Knowle near Bristol (Avon)
The Holy Nativity Church. (Church of England). Father Henry de Colsell Wingfield III (b. Keynsham, 1861, grandson of Henry Wingfield, the founder of the famous rowing race, the Wingfield Sculls), was vicar here 1835-1913. A 1913 statue of him stands in the church tower. [See WFS Newsletter, XVIII, 3, p.26].
Ampthill (Bedfordshire)
Near the church stood (1829-1953) the mansion of Sir Anthony Wingfield (1857-1952), Ampthill Park. The north and south windows of the Middle Gothic church [c.1175-1275] are memorials to members of the Powerscourt cadet line of Ampthill Wingfields: East: the son and two daughters of Mrs. Sophia Wingfield (three of the representatives of the orders of angels in the upper part of the window are portraits). Principalities: Captain Granville Foulis Wingfield, angels honor Emily and Isabella Wingfield. South: in memory of Mrs. Wingfield: three large figures in the three lights represent the patron saints of the three dioceses in which she lived: St. Albans, St. Helen’s and St. Elfrida.
Bromham (Bedfordshire)
The Wingfield Chapel in the church was built in 1868 by the 4th Baron Dynevor “of Bromham” of Barrington Park (d. 1869) in memorial to his eldest daughter, Frances Emily Wingfield nee Rice-Trevor who died in 1863 aged 37 and her husband, Captain Edward Folliott Wingfield, 2nd Life Guards, my great great grandfather (1823-1865).
Windsor (Berkshire)
The window in the apse in the NNE of the parish church has a window dedicated to the memory of Mary Alicia Wingfield (1786-1873). Possibly Mary Alicia Wingfield III of Alderton (Shropshire).
Windsor (Berkshire)
At St. George’s Chapel, the Knights of the Garter Chapel, an awe-inspiring cathedral in all but name. Here are the Garter stalls and plates (coats of arms) – on the north side – of Sir Richard Wingfield, diplomat and general (installed in 1523 – the year that Henry VIII composed “Lady Winkfield’s Ground” in honor of Lady Wingfield nee Bridget Wiltshire (see Stone), Sir Richard’s wife, on the occasion of the visit to Greenwich by the Holy Roman Emperor. Sir Richard died in 1525. He was the grandfather of Captain Edward Maria Wingfield (1550-1631) the founding father of Jamestown, Virginia (1607) – (see Kimbolton). Another Garter Plate – on the south side of the stalls – is that of Sir Richard’s nephew, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Comptroller and Captain of the Guard for Henry VIII (who presided in that last post at King Henry’s funeral here in 1547 and died himself in 1552). Sir Anthony was installed on May 22, 1541 with the Earl of Surrey (who he subsequently had to arrest). The arms of these two Wingfields appear as bosses in the roof (but I have never managed to locate them).
Fotheringhay (Cambridgeshire)
In the porch is a board with details of the mother and stepfather (from 1558/62) of Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, founding father of Jamestown, Virginia (1607), Margaret Crews aka Cruwys formerly Wingfield and James Crews. In the church are various historical display boards, one of which mentions Sir Robert Wingfield III of Upton as being present in 1587 at the execution of Mary Queen of Scots just across the road. He was an observer on behalf of his uncle, the great Lord Burghley. Edward Maria Wingfield’s mother and her second husband, his stepfather, James Cruwys, lived in Fotheringhay College House, which adjoined the church on the bank of the south, with wonderful views out across the River Nene. Just 100 yards east of the church stood the double-moated Fotheringhay Castle – the site is marked. [WFS Newsletter, I, :2, 1987]. (Robert was 3rd cousin of Thomas Wingfield of York River, Virginia, 1680).
Gulval (Cornwall)
The Rev. William W. Wingfield of the Wingfield Digby Wingfield line was Vicar here, for seventy-four years (from 1839-1913): a record. He apparently went to Cornwall for health reasons, so it certainly did the trick!
Orsett (Essex)
There is a monument here to Elizabeth nee Wingfield (of Blake Hall, Essex, 1790, wife of John Baker, formerly Lady St. Aubyn (wife of the Sir John St. Aubyn, Baronet, of Clowance, Cornwall and later of St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall, married at St. James’, Westminster). [WFS Newsletter, XIX, 1, p.8].
South Weald (Essex)
Here is a 1616 brass to Elizabeth Wingfield, wife of Richard Saunders, died 14 May 1616 aged 76—so born 1540. [N&Q, April 3 1888 and Links, #9. 3 – where the date of birth reads 1530 in error. This brass was omitted from the WFS Newsletter article in Summer and Autumn 1994, 14 Family Brasses. Add as #15 and see Ipswich, St. Stephen’s (above), for # 16].
Stone (Kent)
St. Mary’s church, Stone, near Dartford. the Wingfields’ “Stone Castle”. President Edward Maria Wingfield’s grandmother, Lady Wingfield nee Bridget Wiltshire of Stone Castle, was raised in Calais (now France). Her father Sir John Wiltshire, was Comptroller of Calais 1502-1519. He died in 1526 and has an imposing monument in the Wylshire aka Wiltshire Chantry in the church. Henry VIII stayed twice at Stone Castle with Bridget’s family, together with Anne Boleyn before they were married.
Market Bosworth (Leicestershire)
There is a Wingfield window here.
