Relhan Collection : 262 Milton, church. Brass to William (d.1553) and Alice Coke

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>Clay (1869) describes a brass in the pavement that was previously on top of a table tomb near the altar, where Cole drew and described it. It bears the effigies of a judge and his wife, with 2 sons and 3 daughters, his arms, helmet and crest. William Coke the judge wears his judicial robes over civilian clothes with a legal headdress of linen or silk, and his wife Alice is dressed for the time of Queen Mary, her loose dress with puffed and slashed sleeves. The three girls are dressed alike and in the same style as their mother, and the 2 boys have page-boy haircuts and long gowns like their father. There is an inscription in separate border brass round the edge, with the symbols of the evangelists at the four corners. By Bell’s time (1883) the brass was on the floor of the Sanctuary on the N side of the altars. The inscriptions and symbols of the evangelists survive. William Coke, 5 children and Alice, are recorded but not the date of death of Alice,who had the brass made. Coke was a local man, believed born in Chesterton, who acted as steward of that manor and of several others belonging to Cambridge colleges. A successful legal career enabled him to purchase the manor of Milton in 1548 and to be made a Justice of the Common Pleas. He signed letters that put Lady Jane Grey on the throne for which Queen Mary imprisoned him in the Tower of London, where he soon died. The main figures are 60cm and 57cm high and the children about 15cm. The brass was made in the Fermer workshop at the beginning of Mary’s reign. The inscription asks for prayers for the soul of William and the good estate of Alice, but the tags from their mouths wisely just quote ‘<i>A people without law will fall’</i> and ‘<i>A chaste wife is a most beautiful dowry’</i>, which were harmless enough to avoid damage when religious times quickly changed.. Most of this brass is a palimpsest, with the reverse partly made of Flemish and a Cornish scrap brass in London G style. Completion of restoration work on the church included a fine display of this brass (2020).</p><p>Bell 2013; Bradley and Pevsner 2014; Clay 1869; Palmer 1932; Heseltine 1981; Lack et al 1995; Lysons 1808; ODNB 2008; Rogers in Hicks 1997</p></p>