North Wheatley
St Peter and St Paul

Monuments and Memorials

Floor slabs

Two memorial stones are to be found in the chancel, on the left of the altar is an alabaster slab with incised cross and a border reading:

Hic jacet Adam Haket qui obit septime KL man ano dni MCCCCLII cuis Atc ppicit Deus Ame

This memorial records the death of Adam Haket, in 1452.

On the right of the altar is a large black marble slab recording the death of the Revd Franciscus Porter, Oriel College, Oxford, MA Rector of Saundby and North Wheatley, who died in October 1678, and his wife, Margareta, who died in 1710. The inscription is in Latin. They are buried together in the nave of Saundby Church.

Roman tombstone

Attached to the north nave wall is the top portion of a Roman tombstone weighing about half a ton. There would originally have been the figure of the deceased standing in a shell-headed recess. The portion was discovered beneath the south eastern aspect of the church tower when the foundations were being prepared for the underpinning of the tower in 1928.

Brass to Edmund
Sheffield
(The photograph shows
the reverse inscription)

Inscription to Edmund Sheffield

This is a brass memorial carrying a merchant’s mark and dedicated to Edmund Sheffield, citizen and vintner of London, 1445. The plate measures 24½" by 2½" and is attached to the west wall of the nave. It has the Vitners’ mark above. It was originally in West Burton Church but was moved when that church was pulled down. There is, however, no evidence of any connection between the Sheffield family and West Burton. By will dated 19 March 1444, proved 19 February 1445:

Edmund Sheffield citizen and vintner of London, desires to be buried in the church of All Hallows, Honey Lane, London, if he dies within the city, if not where God shall will.

From this inscription it may be presumed that he died in Nottinghamshire. There are connections with Barton and Stretton in the Clay. The inscription has been slightly damaged as part of the day of his death is now incomplete, as is the word ‘Amen.’ If complete, the inscription would read as follows:

Hic jacet Edmundus Sheffield, quondam civis et Vinutari London qui obit xviii die Febrarii, anno dni, milmo ccccxlv cuius Anime ppicietur dues Amen

On the reverse of the brass is an inscription that had been cut 13 years previously. It is possible that this brass was never used according to its original intention, and simply turned over and inecribed again when the memorial to Edmund Sheffield was required. This inscription on the back reads as follows:

Hic jacet Dna Johna qndm ux Hugonis Cokesey Militis filia dni de Ffortyvale Militis q obit xxvi die Augusti Ano Mcccxxxiiicuius aie ppicietur dues. Amen.

This memorial is possibly to Joan one of the daughters and coheirs of Thomas de Nevill (brother to Ralph, first earl of Westmorland) Treasurer of England and in the right of his first wife Joane (the only daughter of William Lord Furnival), by whom he had a daughter Maud. He married secondly Ankaretta daughter of John le Strange of Blackmore (widow of Richard son of Gilbert Talbot and mother of the famous John Talbot by whom he had this daughter Joan, who married Sir Hugh Cokesey being his third wife.

The Booth Family Memorial

This was moved from inside the ruined tower of St Helen’s Church, South Wheatley to prevent further damage through falling masonry, it is mounted on the west wall of the nave. The memorial is surmounted by a coat of arms, showing the marriage of Thomas Holder and Catherine Booth: ‘A Chevron between three anchors, impaling a shield with three boar’s heads’

A translation of the Latin inscription on the tablet is as follows:

Here in this church John Booth, gentleman, and Gertrude, with their only son, John and their daughter Anna, who both died without issue, and Catherine Holder, another daughter, most loved, and the heiress if her father, along with Agnes Holder, the most dearly loved daughter of the same Catherine.

To the pious memory of these pious people, namely, John the father, and Catherine and Agnes, Thomas Holder, Knight, a most devoted husband and father, weeping, wailing, and mourning, suffering with deepest grief, has place this unworthy testimony of his gratitude, piety and love towards them.

This Catherine, the best and most beloved by all (who when she lived, all her life excelled herself in charity towards the poor, and in benignity towards all) died in London on 18th day of August 1672, on the day (as is seen on the calendar) ascribed to St Helen, the Patron of this Church, in which she was always in her prayers, the same Catherine being buried in the tomb of her parents.

And Agnes, her daughter, died with great hope and courage on 3rd day of May 1652, on the day dedicated to the memory of the happy finding of the Holy Cross by the most glorious St Helen herself.

O how sweetly God has disposed so that here both Mother and Daughter, being dead, have come to one beneath the same Patron, St Helen, in whose honour each year on the day of her death, and the death of her Mother and Daughter, the Catholic Church gives praise with great piety.

The Booths were a family of some note they feature in the marriage register of St Helen’s Church, South Wheatley from 1547 when Robert Riley marries Ann Booth. Thomas Holder and Catherine Booth were married in St Helen’s Church, South Wheatley in 1625

Sherratt Memorials

In the aisle of the nave is a memorial to William Sherrat, his son Thurston and his wife Joane 1726 -1743, of Wheatley Wood Hall.

A brass memorial on the south nave wall also commemorates the same family:

To the memory of Joseph Shearman of North and South Wheatley who died August 1st 1940 aged 76 years also of Lucy Ellen the beloved wife of the above who died March 2nd 1941 aged 73 years.

In Faith, Hope and Love