Stamford (Lincolnshire)
In All Saints’ Church there is a Wingfield Chapel referred to in “Our Past” (1900), but no mention of it is in the church guidebook today. It can only refer to the side aisle. Why it was so called we do not know, but there must surely be some Tickencote Wingfield connection.
Stamford (Lincolnshire)
In St. Martin’s, the Stamford church nearest to the George Hotel, stands the grand tomb of the parents of the great Lord Burghley in the northeast corner. At its base are 2-foot-tall colored marble effigies of their children, including Elizabeth Cecil. She became Elizabeth Wingfield in the 1570s when she married Robert Wingfield (later Sir RW II), Member of Parliament and had a substantial sheep farm at nearby Upton.
London, Lambeth
On a marble gravestone in the chancel is: “In memory of Thomas Poole who married Elizabeth, one of the heirs of Roger Wingfield of Great Dunham in Norfolk. He died 13 Feb. 1609.” His wife was buried in St. Giles inthe Fields, London, in 1626.
London, Richmond
In St. Mary Magdalene’s Church (on top of the hill) there is a large, unlit, dark and fading Latin memorial on the south wall of the Chancel to Martha nee Woods wife of Sir Edward Maria Wingfield of Savoy, d. 1677. Her husband wrote in his will that he did not want John Wingfield, York Herald, to succeed him as Master of the Affidavit Office.
London, St. Botolph’s Aldersgate
On a large tomb in this church is a 12-line epitaph for “Elizabeth Wingfield, nee Boyland, wife of Richard Wingfield, Esquire of the body to James I [1603-1620], on which is a 23-line epitaph inverse. [Wingfield Muniments, 52] See Cranford Park (above).
London, St. George the Martyr (Southwark)
Here John Wingfield, York Herald, father of Thomas Wingfield of York River, Virginia, (1680), was buried in 1678, having died “a prisoner at King’s Bench” – clearly for debt. The entry can be seen in the Register, which is kept in the church safe. [St. George’s Rectory, Mancible Street, London SE 1 4LN; tel: 020 7407 2796].
London, St. Giles in the Fields
Under a fine gravestone in 1526 [?surely 1626 miscopied] in the center aisle was buried Elizabeth, wife of Richard Maunsell Esquire, daughter of Roger Wingfield (alias Roger Robert Wingfield) and Elizabeth nee Golding, of Dunham Magna, Swaffham and East Lexham (all Norfolk). See London (Lambeth) for her other husband. Church of Jaques Wingfield, uncle of Edward-Maria Wingfield, Jamestown’s 1st President (and Jaques’s son Thomas).
London, St. Michael’s Cornhill
A monument [unallocated] to Anne Wingfield [u/i] of St. Andrew’s, Holborn (London, d. 26 March 1780), daughter of Richard Wingfield, Esquire, wife of W. Chase, Esquire, is recorded in Wingfield Muniments, p.52].
London, St. Sepulchre’s without Newgate, Snow Hill, Holborn
Here is located the Virginia Kneeler Collection, including one to President Edward Maria Wingfield, founding father of Jamestown, Virginia (1607). Burial place of Captain John Smith.
London, Westminster Abbey
Located here on a west-side pew right on the aisle in the beautiful Knights of the Bath Chapel, is a small, superb shield bearing the coat of arms of “Thomas Wingfield, 1772”. This was Thomas Wingfield IV (of the Alderton (Shropshire) Line, a cadet line of Onslow), 1750-?1812, who was an Esquire to the great Lord Clive of India from, it appears 1764, when Lord Clive was installed here as a Knight of the Bath (and Thomas Wingfield was 14). It was customary to include Esquire’s arms, apparently. Wingfield was Clive’s Esquire until 1772, when he (Wingfield) was 22. Records in the India Office may yet confirm whether Wingfield accompanied Clive to India, when the boy was only 14. [WFS, 36 Anecdotes, #24].
Cranford (Middlesex) 2 miles east of Heathrow Airport
The second monument to the right of the altar in St. Dunstan’s, is the magnificent (rebuilt), vast alabaster Aston monument by William Cure, Clerk of the Works to James I. Sir Roger Aston was the King’s Keeper of the Wardrobe and Gentleman of the Bedchamber (d. 1610). Sir Roger’s monument mentions his three daughters, including the third one who married Sir Robert Wingfield IV (b. 1585) of Upton, (Northamptonshire), knight. (The 1617 monument in London to his uncle, Richard Wingfield, an Esquire of the Body to James I, is in St. Botolph, Aldersgate).
Baconsthorpe (Norfolk)
Henry Wingfield, Rector of Baconsthorpe Castle nearby (1480/2-1500), and of Hempstead and of Rendlesham (Suffolk), is commemorated here on the Rector’s Board. Henry was the first recorded Wingfield to go up to Oxford (college unknown), indeed the first to attend university – he matriculated in 1474. [Foster, Cantab.Alumni]. He had a special dispensation from the Pope “that though his fingers were crooked, he might take Holy Orders”. [This fact is listed on the church parsons and patrons board, incorrectly, against his successor]. Henry Wingfield was presented in 1480 by his uncle Sir Robert Wingfield of East Harling, Comptroller for King Edward IV, and by his brother, Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham. Henry died in 1500 and directed in his will that he be buried at Letheringham and that “palms be laid on my grave in Passion Week” – a delightful custom that had fallen into abeyance, but which is maybe to be restarted. In 1500 Seaman Truvald was presented here as rector by W. Wingfield – who was probably Henry’s uncle, William Wingfield who served with Edward IV in France in 1474 and who died in 1510. Henry’s cousin, the future Prior William Wingfield of West Acre, Norfolk (1520’s – 1538) would have been too young. [See WFS 36 Anecdotes, #131]. In Henry Wingfield’s time Sir Henry Heydon II, Steward to Cecily, mother of Edward IV, was Lord of the Manor at Baconsthorpe Castle alias Baconsthrope Hall.
