317 



THE MONUMENTS IN THE PEIOEY CHUECH OF 

 ABEEGAYENNY. 



(Abstracts from the work of Octavius Morgan, Esq., M.P., F.E.S., &c., &c., 

 published at Newport in 1872, with remarks by the Rev. F. T. Havergal). 



Though castle here through tracts of tyuie is worne, 



A church remaines that worthie is (.f note ; 

 Where worthie men that hath bene nobly borne 



Were layd in tombe, which els had been forgot. 



Chdrchtard. 



The Honor, or Lordship of Abergavenny, is one of the most ancient baronies, 

 and was probably granted very soon after the Conquest. 



St. Mary's Church belonged to the Priory of Beneilictine, or Black Monks, 

 founded in the reign of Henry I. (1100-1135), by Haineline de Belun, or Baladun, 

 the first Norman Lord of Abergavenny. The ancient Parish Church of St. John 

 stood within the walls ; the Priory and this Church without, by the east gate. 

 After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1513, Henry VIII. founded the 

 Grammar School on the site of the old Parish Church of St. John's, and the 

 parish appears then to have taken the Church of the Priory in place of St. 

 John's. 



The Priory consisted of a prior and four monks at the time of the dissolution ; 

 and the estates, which were estimated at the value of £80 yearly, were granted to 

 James Gunter, of Brecon.shire, and have since passed by marriage through the 

 families of the Milbournes, Harleys, Swinnertons, to the Kemeys Tynte family. 



The monumental effigies in this Church have been noticed from an early date. 

 Thomas Churchyard, in liis poem on " The Worthiness ot Wales," published in 

 1587, gives a long description of them, when they were in a perfect condition, and 

 when the windows contained the arms, in coloured glass, of the families and Lords 

 of Abergavenny. Mr. Richard Symond's " Diary of the Marchings of the Royal 

 Army in 1645," printed by the Camden Society in 1859, gives a still more detailed 

 account of the monuments, windows, and their heraldic bearings, at that time 

 still undisturbed. Gough, in his edition of Camden, shows that they remained in 

 the same condition the following year 1646, but from this date there is no 

 authentic record, either as to when they were mutilated, or when they were 

 repaired. It is probable that they were mutilated during the Rebellion, and 

 restored in Charles II.'s reign. 



The monumental effigies form a very instructive series from the 13th to the 

 17th centuries, showing the characteristic changes of four centuries in arms, 

 armour, and costumes. They are of wood, stone, and alabaster, and all of re- 

 markably good type and character, and possess much historical interest, both 

 local and general. Mr. Octavius Morgan describes them in the following order, 

 as represented by photographs : — 



