Located just a few miles from Lincoln, on a single track road which leads to nowhere,
it has a plain and simple exterior.
Step inside...
...and prepare for a surprise...
The very small interior is filled
with enormous marble
and alabaster
monuments.
They are decorated
to the nth degree, sculpted,
painted, gilded,
every surface, inside and out.
It was difficult to capture the whole of this
marble six-poster bed.
This is the view through the monument, down to the entrance
and font.
The figures are Sir Thomas St Paul and his wife, Faith.
Thomas was a Member of Parliament for Grimsby
and twice Sherriff of Lincolnshire.
He died in 1582.
The canopy of the bed is richly decorated,
the small figures are their eight children,
only four of whom survived infancy.
The base of the tomb bears family crests
and an inscription..
Here lies Thomas St. Poll, knight, who died on the
29th August A.D. 1582,
in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
and rests in Christ.
Reader, you see what I am,
you know what I have been.
Consider what you yourself must be.
There are two more monuments.
The larger one depicts Sir George St Paul, who died in 1613 and his wife, Frances.
He was the richest and most influential of the St Paul's.
This vast structure is about twelve feet high
made of alabaster and marble.
It is full of Jacobean symbolism - I have tweaked the intensity
of colour so that you can see just how elaborate
it really is.
Sadly, the lower part of the monument
bears the effigy of their
only child,
a daughter.
Mattathia St Paul, who died before
she was two.
She was buried in the church
'and since then her mother
has never been free from mourning
and weeping for a single day'.
 |
| Mattathia St Paul |
Sir George was a staunch Puritan, who even worried about
whether it was right to kneel on a cushion
during his long prayer sessions.
It seems it was fine to spend a vast amount on a memorial, though.
He left a legacy to 30 'poor old men' from the area.
They received cash and a free gown annually.
His marriage was unexciting but happy.
He was survived by his wife, Frances.
She went on to lead an interesting life...
...she was a wealthy widow.
After much wooing she was persuaded to marry
the rather unsavoury Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, depicted
in this monument (which is considered, by some, to be the finest of the three).
Robert Rich was very wealthy, but had little else to recommend him.
His first wife was a beauty who had been forced,
by her guardians, to marry him.
He ill-treated her
and in retaliation she sought consolation with another man
who fathered at least five of her twelve children!
Robert Rich divorced her in 1605
and began looking for a suitably wealthy replacement.
He decided he wanted Frances, so he set about winning her;
eventually she married him in 1616.
Lady Frances proved herself to be a very able business woman and rapidly
increased her personal fortune.
This enraged the Earl,
as he lost money in poorly advised ventures.
He died in Lincolnshire in 1619, and was buried in Essex.
Frances remained in the tiny
hamlet in Lincolnshire
'doing good works',
until she died in 1634.
Perhaps surprisingly, she chose to be buried with her second husband, the Earl, in Essex.
Presumably he had something good about him.
There is so much more to tell, but I have gone on too long already.
I'll save those stories for another time.
Given that these Elizabethan and Jacobean monuments
are of national importance
it is quite astounding to think that the church is open at all times,
other than when repairs or maintenance are being carried out.
I love Lincolnshire.
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