Buckenham (Norfolk)
Sir Robert Wingfield (d. 1481), Comptroller in 1474-1481 for King Edward IV, placed his arms in the church window at Buckenham. Old Buckenham’s All Saints Church and nearby Priory are 10 miles northeast of East Harling in the middle of an army Battle Training Area – as are New Buckenham’s St. Martin’s Church and the adjoining ruined Castle. The two Buckenhams (aka Buckingham in old MS) are either side of the hamlet of Cake Street.
Burnham Thorpe (Norfolk)
William Wingfield of the Dunham Magna Line is shown here on the Rectors’ and Incumbents’ Board as the parson here (where the great Nelson was to be raised) from 1538 to 1554. Previously, he had been Prior of West Acre Priory (Norfolk) 1520s-1538. It was he who pawned St. Andrew’s finger for two pounds sterling. [See WFS 36 Anecdotes, #13]
Cawston (Norfolk)
There was a memorial here of ca 1520 to Margaret Wingfield of Easton who married Sir Thomas Seckford. Not found. Church built by Michael de la Pole, 2nd Earl of Suffolk and son of Catherine Wingfield the 1st Countess.
Cley-next-the-Sea (Norfolk)
The sixth coat of arms from the ground on the west side of the outer south porch archway of the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch, bears the coat of arms of Katherine de Wingfield, wife of Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, of Wingfield Castle, and another coat bears Lord Michael’s 3 leopard heads. The Suffolks were church benefactors in the 1380s – for the refurbishment of this wonderful church with its truly magnificent clerestory.
Grundisburgh (Norfolk)
There is an inscription to Cecily, daughter of Sir Thomas and Lady Wingfield nee Elizabeth Drury, of Letheringham. Cecily married William Blois, M. P., Lord of the Manor of Grundisburgh Hall (held pre-1528 by Thomas Blois and his wife Margaret, daughter of William Styles of Ipswich). [Copinger, Manors of Suffolk, III, p.48].
Hempstead (Norfolk)
John Wingfield, Esquire is listed on the Rector’s Board here for 1789. (There as also a John Wingfield, Esquire, buried in 1789 at Hampstead, London). [Lyson’s, II, 513].
Hingham (Norfolk)
There is a huge monument against the wall in memory of Lord Morley, which has the Wingfield and De La Pole arms on it. [Wingfield Muniments, 52].
Mildenhall (Norfolk)
There is a memorial “brass plate” (but not a memorial brass with a “likeness”) on the south wall of the choir of St. Mary’s, commemorating the death of Mary Wingfield (daughter of Sir Robert Wingfield of Letheringham, d. 1601), wife of Henry Warner, with Warner quartering Whetenhall impaling Wingfield. [Topography and Genealogy, III, 388].
Norwich Cathedral (Norfolk)
On the underside of the seat of the 5th stall from the west corner in the back row on the north side is the magnificently-carved misericord (3-D wood carving) – believed to have been put there in 1415 (and possibly carved then) of the chubby, jolly-looking Sir Thomas Wingfield and his buxom smiling wife, Lady Wingfield, the Letheringham heiress nee Margaret Bovile, the uncle and aunt of the Countess of Suffolk nee Katherine Wingfield, of Wingfield Castle, who died in 1389 and 1387. In the inside of the steeple over the quire Lord Powerscourt records there are 24 escutcheons. On the north side are: 1 – Norwich; 2 – Wingfield quartering Bovile; 3- de la Pole; 4- Stanley; 5 – Heydon; 6 –Brews, “and in the windows of the cathedral amongst the arms of benefactors are those of Wingfield several times repeated.” Very difficult to see; I have yet to locate them. It is recorded that in the roof of the north chancel the Wingfield arms are to be seen, but I cannot locate them.
St. Andrew’s, Norwich (the Common Hall by 1894)
In the six most western stained glass lights are the arms of Thomas de Kerdeston impaling Wingfield and de la Pole. [Wingfield Muniments, 52].
Snetterton (Norfolk)
Next to East Harling. In the window of All Saints Church are the arms of Wingfield, de la Pole and Morley, benefactors. [Wingfield Muniments, 52].
West Acre (Norfolk)
Visible from the church today (on private land) are ruined parts of Prior William Wingfield’s great 1100 A.D. priory – such as the near complete southwest tower, a sizeable chunk of the chapter-house and some ruined outer walls, as well as the 14th century vaulted gatehouse. Across the River Nar are the ruins of the old grammar school, once run by Wingfield’s canons. From 1524 (or 1526) until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537 Prior William Wingfield (Dunham Magna Line), Lord of the Manor of Westacre and 12 other manors, controlled 15 Augustinian canons at Westacre and four more at nearby Weybourne, and Custhorpe Chapel, 16 churches in Norfolk, kennels of hounds for coursing, a hermitage, a mill, two rabbit warrens and a swannery, and lands and rents in 82 parishes. [36 Anecdotes, WFS, #13].
