Baron Brownlow ~ Cust Family Vault

This grand tomb, belonging to the Cust Family, stands in the churchyard of St.Peter and St. Paul's Parish Church, that adjoins the Brownlow Cust 

Family's Ancestral home, Belton House in Lincolnshire.  

Belton House is now owned by The National Trust

Although I took these and a few other photos of interest whilst visiting Belton. My picture of this stone tablet inside the vault, has not turned out as legible as I'd hoped for, so reading it has been made difficult. The inscription on it below, is the best that I can decipher at the moment, but we will return there and I will update this post later.

Beneath this Shrine are deposited the mortal remains of,

the Rt. Hon. Lady Isabella Mary Cust daughter of,

Charles William Duke of Buccleuch and ?

and wife of the Hon. Peregrine Francis Cust ME

?

by the fatal progress of an unrelenting ?

after child-birth on the sixth anniversary of their marriage

She died on the 29th year of her age

?

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The Door Finally Closes

Whilst watching 'The Tudors' tv programme last night, I had one of those moments, when the penny finally drops and you make one of those connections, that has always been there.

I knew of our small towns links to other well~known Historical figures ~ some of them at least. 

But I had not associated the 'Howard' name, on this particular Vault, to the historical characters portrayed in the programme about King Henry VIII's dynasty. 

It was only because of the episode featuring Henry's sixth wife, 'Catherine Howard', that stirred my old brain cells into action and made me think, 'Well I wonder?'. 

It had been the date on the vault that had thrown me, and caused me to initially think that it was a more recent tomb.      

This Entrance

To The Howard Vault

Was Closed A.D. 1860

You can see from the differing stone work and it's colour that the Howard family vault of St. Mary's Church, Saffron Walden, had its door way closed and sealed for the final time in 1860.

St.Mary's Church, Saffron Walden

The Howard vault contains the bodies of Baron Audley who had served under Henry VIII and who had seen several of his Queens come and go. The Howard Vault was built by him and the Sanctuary inside the Church is raised, in order to accommodate such a grand vault as this.

Ten Earls of Suffolk and Lord Howard de Walden who served Elizabeth I and James I, is also interred here with his two wives.

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