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Wall monument to Frances, Lady Finch (d. 1627)
Nicholas Stone, born 1586 - died 1647 - Enlarge image
Wall monument to Frances, Lady Finch (d. 1627)
- Object:
Wall monument
- Place of origin:
England, Great Britain (made)
- Date:
ca. 1627 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Nicholas Stone, born 1586 - died 1647 (attributed to, sculptor)
- Materials and Techniques:
Marble
- Credit Line:
Given by the Rector and Churchwardens of the Parish of Eastwell with Broughton Aluph
- Museum number:
A.185-1969
- Gallery location:
Sculpture, room 24, case WS
Lady Finch was the first wife of Sir Heneage Finch. The monument was intended by Sir Heneage to commemorate both himself and his wife, and the inscription, in Latin, was accordingly left incomplete so that the date of Sir Heneage’s death could be added. However, Sir Heneage remarried in 1629, and is separately commemorated in a monument which is displayed nearby. The Latin inscription, translated, reads:
‘To his most beloved wife Frances Daughter of Sir Edmund Bell of Beaupré Hall The best of wives, mothers and the best of womanhood, not unsuited to this century whose principles she sustained and brought with her in her own true life, those of ancient times. Moreover she left the fruits of her exceptional example for posterity.
Brief in mourning, Sir Heneage Finch serving as a lawyer and recorder to the City of London after having 11 children, seven sons and four daughters, and more than 14 years marriage whence three sons and one daughter survive with God’s protection. He erected this sepulchre of his family and to himself as she herself devised and ordained. She died on the 11 April 1627
He himself …’
Nicholas Stone was the foremost British sculptor of his day, and was trained in the Netherlands, which is probably where he learned the art of carving marble. With the onset of the Civil War in 1642 he evidently ceased working, and the sculptural tradition in Britain generally was not revived again until the late 17th century.