Swalcliffe (Oxfordshire)
Lady Wingfield nee Lucy Fane, wife of Sir Charles Wingfield, KCMG, the diplomat, in 1949 presented the church with a tapestry copy of Roger van de Wyden’s “Descent from the Cross.” [VCH Oxon, X, p.100].
Shrewsbury Abbey (Shropshire)
The magnificent multicolored marble monument to John Lloyd and his wife, Rebecca nee Wingfield of the Shropshire Line (half-sister of Thomas Wingfield of Shrewsbury d. 1642), stands some 20 feet high in the northwest corner. The center part is an effigy of John, but there is no effigy of Rebecca. The Lloyd and Wingfield coat of arms are magnificent. (Dugdale attested the Wingfields of Shrewsbury (Shropshire) to be descended from the Suffolk Wingfields in his Visitation of Shropshire, 15 September 1664).
Shrewsbury (Shropshire)
In St. Alkmand’s Church an 8th Century flagstone at the front entrance proclaims: “John Wingfield, 1769.” He was “the big drinker” and father of the Rev. John Tombes Wingfield. (Onslow-Atcham line)
Assington (Suffolk)
Three miles SW of Groton. William A. Dutt notes “on the nave floor a brass of a man and a woman in fifteenth century costume, supposed to represent two members of the Wingfield family.” [Dutt, Suffolk, 1904, 59]. These are listed in the V&A Museum Catalogue of Rubbings of Brasses as “Anonymous, Military Costume, c.1500.” [1968, 44, 92] The soldier looks very like the 1510 brass of Sir Thomas Wingfield (d. 1471) at Letheringham, but Dr. D. E. Smith believes the Assington man represents Robert Taylboys (d. 1506), since he provided for such a memorial in his will. [T. M. Felgate, Knights on Suffolk Brasses, 1976, #21, 70-71].
Badingham (Suffolk)
An inscription of the altar rails reads: “Elizabeth Wingfield, [u/i] wife of the Rev. John Wingfield and mother of above Elizabeth (d. 9th March 1784 aged 57, m. John Smyth, died Feb 10th1804 aged 72”). [SIANH, 1913, p. 100]. Not located. Badingham was where the senior Letheringham Wingfield lived in the 1440’s.
Braiseworth (Suffolk)
Here is a monument within the altar rails to the memory of Anne, daughter of Humphrey Wingfield of Brantham, Speaker of the House of Commons (1533-1536), wife of Alexander Newton, Esquire. There was a brass of Alexander Newton “in the remains of the old church, which was due to be moved in 1976 to the Ipswich Museum. Newton died 30th August 1569, and, since Anne married (ii) Robert Warner of Westhorpe and Norwich, and apparently died that year of 1569-70. On Alexander’s grave slab are two shields: one being Newton, the other Newton impaling quarterly Wingfield, Bovile, Gawsell [Gousill], and Warenne. [Wingfield Muniments, 8, 52; Felgate, Knights on Suffolk Brasses, 1976, 107].
Bungay (Suffolk)
From 1558 (or earlier) to March 1594 schoolmaster, philanthropist and benefactor, the deeply religious Thomas Wingfield taught at Bungay School. (U/i, but probably son of Robert Wingfield of Bungay – will 1523; Thomas’s will is dated January 21, 1583. His scholars included one Anthony Wingfield, of six so named). He left £20 in his will through his “Wingfield’s Charity” for the schooling of an orphan at the Grammar School for two years, 10 shillings a year out of rent on lands – to be spent on good cheer for the feofees (those invested with land “in fee” or for a reward), numerous benefactions to the poor of Bungay, and10 shillings for to preach what became known as “the Wingfield Sermon” annually at St. Mary’s church here. The annual “Wingfield Dinner” was held in late February 1933 after a lapse of some years. Before this it had been held regularly for 300 years, ?1594-1894) in either the King’s Head or the Three Tuns. Traditionally the Wingfield Charity Account was annually audited (in 1933 the auditors wrote about two “Wingfield scholars” from 1910 to 1920, a practice “revived” in 1932), followed by the feofees “being of good cheer” and preserving Thomas Wingfield’s memory. The toasts at Dinner included the Loyal Toast (by the town reeve) and “Thomas Wingfield” by the senior feoffee. Even though schoolmasters were paid only £6-9-0 a year, Wingfield, a bachelor, lived in style in a luxurious house, with a superb library of books in Latin, Greek, French and English. He left 100 marks to a William Wingfield and ten silver spoons to William’s wife, and £30 each to his two sisters. [The last located reference is the Eastern Daily Press dated February 27th, 1933].
Great Bealings (Suffolk)
On the south side of the nave is a 1583 memorial which reads: “To his very dear parents, Thomas Seckford” and his wife Margaret, one of the daughters of John Winfield [sic] of Letheringham, a soldier….” Etc, etc.
