Relhan Collection : 255 Madingley church. Monument of child, Elizabeth Stewkeley

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>A touching memorial to Elizabeth Stewkeley, who died the day she was born in 1636, inscribed ‘<i>Afferte Rosas Virginae’</i> (‘bring roses for the young girl’). She is wrapped in swaddling clothes, protected by 2 angels and depicted in gilded alabaster and slate, with a crown inscribed ‘<i>Coronet Innocentia’</i> and a poem that begins ‘here she lies, a pretty bud’. Cole 1744 describes ‘<i>a small neat mural monument of alabaster painted and gilt, of a child between 2 angels (defaced ‘presumably by Dowsing’). </i>It is attributed to Humphrey Moyer. There are 4 slabs commemorating other Stewkeleys, an ancient farming family in Madingley, in the nave. One of these, John Stewkeley, married Agnes, widowed mother of Jane Cotton (<b>256</b>), and held the estate in his step-daughter’s minority, until Jane married Sir John Cotton of Landwade. So the baby, half-sister of the heiress of Madingley, was presumably born and died at Madingley Hall. </p><p>John Stewkeley, the child’s father, was the son of Sir Thomas Stewkeley of Hinton Ampner in Hampshire, whose first son had died at 9 days old and was buried at Hinton Ampner wrapped in a red shawl, similar to the one Relhan shows around baby Elizabeth and of which slight traces of paint remain. John Stewkeley would have grown up knowing of his brother’s tragedy and seems to have used the red shawl to sentimentally link his baby brother and daughter. Agnes died 5 years after her baby and is buried at Madingley near her child, and her widower moved back to Hampshire where he brought up another family.</p><p>Barlow A pers comm; Bradley and Pevsner 2014; Bowdler in Hicks 1997; Palmer 1932; RCHME 1968; Wilson J 2002</p></p>