A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



historical monuments defaced or wiped out 

 under the shelter of ' restoration,' which daily 

 devours apace. 



Sir Thomas Greene, died 1457, and 

 Philippa his wife. Greene's Norton. 



The long-suffering alabaster effigy of the 

 third Sir Thomas Greene again shows an ad- 

 vance, and is a good prelude to the still more 

 elaborate but rare military effigies which were 

 set up to the memory of men who flourished 

 during the latter part of the wars between 

 the rival Houses, and of which unfortunately 

 there are no examples in the county. 



Greene is represented in a standard of mail 

 or gorget, and wearing a collar of SS with a 

 trefoil and ring pendant. The shoulders are 

 protected by deep articulated dpauli^res, with 

 reinforcing plates, replacing the earlier pallets, 

 fixed to the body armour by nuts, and the 

 right plate being shaped for freedom of the 

 sword arm. The ' d^fauts de la cuirasse ' are 

 of mail, the avant-bras and brassarts circularly 

 channelled or fluted, and the great coudieres 

 fixed by ties or arming points. The bare 

 hands are uncommon at this period. The 

 tassets are hinged on the right and buckled 

 on the left side ; to the lowest the channelled 

 tuilles with engrailed edges are attached, the 

 mail skirt being worn under them. The 

 cuissarts are slightly waved, the genouilleres 

 plain with the large wings and small articula- 

 tions of the period. The reinforcing plate of 

 the plain jambes is fluted. The bare head, 

 resting upon the tilting helm with the crest, 

 shows that the hair cropped high up to a 

 hard line, as in the effigy of Sir John Cressy, 

 is now abandoned. 



The effigy of Philippa Greene exhibits the 

 hair confined in a flowered caul, the lady 

 wearing a mitre head-dress such as may still 

 be seen among the peasantry in Normandy. 

 She is habited in a tight-fitting gown falling 

 in straight folds to the feet, and a mantle 

 fastened from a brooch on the right side by 

 double cords looped through a brooch on the 

 left ; the head rests on a pillow supported by 

 mutilated angels, and round the neck is a 

 collar of SS, a very unusual attribute of a lady. 



The church of Greene's Norton formerly 

 contained a most interesting series of monu- 

 ments of the Greene family, consisting of 

 altar-tombs with brasses and tffigies. Their 

 general condition at the end of the seven- 

 teenth century is somewhat indifferently 

 shown by engravings in HalsteacTs Genealo- 

 gies, a volume of great rarity compiled by 

 Mr. Rans, chaplain to the second Earl of 

 Peterborough, and the memorials appear to 

 have been considerably maltreated and de- 



spoiled before that time. The effigies in 

 question were then said to represent Chief- 

 Justice Sir Henry Greene and Katherine his 

 wife. Sir Henry Greene was buried at 

 Boughton, and the costume shown by the 

 Greene's Norton effigies is nearly a century 

 after his time. Bridges in his description of 

 the monuments has confounded one tomb 

 with another, taking no account of armour 

 and costume. Baker identifies the effigy 

 with the first Sir Thomas Greene who died 

 in 1 39 1, but the costume exhibited is not of 

 this period ; and it fortunately happens that 

 the armour and dress shown by the figures 

 are of so distinct a character that their date 

 cannot be mistaken. They are the effigies 

 of the third Sir Thomas Greene who died in 

 1457, and of his wife Philippa, daughter of 

 Robert fourth Lord Ferrers of Chartley. 



The Greene monuments had already suf- 

 fered before the time of 'Halstead'; they had 

 been further mutilated and plundered of their 

 brasses when Bridges described them ; but 

 their complete desecration was reserved to the 

 year 1826, when the church was beautified 

 by the authorities — ' actuated by a proper 

 spirit.' It is one of the saddest passages of 

 Northamptonshire history. 



Whatever memorial there was of the first 

 Sir Thomas Greene, died 1391, has vanished 

 entirely. The grey marble slab of the second 

 Sir Thomas Greene, died 141 7, and his wife, 

 has been taken off its tomb and laid in the 

 pavement ; the brass plate with the inscrip- 

 tion, the two shields and the knight are 

 gone ; the figure of the lady alone remains, 

 the sides of the tomb being used as paving in 

 the chancel. The alabaster effigies of the third 

 Sir Thomas Greene and his wife appear to 

 have been taken from the midst of the chan- 

 cel and cast into an obscure corner of the 

 church before 1826. At this time they were 

 again brought to light ; the despoiled tomb of 

 the fifth Sir Thomas Greene was entirely re- 

 moved from its arch in the north aisle, and in 

 its stead the effigies were placed — the lady in 

 a recumbent position, raised upon a tomb of 

 rubble, and at her head, in an erect attitude, 

 the figure of the knight broken off at the 

 knees, the feet resting against a lion and 

 portions of his legs lying loose. At the back 

 and one end of the arch are slabs of alabaster, 

 divided into narrow trefoil-headed compart- 

 ments, containing alternately shields nearly 

 obliterated. These are parts (about one- 

 third) of the sides of the tomb ; the re- 

 mainder are said to have been taken away 

 and made into a pigsty. The tomb of the 

 fourth Sir Thomas Greene, died 1462, and 

 his wife, has been entirely destroyed, but the 



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