Ipswich (Suffolk)
At St. Mary’s Quay or Key, the monument to John Wingfield of Newbourn (Suffolk), son and heir-apparent of Sir Anthony Wingfield, K.G. (d. 1552) is impressive. Possibly a Doctor of Physics and a medical author, “wielding his pen for Lord Burghley,” he predeceased his father in 1546. [Wingfield Muniments,531].
Ipswich (Suffolk)
At St Stephen’s, on the north side of the chancel wall is a brass to the memory of John Wingfield, Esquire, (b. 1545), 2nd son of Robert Wingfield (author of the fascinating Vitae Mariae Reginae or Life of Queen Mary, BL Ad MS 48093 in Latin, translated by Diarmaid MacCulloch in Camden Miscellany, XXVIII, 4th Series, vol. 29, RHS, 1984, pp.181-301), 2nd son of Sir Humphrey Wingfield of Brantham, Speaker of the House of Commons (1533-1536). He married Elizabeth Gilgate and dsp in 1591. This brass was found pre-1894 under the floor when the church was being restored. [Wingfield Muniments, p 52]. It is not in the WFS, 14 Family Brasses 1389-1671.
Laxfield (Suffolk)
The arms of Henry North and his wife Elizabeth, (1678-1706) 2nd daughter of Anthony Wingfield, 1st Baronet, of Letheringham, are visible on the outside of the tower, on the north side.
Little Wenham (Suffolk)
There is a fine brass – and the most complete brass in Suffolk – to Thomas Brews (d. 1514), son of Robert Brewse and Katherine Brewse, daughter of Sir John Wingfield of Letheringham. The grave slab bears his arms including Brews impaling the quartered arms of Wingfield and Bovile. [See WFS Newsletter, VIII, 3, p.29].
Nettlestead (Suffolk)
A marble monument to Thomas Wingfield, magistrate and feodary for Suffolk (tax and dues collector, died 1632), displays the Wingfield of Brantham arms (with the fleur-de-lys for difference for the 12th son) impaled by the arms of Alice nee Poley, his second wife (died 1629). They are buried beneath it. Their arms are also on the wall in the porch (with Wingfield impaling Poley of Badley). [A. Page, Suffolk, 1847, p.611; Wingfield Muniments, 52]. There is also a “mystery brass memorial” dated 1530, which might well be Sir Edmund Wingfield (1506-c.1526) of Stowlangtoft. [WFS Newsletter, VIII, 4, p.38 & see Stowlangtoft, 20 miles NW].
Parham (Suffolk)
The 1603 brass to Alice Wingfield nee Bruce alias de Brews of Wenham (Suffolk), wife of Thomas Wingfelde (“a student in foreign universities for 10 years”, great grandson of Sir Humphrey Wingfield of Brantham) is most interesting. Thomas Wingfield was Patron here Nov. 25, 1607. Alice (died August 20, 1603) was daughter of Sir John de Brews. Augustine Wingfield IV was to be husband of Mary Willoughby of Parham in 1640/90, when the Lord of the Manor there was the 5th Lord Willoughby of Parham, Lieutenant Governor of the Caribbees [Caribbean], 1646 – 1652. (In 1674 a Christopher Winkfield – surely linked? –purchased from Thomas Oliver a plantation in Five Islands Division in Antiqua in the Caribbean). [Oliver, Antigua, II, 3301].
Stowlangtoft (Suffolk)
There is here a brass monumental inscription of Wingfield impaling Wentworth, which must be Margaret daughter of Thomas Wentworth (whose daughter Cecily married Sir Robert Wingfield, (1523-97). Margaret was widow of John Ashfield and married Sir Edmund Wingfield, (Interpreter for the Bastard of Bourbon in 1492 and Ambassador to Margaret of Angouleme in 1506), 10th son of Sir John Wingfield and Lady Wingfield nee Elizabeth Fitzlewis. Margaret Wingfield in right of her dower was presented to the church here 1506-1515. See Nettlestead, 20 miles to SE.
Tannington (Suffolk)
The 1624 brass to Mary Wingfield, wife from 1612 of William Dade, Esq. (1579-1659) is magnificent, but unfortunately nearly half is now under the altar! The Dades’ son Francis (who was to die at sea in 1663) in 1662 married aboard “The Maryland,” Beheathland Bernard – who was the daughter of Captain Thomas Bernard and Mary Bernard nee Beheathland, and granddaughter of the Captain Robert Beheathland who had sailed in 1606 with Captain Edward Maria Wingfield (1606), a grantee of the Virginia Charter of 1606, and the founding father of Jamestown, Virginia.
Heathfield (Sussex)
All Saints was the church of the chaplain that Edward Maria Wingfield selected to go on the December 1606 expedition with him to found Jamestown, Virginia, the Reverend Robert Hunt. Hunt was originally going as No 2 to Rev Richard Hakluyt (who backed out at the last moment to translate an important foreign log). Captain Wingfield got the approval of Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury. The north-east stained glass window in this magnificent country church was unveiled in 1962 in memory of twin sisters called Ticehurst who died in 1941 and 1953. The window depicts Robert Hunt celebrating “the first Communion on American soil on June 11, 1607” at Jamestown. [Sunday June 21 in Virginia’s True Founder, p. 2121]. Three Councilors (one with his back to the observer), complete with ruffs, are shown taking Communion watched by a native American warrior with two young native boys. Clearly, since Wingfield was then President, he would be in the front row, maybe with his cousin Bartholomew Gosnold. The features and size are not for real, since no likenesses of those two Councilors exist. Smith is not shown. The Jamestown settlers are all listed, as well as those intrepid mariners whose names are known to posterity.
