Thomas Babington of Dethick (d. 1518) and
his
wife Edith at Ashover (Derbyshire) |
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An early-sixteenth-century alabaster tomb chest topped with
the effigies of a man and a woman is set into the east wall of
the south aisle in the parish church of Ashover (Derbyshire).
The monument commemorates the gentry couple Thomas Babington of
Dethick (d. 1518) and Edith, daughter of Ralph and Elizabeth
Fitzherbert of Norbury (Derbyshire). Thomas commissioned
the monument following Edith’s death sometime between 1511, when
the couple established a chantry chapel in the south aisle, and
Thomas’s own death in 1518. He is shown as a civilian: the
effigy wears a doublet with a standing collar above a collarless
gown with heavy folds falling to the ground. The costume is
completed by a linked chain collar which does not appear to be
associated with livery (despite Gardner’s suggestion that it
might represent an SS collar) and a belt with a purse and knife
attached to it. Edith is shown wearing an early form of the
English hood with plain lappets over a wide-necked kirtle with
tight-fitted bodice and sleeves which falls in voluminous folds
to the ground; a belt with a single clasp and a mantle complete
the ensemble.
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Probably a product of the
Burton-upon-Trent alabaster workshop of Henry Harpur and
William Moorecock, the tomb chest bares striking
similarities to other contemporary Derbyshire monuments
by the alabastermen at Great Cubley and Chesterfield.
Like these other monuments, the Ashover tomb chest
features sculpted weepers framed in twos and threes
under double canopies with elaborate crockets.
Representations of the couple’s fifteen children occupy
the long sides of the chest (the east end is currently
flush with the east wall of the south aisle). The west
panel of the tomb chest features an unusual composition:
two angels holding shields flank a central scene in
which Edith and Thomas kneel before St Katherine and a
mitred saint who raises his right hand in benediction
while his left hand holds a staff. Scrolls which would
have featured painted supplications to the saints appear
blank above the heads of the Babingtons in this atypical
example of the commemorated appearing multiple times on
their own tomb. A border inscription around the top of
the tomb chest is nearly entirely effaced.
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| The two principal effigies are painted in deep
red, dark green, and black, evidently much refreshed but
offering a rare opportunity to experience an essentially
medieval monument in the painted form which such
effigies would have originally taken. In addition to the
principal effigies, the weepers were also painted, and
substantial traces of what may be original paint survive
on the south facing panel and include blue, yellow, red,
and black pigments. The figures on the south panel
include a Knight of Rhodes (the Babingtons’ second son,
John), a priest (their sixth son, Thomas), and a figure
who may represent a lawyer (their third son, Ralph), as
well as several civilians and women.
Those holding shields — most of which appear from
surviving traces of paint to have shown the arms of
Babington impaled with others — probably represent those
children of Thomas and Edith who married. Another
thirteen figures on the north side of the chest facing
the nave may represent children who died in infancy or
childhood: the seven boys and six girls are all depicted
identically and, although fewer traces of pigment
survive on this panel, no indication of impaling is
present on the heraldic shields the boys hold. |
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Dr Kelcey Wilson-Lee
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