In the autumn of 2004, someone quietly entered the church of St Cyriac in Lacock village in Wiltshire and, checking they were alone, pulled out two small metal plates from their coat or a bag. Kneeling, they lifted two prayer mats and slipped them underneath, close to the fifteenth century memorial in the floor where they had been chipped away two years previously. Quickly exiting the church, they left these 500-year old metal plates to be discovered by church staff, who arranged for them to be professionally reset into their original position.
The two metal plates were brasses representing some of the children of Elizabeth and Robert Baynard, a couple who lived in Lacock and were benefactors of the church. Their brass, set into the floor to the right of the church as you enter, in the Baynard Aisle, commemorates their lives along with their eighteen children. Elizabeth is mentioned in my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses in relation to their large family and what she - and others - can tell us about women's collective roles during the era.
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| Brass of Robert and Elizabeth Baynard, St Cyriac's Lacock |
Thefts of brass plates from churches have been a common problem over the centuries, chiselled out of their backings and sold on to private collectors. However, not only does this act deprive the rest of us of being able to research the lives of these people but also interrupts the wishes of the benefactor. Many stipulated that monuments be made in their places of worship believing it to be for the benefit of their souls. Some also left a message - usually about the fragility of life - for their descendants in the future. Perhaps this feeling of guilt was the reason the brasses were returned. Alternatively, they may have simply been difficult to sell in the two years they had been missing.
Robert Baynard was the son of Philip Baynard, a landowner and Sheriff of Wiltshire during the reign of Henry VI. The Baynard family had been active in the area since the fourteenth century, as owners of the Lackham Estate. Robert married Elizabeth Ludlow, daughter of John Ludlow of Hill Deverill, near Warminster. Robert’s brass states, in Latin, that he was a ‘distinguished man and skilled in the law, a very active soldier, and excellent housekeeper, and a zealous promoter of peace’. It is possible that this reference to Robert’s military action refers to later battles of the Wars of the Roses, or conflicts during Henry VII’s reign such as the Battle of Stoke or Bosworth. Regardless, Robert and Elizabeth were together for enough time to produce their eighteen children – five daughters and thirteen sons. The eldest of their sons, the largest on the brass, is depicted as a young man of status, and the second eldest as a religious man, a priest or monk. Both Elizabeth and Robert have heraldric arms on their clothing, Elizabeth wearing a cloak sewn with symbols that reinforced her and Robert’s social standing.
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| St Cyriac's Church, Lacock |
Although husbands were very much involved in the education and wellbeing of their children, the daily duties of overseeing their care rested on the wife. Children of high-status families were often brought up in the houses of other similar families to teach them the skills needed to one day run a busy household of their own. There are numerous references during this period to women negotiating and arranging their children's residencies, as well as appointing tutors for their sons and daughters. There is evidence for this in the letters of Margaret Paston, who arranged for her daughter to stay with the Duchess of Suffolk, and was also approached to ask if she could employ a servant - the daughter of the writer. Elizabeth Stonor too, a contemporary of the couple, was approached to negotiate a marriage. Elizabeth certainly would have had her hands full with eighteen children.
The couple would have known the church, and therefore Lacock village, with its stone cottages and meandering lanes. Inns such as The Sign of the Angel and The George were standing during their lifetimes, and Robert and Elizabeth would have known Lacock Abbey as an establishment of nuns rather than the later stately home which was created in the sixteenth century.
Robert died on 26 August 1501, during the reign of Henry VII. He requested in his will that his estate be used to support his children, St Cyriac’s church and the poor of the area. Baynard’s arms can also be seen in the porch of the church as you enter, and he may have been the benefactor responsible for gifting the fifteenth-century silver Lacock Cup to the church. Elizabeth's date of death is not known. Some researchers have estimated her date of birth to have been around 1430, but as far as I can find, there is no evidence for this. However, bearing in mind that she birthed eighteen children, it can safely be said that she at least reached her thirties or forties, based on the usual age of marriage of the period being around twenty years old.
Liked this? You might also like my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, published by Pen and Sword, which delves into the lives of women like Elizabeth Baynard and puts them in context with their time. Order your copy here.
Sources
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4054165.stm
http://kippeeb.blogspot.com/2013/01/from-wiltshire-notes-and-queries.html
Visit to Lacock, September 2024
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