Robert Hunt is shown on a board in the church as being Vicar at Heathfield from 1602 to 1608 (the year he died at Jamestown). He was, we know, allowed to receive the income and benefits from Heathfield even when abroad. The de la Warrs of the 1880s owned part of the manor of Heathfield – and so maybe the Lord de la Warr of the early1600’s, a cousin of Edward Maria Wingfield’s, then too owned land at Heathfield knew Hunt and recommended him to Wingfield. Incidentally, from the church one cannot see the sea (the English Channel, ten miles to the Southeast), as it says in several books – which muddle up Heathfield in Sussex with Reculver in Kent, Hunt’s earlier church, which lies fifty miles northeast of Heathfield (on the North Sea). In 1957 the APVA erected in Heathfield church a wooden memorial plaque to Robert Hunt.
Church Norton, St. Wilfrid’s Chapel (West Sussex)
The chapel is basically 13th century and was the chancel of the original church here. In 1866 the church – except for the chapel/chancel – was dismantled and was moved two miles away to become St. Peter’s Church, Selsey. Set on the edge of Pagham Harbour, the setting for St. Wilfrid’s (whose only Service now is on St. Wilfrid’s Day, October 12th) is most attractive. Captain Maurice F.R. (“Tolly”) Wingfield (b. 1879, of the Barrington cadet line of Powerscourt), “Ox & Bucks Light Infantry”, and his 2nd wife of 10 October 1916, Stephanie Agnes Cooper, lived here at Norton Priory in the 1stWorld War (1914-1918), after Maurice had been wounded in action. Then Maurice’s younger brother, Captain C. John R. (“Jack”) Wingfield (60th Rifles/KRRC) died of his wounds on 29 April 1915, followed by a great friend of Maurice’s, Captain Thomas Agar-Robartes, Coldstream Guards (formerly a Member of Parliament, heir to Lanhydrock), being killed in action; and then, in 1919, by Stephanie Wingfield dying, probably a victim of the great ‘flu pandemic. In 1921 Maurice Wingfield presented a large east window as a memorial to the three of them. Jack & Thomas are dressed as knights in armor and Stephanie is portrayed in a medieval dress. All three are “likenesses” and all three have haloes. The Agnus Dei in the center light is clearly an allusion to the name Agnes. A life-size statue of Agnes Wingfield stands outside in front of the east wall of the chapel.
Great Bedwyn (Wiltshire)
William Wingfield aka Winkefilde aka Winterfield [u/i] was Vicar here 1566-1573. The “preaching cross” is like the 1666 one at St. Paul’s Cathedral used to be. William m. Elizabeth and had a son, Edward.
Claines (Worcestershire)
In the porch there is an ancient painted board about bequests made in 1812-14 to buy gowns for the poor of Claines, Tibberton, Warndon and St. Martin’s and St. Nicholas in the city of Worcester by Mr. George Wingfield and his widow Anne, who was also widow of Rev. Dr. Sumner of King’s College, Cambridge, her second husband. In 1909 £141-11-9 in consols produced interest amounting to £3-10-8 yearly, which bought 14 gowns at 5/6 each. The Wingfields of Claines, Worcestershire were a branch of the Wingfields of Lippard aka Leopard in Warndon and must have been a cadet line of the Letheringham Line. [Nash, Worcester q.in Links #18.31; Wrottesley, History of Staffs, XVIII, 1897, pp.6-14: link surely proved by land records; VCH Worcestershire, III, pp.539, 554, IV, p.418].
Tisbury (Wiltshire)
Recorded here as one of two incumbents [priests] in 1678 (appointed by the Patron for 1678-99, Henry Dom Arundell de Wardour with P.M. Northey, so he may have been here 21 years) was a mysterious Augustinus Winkfield; with P.M. Northey. In 1687 the Lord Privy Seal was Lord Arundell. And from 1699 the incumbents here were Thomas Marchant and Winkfield, appointed by Thomas Marchant, “Ex-Conc. Dom Arundell (1699-1740), this 1699 Rev. Wingfield ceased to be vicar in 1740 or earlier. The junior incumbent was usually listed as “P.R.”, “Post Mortem”, or “P.M.” (Maybe there is a link with Augustine Wingfield of Rappahannock County, Virginia). [See WFS CD-ROM “Links,” #12, p. 68].
Warndon (Worcestershire)
At St. Nicholas Church, in the vestry of this exquisite church, half-timbered and not unlike Crowfield (Suffolk), there is a board which states: “George Wingfield, Esq. and Ann his wife of Leopard [Lippard] Herefordshire & Worcestershire bequeathed to this Parish One Hundred Pounds to be Invested in Government Security the Interest there to be expended in Gowns for Poor Women, the Minister and Churchwardens to be the managers of the Charity, the Gowns always given on St. Thomas’s Day every year & no Woman to have a Gown two years together.” They were both living in 1782 [Pegge]. He was George Wingfield III, grandson of the Captain George Wingfield I (flourishing 1702) who applied in vain for the governorship of Montserrat in the Caribbean. Ann was born either Bostock or Summer. The Wingfields of Lippard aka Leopard (3 miles southeast of Claines Church, near Warndon, and Ronkswood and Trotshill (Herfordshire & Worcestershire), were extant here from pre-1586 to post–1873). The Wingfields of Claines, Worcestershire were a cadet line of the Letheringham Line. [Nash, Worcester quoted in Links #18.31; Wrottesley, History of staffs, XVIII, 1897, pp.6-14: proved by land records].
