Image: Brass PhilipTilney (died 1453) LincolnCathedral Drawn by WilliamSedgwick

Description: Monumental brass formerly in Lincoln Cathedral of Philip Tilney (d.1453) of Boston, Lincolnshire and of Ashwell Thorpe in Norfolk. Dressed as a monk. Drawn by William Sedgwick, an assistant to William Dugdale (1605-1686). His illustrations (contained in BL Add. MS 71474) remain the only known record of the memorial brasses formerly existing in that Cathedral. Philip Tilney (d.1453) married Isabel Thorpe (d.1436), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edmund Thorpe of Ashwell Thorpe in Norfolk. Their grand-daughter was w:Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey (c.1445-1497), the first wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. The arms of Thorpe and Tilney are quartered by the Howard family. Description by Blomefield The brass is recorded by Blomefield (History of Norfolk, 1806) as follows (Francis Blomefield, 'Hundred of Depwade: Thorp', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 5 (London, 1806), pp. 142-163 [1]): Sir Edmund Thorpe (of Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk) left two daughters his coheiresses; Joan Thorpe, who married Sir Robert Echingham, Knt. and after to Sir John Clifton of Bukenham Castle, Knt. but on failure of issue according to the entail, the estate of the Thorps vested in her sister Isabel Thorpe, who married Phillip Tilney of Boston in Lincolnshire, Esq. and they kept their first (manorial) court in 1436, in which year she died, and lies interred under a marble with a brass circumscription in Thorp's chapel (in Lincoln Cathedral?), with the arms of Tilney, Argent, a chevron between three griffin's heads erased gules impaling Thorp (Azure, three crescents argent), quartering Bainard/Baynard (Sable, a fess between two chevrons or), and her effigies. Isabel's brass was inscribed: Hic jacet Isabella que fuit Uxor Phillippi Tilney, Armigeri, una Filiarum et Heredum Edmundi Thorp Militis et Domine Johanne quondam Domine de Scales, Consortis sue, que obiit decimo die Mensis Novembris, Anno Domini MCCCCXXXVI cuius animae propicietur Deus Amen.After her death, her husband retired from the world, took on him a religious habit, and turned secular canon, and was admitted to St. Butolph's prebend in Lincoln Cathedral, where he was buried in 1453; the arms of Tilney impaling Thorp, quartering Bainard, are on his grave-stone there, inscribed: Hic j'cet Philipus Tilney, Canonicus et Residentiarius Ecclesiae Cathedralis Beate Marie Lincoln: nuper Armiger; Filius Frederici Tilney Armigeri, Filii Philippi Tilney Militis, ac maritatus Isabellae uni Filiarum Edmundi Thorp de Ashwell-Thorp in Comitatu Norfolcie Militis, et Domine Johanne Domine de Scales, nuper Consortis eiusdem Edmundi qui obiit penultimo die Mensis Octobris Anno Domini MCCCCLIIIo cuius animae propicietur deus amen: For Charity.At his feet is inscribed the following verse (Blomefield, expanded using Sedgwick's drawing): Passed the Pilgrimage of this present Lyf, Resteth Sir Philip Tilney, clased in your Sight, In his yourth Esquier, and so Wedded to his Wyf, The Daughter and Heier of Edmund Thorp Knight. And Awnt to Thomas Lord Scales discended of Lyne right. Disposed him after to God's Ordinaunce, (Full noble and liberal he was to every knight ?), Couth none find in him matter of Displeasaunce, Here he lyeth buried Canon and Residentiarie, Sumtyme of Patrimony sufficient in deed, But Death, that from her Nature cannot varie, Hath ceased him by Force, and we must all succeed; Consider heer a Karrion, Wormes to feed, Aud pray for his Soul, of Peyn to have a Iysse, And doo for hym, as thou wouldest he did, at thy need, Now Jesu for thy Passion, bring hym to thy Blysse. They had three daughters, Marion, Grace, and Maud, and three sons, Hugh, Robert, and Frederick Tilney of Boston, Esq. the eldest son and heir, who inherited all the Thorps; he married Elizabeth Cheney, daughter and heir of Laurence Cheney of Cambridgeshire, Esq. and had only one daughter w:Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey (c.1445-1497), the first wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Heraldry Of the four original shields (of which three were lost as evidenced by their matrices), the only surviving one, drawn by Sedgwick, shows the arms of Thorpe quartering Baynard
Title: Brass PhilipTilney (died 1453) LincolnCathedral Drawn by WilliamSedgwick
Credit: BL Add. MS 71474, f. 95v, published in Transactions of Monumental Brass Society, Volume XIX, Part 1, 2014, Late Medieval Clerical Monuments in Lincoln Cathedral, p.34 [2]
Author: William Sedgwick
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No