318 Broughton Gifford. 
‘‘Of your charity pray for the souls of Thomas Horton and Mary his wife, 
which Thomas was sometime founder of this Chantry and deceased the 
day of . . . . An°’dom.15 . . , and the said Mary deceased the . 
dayof . . . . An®°dom.15 . . . On whose souls Jesu have 
mercy.” 
The brass was probably executed during the life time of those 
whom it commemorates, like Nelson’s coffin. Why his nephew 
and heir (who, as I shall show, ought to have been specially mindful 
and grateful) did not insert the dates, is a puzzle.! The conjecture 
that connects the omission with doctrinal changes, is an anachron- 
ism: for, in the Dirige, or service for the dead, all our reformed 
primers contained prayers for departed souls, up to the second 
Prayer Book of Edward VI., 1552. I believe it was a mere piece 
of negligence on the heir’s part. I am, however, in a position to 
fill up the blanks in the husband’s case. By reference to his in- 
quisitio post mortem taken at ‘‘Heytesbury” 23rd Oct., 23 Henry 
VIII. (1531) it appears that he died 14th August 1530. His widow 
Mary was alive in 1538, being then a tenant of a dovecot and fish- 
pond in the Friarye at Hinton, which was granted to the nephew 
Thomas. She was also alive when John Leland visited Bradford, 
whenever that might be, about three years later probably. He 
says,” “There is a very fair house of the building of one Horton, 
a riche clothier, at the north-est part by the chirch. This Horton’s 
wife yet lyvith. This Horton buildid a goodly large chirch house 
ex lapide quadrato at the est end of the chirch yard, without it. 
This Horton made divers fair houses of stone in Through-bridge 
toun. Horton left no children.” His architectural tastes point 
him out as the author of the beautiful tower of Westwood Church, 
which bears his initials. He conveyed his estates to John Skel- 
lyng, Rev. James Horton (his brother), John Horton, Henry 
1Mindus Zosimus tells us plainly on his tomb why he did not leave to his 
heir the construction of it: he was afraid of his doing it in a shabby way: 
*« Vivus mi fect, ne post me lentius heres 
Conderet exiguo busta suprema rogo.” 
Thomas Horton did not trust any more to his heir than he could help, but this 
little was too much. 
? Leland’s journey through Wilts, edited by Canon Jackson. Wilts Arch. 
Mag. vol. i. p. 148. 
