of Tangential interest -The Monument to Nicholas Monck - by William Woodman in Westminster Abbey.
Nicholas, was the third son of Sir Thomas Monck, was born about
1609 and died 17 December 1661. He married Susanna Payne and had two daughters.
The Latin inscription on his monument in St Edmund's chapel (which gives a
wrong date of death) can be translated:
"In this chapel lies the body of the late Reverend Father in
Christ Nicholas Monck, D.D., who was sometime Provost of Eton College,
afterwards Bishop of Hereford; the most endeared brother to the most noble
George Monck, Duke of Albemarle, Earl of Torrington, and Baron Monck of
Potheridge; and was the chief and most successful assistant with him in that
glorious Restoration of King Charles II, and the Church of England. He died 11
December 1661, closing, alas, too hastily, his course, at the opening of his 51st
year. Christopher Rawlinson, of Cark in the county of Lancaster, Esquire, hath
this lasting memory of his most worthy ancestor, devoutly erected this
monument, 1723".
see - https://www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/george-and-nicholas-monck#:~:text=The%20sculptor%20was%20William%20Woodman,Further%20Reading
William Woodman I. Attributed Drawings:
Design for a monument to Sir Robert Clayton, his wife and
infant son, c1703: HMI/Leeds City Art Galleries, 1999.0008 (Leeds 2001, 12,
repr);
Design for a
cartouche monument, VAM D.1100-98;
Design for the monument to Lady Brownlow, †1700, at Sutton,
Surrey, VAM D.1104-98;
Design for a monument with a standing figure of a man in
chancellor’s robes, D.1105-98; unfinished design for a monument, VAM D.1113-98;
Monument design based on S Gribelin, A Book of Ornaments,
1700, pl 1, VAM D.1139-98;
Design for a monument to Lady Roberts, †1690, at St Mary by
Bow, London, VAM E.959-1965
see -
https://gunnis.henry-moore.org/henrymoore/sculptor/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=3019
They say -
"The Viscount is a relatively stiff reclining figure in
state robes, reminiscent of effigies carved at the turn of the 18th century by
Grinling Gibbons. He lies on a sarcophagus and behind him is a pyramid.
By contrast his wife’s effigy, seated at his feet, is posed
in a vital, informal manner and carved with extraordinary skill.
The monument was probably commissioned soon after Newhaven’s
death in 1728, but the remarkable image of Lady Newhaven appears to have been
added after her death in 1732, by which time Woodman I had also died".
"It was probably carved by Henry Cheere??. Here is where I diverge with the writer of
the Henry Moore Inst entry - given what we
know about Cheere and subcontracting - whilst there is no argument regarding
the skills of Henry Cheere as a designer and astute business man I can see no
reason why the figure of Lady Newhaven cannot be attributed to William Woodman
II or much more likely another and more accomplished sculptor (LFR? van Spangen etc).
Rupert Gunnis noted that this ‘remarkable’ memorial in its
rarely-visited church ‘is one of the most outstanding monuments in
England’."
I think Gunnis might have been prone to exaggerating a little here. Perhaps he had been to the pub!
Nevertheless I would say the figure of Lady Newhaven is obviously by a different and much more accomplished hand but sits rather uncomfortably overlapping the plinth on which the
reclining figure of the Viscount lies.
For a useful biography of Viscount Newhaven see -
https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/cheyne-hon-william-1657-1728
................
The Woodman Inscription.
In the Nicholas family Chapel in Winchester Cathedral is a monument by the first William Woodman to Warden Nicholas of 1711.
........................
The Barnard Monument, Shipbourne, Kent.
Pevsner says designed by James Gibbs.
I had recently had a request to look at the Barnard Monument in the Vane Chapel at Shipbourne, Kent. which has previously been ascribed to Rysbrack (Silent Rhetoric ...Craske).
The pose of the figure of Lady Vane has distinct similarities with that of Gertrude Cheyne at Drayton Beauchamp.
The monument was erected in the newly constructed church before Lord Barnard's death. Barnard had been involved in a bitter legal dispute with both of his sons about their inheritances. and he probably put up the monument in his own lifetime because he calculated that his son would be unwilling to do it after his death, such was the bad blood between them.
The inscription plate was left blank until the 1930s when the present inscription was added (probably replicating what had been intended by Lord Barnard) which does not mention either sons.
Note -
St Giles Church at Shipbourne was rebuilt in 1721-22 and
again in 1880-81 at the expense of Edward Cazalet of Fairlawne. It is an estate
church at the centre of the village and estate of Fairlawne.
............................
https://bathartandarchitecture.blogspot.com/2019/03/
For more on the Henry Cheere Monuments with a focus on Winchester see -
https://georgiangroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/GGJ_2015_05_Smith.pdf
..........................
Another Monument of Tangential Interest.
The Monument to Frances Lady Page, and her husband Francis Page -The Hanging Judge.
Steeple Ashton, Oxfordshire.
c. 1730 - 32.
Henry Scheemakers (1686 - 1748) and his sometime partner Henry Cheere.
The poet Richard Savage, over whose trial for murder he
presided Savage wrote of him:
"Of heart impure and impotent of head,
In history, rhetoric, ethics, law unread;
How far unlike such worthies, once a drudge –
From floundering in law causes – rose a judge;
Formed to make pleaders laugh, his nonsense thunders,
And on low juries breathes contagious blunders;
His brothers blush, because no blush he knows,
Nor e’er one uncorrupted finger shows".
..........................
The Monument to Robert Bertie, Duke of Ancaster at Edenham Church is inscribed by both Henry Cheere and Henry Scheemakers.
For the Edenham monuments see -
.................
Hennry Cheere (1703 - 1781 ) A Few Biographical Notes.
Born in Clapham eldest son of Merchant John Cheere (d. 1756). Brother of John Cheere.
Henry Cheere was apprenticed to Robert Hartshorn in 1718 and set up independently in 1726 when he had acquired two premises in St Margaret's Lane, Westminster.
He appears to have been in some sort of partnership with Henry Scheemakers (d 1748) by 1727 who had an adjacent workshop in St Margarets Lane. The Westminster ratebooks list Mr Skymaker at St Margarets Lane
Ref. Henry Scheemakers in 1727, John van Nost
II apprenticed his son John van Nost III to him at a fee of £40.
In July 1733 Henry Scheemakers had a sale of his possessions before
departing forever to France where he worked on the Chateaus of Dampierre and St
Cloud.
Henry Cheere married in or before 1730, Helen, daughter of Sauvignon Randall. She died in Oct. 1769, and was buried (with several of her
children) at Clapham,
Surrey.
He is mentioned as
"cousin" in the will of Sir
John Chardin, Baronet
[so. cr. 1720], dated 18 July
1747.
Elected in 1750 as Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.
He was
Knighted 10 Dec.1760, on presenting an address to the King on his accession, being at that
time a Deputy-Lieut, of Middlesex.,
He was created Baronet, 19 July 1766.
He died at St. Margaret's, Westminster and was buried 29 Jan. 1781, at Clapham, aged 77.
He left a large fortune to
the two daughters of his brother Charles Cheere, who was bur.
14 Sep. 1799,
at Clapham, aged
64. One of
these married in
1789, Charles Madryll, of Papworth, Cambridgeshire, who, subsequently, took the name of Cheere.
