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Webb Hatchments in Box Church
Dr Andrew CG Gray, FHS The Heraldry Society Image Librarian & Heraldry Archive Editor September 2017 In an earlier issue David Rawlings recounted the history of the Webb Family and included several references to the coat-of-arms they adopted as amended by marriage additions, some of which involved the Horlock family in Box. Now Dr Andrew Gray of the Heraldry Society has kindly contacted us with his research findings. |
The hatchment photographed by Robin Clayton in 2000 (courtesy the Heraldry Society)
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You may be interested to know that Box Church has a funeral hatchment, presumed to be for vicar Samuel Webb of Box. It was recorded in Hatchments in Britain volume 4 (1983), and photographed by Robin Clayton in 2000, above. (The hatchment was the painting of the coat of arms of an armigerous person on a piece of black-framed wood when he died. This was placed on the house front as a sign of mourning and was sometimes transferred to the church later.)
The recorders thought that the shield had been quarterly, i.e. the first and third quarters (top left and bottom left) identical to the fourth and second (bottom right and top right) respectively, but only close inspection or even the attention of a restorer could confirm this. The difficulty is that the left-hand side has been overpainted in black, for reasons we can only speculate on.
The trouble with the attribution of this hatchment to Rev Samuel Webb is that his wife survived him, and so the background should not be black on her (sinister, or right-hand) side. I also think that the style of this hatchment is much earlier than 1797, perhaps early eighteenth century. You will observe that the fourth quarter is actually Webb of Marshfield, and the second is attributed by Papworth’s Ordinary to Richmond and by Burke’s General Armory to Richmond alias Webb.
Based on your work, I would speculate that this is the hatchment of Samuel Webb of Box who married Anne Webb of Ashwick in 1728. I understand from your work that he was the vicar’s father. It would be interesting to know whether the Parish Register has a burial record for him in 1737, and whether his wife predeceased him.
I think this question is still unresolved, though as I say an inspection might help. I have extracted the current version of the description of this hatchment in our database:
Box St Thomas of Canterbury
1. All black background
Blank, impaling in chief: Per fess gules and argent a cross flory between four molets counterchanged (Richmond alias Webb), in base: Or on a bend engrailed gules three cross crosslets fitchy argent (Webb of Marshfield)
Hatchments in Britain suggested that the shield was quarterly, quarters 1 and 3 being almost completely obscured.
Crest: A tower argent
Mantling: Gules and argent
Motto: Mors janua vita
Tentatively attributed to Rev Samuel Webb, vicar of Box and Rector of Winford, who married Ann Gresley of Bristol and died in 1797 aged 63; she died 1798 or 1799; however the background and style suggest this attribution is incorrect. It may be for the vicar’s father, Samuel Webb of Box, who married Anne Webb of Ashwick in 1728 and died 1737.
(CCEd; M.I. in Winford Church; Box People and Places; General Armoury)
(The dexter half of the shield has been obscured with black paint)
The recorders thought that the shield had been quarterly, i.e. the first and third quarters (top left and bottom left) identical to the fourth and second (bottom right and top right) respectively, but only close inspection or even the attention of a restorer could confirm this. The difficulty is that the left-hand side has been overpainted in black, for reasons we can only speculate on.
The trouble with the attribution of this hatchment to Rev Samuel Webb is that his wife survived him, and so the background should not be black on her (sinister, or right-hand) side. I also think that the style of this hatchment is much earlier than 1797, perhaps early eighteenth century. You will observe that the fourth quarter is actually Webb of Marshfield, and the second is attributed by Papworth’s Ordinary to Richmond and by Burke’s General Armory to Richmond alias Webb.
Based on your work, I would speculate that this is the hatchment of Samuel Webb of Box who married Anne Webb of Ashwick in 1728. I understand from your work that he was the vicar’s father. It would be interesting to know whether the Parish Register has a burial record for him in 1737, and whether his wife predeceased him.
I think this question is still unresolved, though as I say an inspection might help. I have extracted the current version of the description of this hatchment in our database:
Box St Thomas of Canterbury
1. All black background
Blank, impaling in chief: Per fess gules and argent a cross flory between four molets counterchanged (Richmond alias Webb), in base: Or on a bend engrailed gules three cross crosslets fitchy argent (Webb of Marshfield)
Hatchments in Britain suggested that the shield was quarterly, quarters 1 and 3 being almost completely obscured.
Crest: A tower argent
Mantling: Gules and argent
Motto: Mors janua vita
Tentatively attributed to Rev Samuel Webb, vicar of Box and Rector of Winford, who married Ann Gresley of Bristol and died in 1797 aged 63; she died 1798 or 1799; however the background and style suggest this attribution is incorrect. It may be for the vicar’s father, Samuel Webb of Box, who married Anne Webb of Ashwick in 1728 and died 1737.
(CCEd; M.I. in Winford Church; Box People and Places; General Armoury)
(The dexter half of the shield has been obscured with black paint)
Andrew is the Image Librarian & Heraldry Archive Editor for the Heraldry Society http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/
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63 New Road, London E1 1HH