Church Monuments Society

Originally on the north wall of the chancel of the Norman church, this wall monument is a lucky survival of Victorian church re-building in the 1840s and 1850s. Almost left to its fate in the rubble of the old church, it was recovered but nevertheless banished to the shadows of the west galleries of the new church, before being rescued and set up on the east wall of the north aisle, where it remains today.

In the latest revision of Pevsner’s Hampshire we are beguiled by the introduction to this monument, “At Andover something significant is taking place. The effigy of the husband (d.1611) is seated frontally, and only the others kneel” (Bullen et al 2010, 45). Quite what the writer thought was significant is not vouchsafed to us, for the entry in the gazetteer is typically short and bland. Even so, something significant is taking place here. At first sight, this monument appears to show husband, wife and their six children. But not all is what it seems.

Credit must first be given to Martin Coppen, a retired Church of England priest and local historian, who has done much to disentangle the story behind this monument (Coppen 2016). Through his work we learn that Kemis was the Lady Ann’s third husband, and that the children shown as kneelers on the monument were the offspring of her first marriage, to Thomas Owen, the son of Sir Henry Owen and Doroathey, who was sister of Thomas West, ninth baron de la Warr. Thomas Owen died later in the 1500s at an unknown date, but sometime after 1587 when their youngest child was born. Whereupon Ann married Sir William West, who died 30 December 1595, but they left no children.

Richard Kemis married Ann de la Warr in 1596 or later, but there is no record of their marriage nor of Ann’s death, although she is known to have been still alive in 1607-8. Their marriage produced no children. For reasons unknown to us, Ann retained her former formal title as Ann (de) Lawarr even after her marriage to Kemis, and is named as such both on the monument and in Kemis’ will. This suggests that Lady Ann had almost certainly predeceased him, and that the monument was erected by her grieving husband, sometime between 1608 and 1611 (Coppen 2016, 6). Kemis himself died 6 October 1611, then some fifty years old.

Much of the information concerning this monument is contained in Kemis’ will, especially so about his step-children. The monument carries eight figures. On the left, seated and holding a skull is Richard Kemis, beside a prie dieu that unusually is turned sideways to the viewer. Facing Richard is his wife, Ann, and her six children by her first husband, Thomas Owen, all kneeling on cushions. Ann is dressed in the latest fashionable costume of the turn of the sixteenth-seventeenth century, particularly so in her headgear, a bon grace. She is depicted with hers hanging down her back, many others of this period are shown with it folded over the wearer’s head. Behind her are her two sons, Thomas Owen b.1574 and William b.1581. Next are her daughters: Jane b.1570, Elizabeth b.1572, Mary b.1587 and Joyce whose birthdate is unknown but is recorded as having married Edward Abat in 1601 in Andover. The four daughters all have a swept-up hairstyle that, alongside the bon grace headdress, is often seen amongst figure work on funeral monuments of this period.

The youngest daughter wears a little hat and is further differentiated by having an open top to her dress, showing her undershirt. The depiction of this small hat is quite unusual, with very few parallels known, one such being the monument of Katherine Hart (d.1605) in All Saints church, Fulham, London.[1] Challe Hudson and Ninya Mikhaila identify the hat as a miniature version of the capotain, similar to that in a portrait by Nicholas Hilliard dated to 1602.[2]

At the centre of the monument is a plaque with a lengthy inscription (see below for a transcript) that is flanked by heraldic displays. This may well have been added or at least altered or ammended after Lady Ann had died, and possibly also after Kemis was dead. It is notable that whilst the heraldic plaques behind the figures show the co-joined heraldic achievements of Lady Ann’s two previous marriages, Kemis’ and her marriage is not thus presented. His arms are shown at top and bottom of the setting.

HERE LYETH THE LADYE ANN LAWARR, FIRST WYFE OF THOMAS OWEN ESQ., 2⁰ OF THE RIGHT HONORABLE S^R WILLIAM WEST LORD LAWARR, ON WHOSE RIGHT HAND LYETH HIR MOTHER ELIZABETH THE WYFE OF HENERY SWIFT ESQ., & ON HIR LEFT HAND LYETH RIC: KEMISH GENT, HIR LAST HVBAND WHOE GAVE TO THIS TOWNE 400^£ TO PVCHASE 20^A LAND FOR THE PPETVALL PAYMENT OF 5^£ TO A LECTURE 5£ TO THE FREE SCHOLE 5^£ IN A DOLE OF BREAD WEEKLY & 5^£ TO THE POORE EVEREY GOOD FRIDAY.

LEGE, RECORADABLE, FAC SIMILE (Read, Be mindful, Do similarly)

Kemis wrote in his will that he desired to have an entirely separate memorial to his memory to be erected in the church, ‘a piece of brass to be framed and sett in the Walle at the ende of the Chauncell on the right hande of the pulpitt there opposite against the dore that leads from the middle aisle of the bodie of the Churche into the said Chauncell’. As Coppen observed, Kemis clearly understood this was to be his own main memorial. No such memorial was to be seen in 1819 by William Hensley (Hensley 1819). Which leads us to ask, why is his seated effigy on the monument? Looking closely, we can observe that the figure of Lady Ann is larger and higher than that of Kemis; moreover there is no eye contact between the pair. It seems possible that the figure of Kemis was intruded into the setting sometime after his death, likely by his friends and relatives in Andover. A reason for this is not hard to discover. Kemis was one of the most significant benefactors in the history of Andover, leaving very generous bequests to both the town and its people, as well as elsewhere in Hampshire. Many of these are recorded on the smaller plaques set into the base of the setting. One thing is for certain, none of his step-children would have been minded to honour Kemis, who in his will recalled their, ‘disobedience, unthankfulness and malicious unkindness’. Nevertheless he forgave them all the debts owing to him at the time of his death. Coppen closes his account by saying, ‘There can be little doubt that his motivation was the practical application of his faith to the difficult relationship. Knowing that he himself was a forgiven sinner enabled him to forgive them and leave them unencumbered by their debt to him. The monetary value of such generosity cannot now be reckoned’ (Coppen 2016, 18).

The tinctures on the monument were noted in the Victoria County History of Hampshire, ‘All the armory appears to have been repainted with the usual disastrous results’. It is probable that the monument has been ‘refreshed’ in the intervening years, but there is no record of when or by whom this might have been done.

The monument is 1280mm wide by 1950mm high.

Nicholas Riall

TNA PROB 11/118/350, Will of Richard Kemis, gentleman of Andover, 8 November 1611.

Portsmouth History Centre, 179A/1/14.

Hensley, W, Monumental Inscriptions in the Churches of Hampshire made at the request of Sir Thos. Phillips, Jun-Oct 1819.

Bullen, M, Crook, J, Hubbuck, R and Pevsner, N, 2010, Hampshire: Winchester and the North, New Haven and London.

Coppen, M, 2016, The Monument to Lady Ann Lawarr and Richard Kemis in St Mary, Andover, Hampshire, Maryacre Publishing, Andover.

Victoria Country History, 1911, Hampshire, vol 4, London.

[1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/sheepdog_rex/17104862329/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capotain#/media/File:Nicholas_Hilliard_012.jpg

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