Worcester Cathedral (Worcestershire)
There is a 12-foot high white marble monument right in the southwest corner to John Yates, Esquire of Springside, Lancs (d. 1805) and his wife Harriet, daughter and co-heiress of Wingfield Wildman, Esq. of Norton House, Derbyshire, “dedicated to the memory of their deceased parents by William Wingfield and Samuel Wildman Yates”. Wingfield Wildman was son of William Wildman, apothecary, and Priscilla nee Wingfield, 4th sister of Storie Wingfield of Haslebarow [Sheffield], Yorkshire (Brantham-Wakefield Line). In the Cathedral Library is an engraving by Ward from an attractive 1827 portrait by John Constable of John Wingfield, D. D. (Doctor of Divinity), Prebend of Worcester 1803-1826 and Sub-Dean 1819-1820 (5th stall), late Rector of Kempsey (Worcs) and late Headmaster of Westminster School, London, d. 1825. And in the south aisle of the nave under the 8th arch is a tablet to the memory of John Wingfield, D. D. [See Links, #18.2; Wingfield Muniments, 52].
Worcester (Worcestershire)
At St. Martin’s, in the north aisle of the chancel is a memorial stone to Edward Wingfield, gentleman, of Lippard, of Worcester, and his wife, daughter of Dr. Thomas Wilson, Dean of Worcester (both died in 1641 aged about 75) and to Edward’s great grandson, Thomas Wingfield of Lippard, Gentleman, died October 24, 1727 aged 73. [Wingfield Muniments, 1894, 52; Nash’s Worcester, 1782].
Llantysillio (Dyfed)
There is a fine stained glass window honoring Walter C. Wingfield, the inventor of Tennis (1873-1874), who died in 1912. [George Alexander, Wingfield, Edwardian Gentleman, 1986, Portsmouth, NH, p. 169].
There is no trace at Llanwchaiarn, Montgomery, of Charles & Laetitia Wingfield (later of Onslow) and their three sons: Colonel Charles G. Wingfield of Onslow (c. 1833), the Rev. William Wingfield (c. 1834, the Oxford rowing “blue”) or Colonel Anthony Wingfield (c. 1835, father of Frank Wingfield who emigrated to Hollywood); or of Charles’s brother, the Rev. Rowland Wingfield of that church.
Abbeyleix, County Laois
There is a memorial here to the Honorable and Rev. William Wingfield (Powerscourt Line), married 1830, died 1880.
Bagenalstown, (aka Muine Beagh), County Carlow
There is a wall memorial in the church to my 3-greats grandfather, the Honorable and Rev. Edward Wingfield of nearby Myshall (b. 1792, Powerscourt Line, and see FRANCE: Strasbourg Cathedral; half-brother of the above Rev. William Wingfield). Edward was also vicar of St. James’s Dublin (“the Governor’s church” and a key appointment), 1821-1825. He died on September 6, 1825 at Powerscourt, “of eating of a surfeit of fruit on a sunny afternoon”.
Clonfeacle (Armagh)
…”This treasure of a plantation church” was built by the Marshal of Ireland, Sir Richard Wingfield, 1st Viscount Powerscourt, from 1618. Supposed to incorporate fragments from Clonfeacle Monastery, Tulldowey.
Dublin, St. Patrick’s Cathedral (Protestant)
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on October 17, 1709 Lady Elizabeth Boyle, daughter of Roger Boyle 1st Earl of Orrery (son of the Great Earl of Cork) and wife of Ffolliott Wingfield, Viscount Powerscourt (2nd creation), was buried in the magnificent, massive (some 30 feet high) Earl of Cork’s tomb, “The Boyle Monument” (1632) at the southwest corner of the cathedral (its third position – the great Earl of Strafford having had it “moved out of the way” from its original position in the aisle. Here too “…his lordship [Ffolliott Powerscourt] was also interred on February 17th 1717.” [Wingfield Muniments, p. 41]. (The Lady Elizabeth’s brother, Lieutenant-General Charles Boyle, the 4th Earl of Orrery, had his name given to a new astronomical instrument, the orrery, by its inventor, George Graham).
Enniskerry (Wicklow)
The foundation stone of St. Patrick’s Church was laid on 14th October 1857, by Mervyn Wingfield, 7th Viscount Powerscourt, on the day he came of age (his 21st birthday), the grandfather of the late Brigadier Anthony Wingfield, WFS, and great great grandfather of WFS honorary member, “Fergie”, the Duchess of York. The church was a parting gift to Mervyn (who had inherited in 1844 – when his father, the 6th Viscount, died aged but 29), being a gift from his stepmother, the Marchioness of Londonderry. It replaced the church built in the 1600s, the ruins of which can still be seen in the old churchyard just to the north of Powerscourt House. That in turn had replaced a medieval church, the ruins of which can be seen at a place now known as Churchtown (on the hill above the drive from Powerscourt House to Powerscourt Fall (the waterfall on the Dargle – the highest in the British Isles), but which had in medieval times been called Stagonil. The new St Patrick’s was consecrated in 1863. Powerscourt Church has always been a prebendal church of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, and from 1303 to 1874 one of the canons of the cathedral was always Rector of the parish. There are several Powerscourt-Wingfield memorials in the church.
