Panel of stained, painted and leaded glass depicting the arms of Beaupré and Meeres. Originally from Beaupré Hall, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. England, about 1570

Across the top of the panel is a ribbon coiling round a horizontal tree stem with an inscription. Below is a frame of scrolled cartouche form, enclosing a broad shield with the impaled arms of Sir Thomas Beaupré and Margaret Meeres. Arms of Beaupré: (Beaupré) argent on a bend azure three cross crosslets or; quartering St Omer - azure a fess between six cross crosslets or. Arms of Meeres: gules a fess between three water bougeots erminy.
Painted only with iron black pigment. The crosslets are leaded into a diapered blue ground. The water bougeots are abraded through red flashed glass.

Given by Mrs L. S. Kinsman, in accordance with the wishes E. Fordham Newling

From Beaupré Hall, Wisbech, Cambs.
Probably commissioned for Beaupré Hall, Cambridgeshire by Sir Robert Bell (died 1577)
Margaret Meeres was the daughter of Sir John Meeres of Houghton, Lincolnshire. She married Thomas Beaupré (died 1471) about 1434.
Wisbech Hall was occupied by the Army during WWII but was not seriousy damaged. After the war it remained untenanted and easy to enter. At this time one of the glass panels was shattered. All 14 panels, with the consent of the owner, were removed by the Museum glazier, Mr. Collis, in August 1946. The glass was not in its original position but had been adapted to fit narrower lights. The cartouches of the larger shields were truncated at the sides, and the inscribed ribbons leaded in over the top of them are probably not in the position they should have occupied. Of the panels illustrated in Country Life, the central one in the bottom row had the shield broken at Beaupré. Panes from this and the two panels flanking it have been moved and leaded in to make nos. 68-70 approach more closely to their original design.

Beaupre Hall is a 16th century manor house built by the Beaupre family and enlarged by their successors, the Bells. The oldest part, dating from around 1500, is the central block running from south west to north east, with a wing at a north west angle. The V&A windows were located in two windows in the entrance hall and date from 1570-80. These surviving heraldic windows were probably commissioned by Sir Robert Bell. He married Dorothy Beaupre, the heiress, in 1559 and succeeded to her estate after the death of her father Edmund in 1567. Sir Robert Bell held politically important positions during his lifetime. He was Speaker of the House of Commons in 1563 and later became the Chief Baron of the Exchequer.

Object Type
Heraldry was a common feature of 16th-century domestic glazing schemes. The large dining areas were the usual setting for such displays, since it was here that the head of the family feasted with his household and guests. These eye-catching decorations not only advertised his wealth, but also proclaimed his lineage and social alliances.

Place
This is one of a series of coats of arms relating the Beaupré family history. It is thought to have been commissioned by Sir Robert Bell for Beaupré Hall, the family's ancestral home near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. Bell married Dorothy, the sole heiress of the Beaupré line, in 1559 and succeeded to the Beaupré estate following the death of Dorothy's father, Edmund, in 1567. The windows seem to date from the completion of a new great hall in around 1570, but were later moved and cut down to fit narrower lights.

People
This shield shows the arms of Thomas Beaupré (died 1471), the great-grandson of John Beaupré (whose arms are depicted in another panel from this group, museum no. C.62-1946), following his marriage around 1434 to Margaret, daughter of John Meeres of Houghton in Lincolnshire.

Heraldry
Though a man's arms were 'impaled' with those of his wife for the duration of the marriage, only his arms were traditionally passed on to children of the union. A woman's arms were only permanently incorporated into the family's heraldry if she was the sole heiress of her line. For this reason, the diagonal blue bands of Beaupré are quartered with the horizontal gold and blue bands of St-Omer, of which family Thomas's great-grandmother was the last member.

C.60-1946