Benicia, California
The Parish of St. Paul’s was officially organized on February 13, 1855, when its first Vestry was elected. St. Paul’s is the third oldest Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Northern California preceded only by St. Paul’s, Sacramento in 1849, and St. John’s, Marysville in 1854.
In July of 1859, Lt. McAlister drew up plans for a new church building that was constructed during November and December of that year. Services have been held in it since without interruption. John Henry Ducachet Wingfield (September 24, 1833 – July 27, 1898) was the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern California, serving in that capacity from 1874 to 1898. He was consecrated as missionary bishop of Northern California on December 2, 1874, but remained in charge of his parish in Petersburg, Virginia until April, 1875.
Mattaponi, King & Queen County, Virginia
Originally the colonial parish church of St Stephen’s Parish, Mattaponi Church has been used by the Baptists since 1824. Here come 50 yards from the porch door stand the memorial to Thomas Wingfield “of York River” (Upton & Tickencote cadet line of Letheringham Wingfields), christened in 1664 at St Benet’s, London – for whom a headright for land not far from this spot, “down Tomocoricond Swamp”, as part of 430 acres, was claimed in 1680 by Joseph Styles.
Portsmouth, Virginia. Trinity Episcopal Church
The crew of the C. S. S. Virginia (the ironclad Merrimac) was blessed at this altar and the acting priest, The Rev. John Wingfield, blessed the ship before it went to the first battle of ironclads. Fr. Wingfield’s refusal to pray for the President of the United States resulted in his being forced to sweep the streets in Norfolk with a ball and chain on his leg (he later became the first Bishop of Northern California).
Correspondence chiefly with Bishop William Rollinson Whittingham. Subjects include Wingfield’s teaching post at the Ashley Institute, Little Rock, Ark., 1857-1859; his rectorship of Christ Church, Harford County, Md., 1864-1865; his return to Trinity Church, Portsmouth, Va.; objection to his possible election as Bishop of Arkansas because of his Confederate sympathies, 1869; arrangements for his consecration as Bishop of Northern California, 1874; work at St. Augustine’s College, Benicia, Calif.; troubles with the Reverend John H.C. Bonte; church affairs in California, especially in Sacramento and San Francisco; and his declining election as Bishop of Louisiana. The material described in this catalog record is located in the collections of the Archives of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, Episcopal Diocesan Center, Baltimore, Md.
Strasbourg Cathedral
On a wall here is beautifully (and perhaps professionally) inscribed “L’Honorable Etd. Wingfield, Gentilhomme Irlandois [=Irish Gentleman], Le 16 October 1815.” Aged 23, the Honorable Edward Wingfield, son of the 4th Viscount Powerscourt, was on a “victory tour” of France, Napoleon’s 68,500 men having been defeated by Wellington’s (and Bluecher’s) 50,000 on June 18th in 1815. On Edward Wingfield’s return to Ireland he was ordained. He died in 1825, aged 33.
Cadiz (Gades) Cathedral (or possibly the Church of Santa Cruz, Cadiz)
Sir On Saturday 26th June 1596 Sir John Wingfield, Letheringham (Suffolk) line (in the Cadiz Raid under Drake and Essex, as a Rear Admiral, the Campmaster (General) and Commanding Officer of Wingfield’s Regiment – one of two regiments so called, in action here), was buried here with full military honors .He had flown his flag in Vanguard, captured three galleys, and then as Campmaster ashore, had led the vanguard of the army, capturing for ransom a senior Spanish cavalry commander, Don Nuno de Villa Vincenza, but was shot in the final minute before the Spanish surrender. Sir John’s body was borne by six knights, with muffled drums and trumpet dirges, the “shot” (foot-soldiers) holding their arms reversed, the pikemen trailing their 16ft pikes. The other generals cast their handkerchiefs wet with tears into his grave and the entire Anglo-Dutch fleet moored nearby in the harbor fired their guns in salute. Some reports however, say that he was buried in the adjoining Church of Santa Cruz (since destroyed by the French). John Donne, who also served in the Cadiz Raid and subsequently became the famous Dean of London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral) composed the epitaph below:
“Beyond th’old Pillars many have travailed
Towards the Son’s Cradle, and his throne, and bed:
A fitter Pillar our Earle did bestow
In that late Island; for he well did know
Farther than Wingfield no man dares to goe.
No trace of Sir John has been found, perhaps understandably, but a visit is a “must”.
Toledo, San Juan de los Reyes
(In all but name, a cathedral, where Spanish royals were buried). Despite there being no trace here of Ambassador Sir Richard Wingfield, K.G. [Knight of the Garter 1523, Army General, 1523, grandfather of Captain Edward-Maria Wingfield, Founder of Jamestown, 1607, born 1550] who died in 1525, we know he was buried here, and it really is worth a visit, so I have left it in the main list.