THORNTON. 



and feminine appearance of the figure does not war- 

 rant that conclusion, but favour the supposition that 

 it was intended rather to represent the beautiful 

 lady Catharine Cliomley, or one of her predecessors, 

 herself being buried at Whitby, than her husband 

 Sir Richard," the great black knight of the north ;*" 

 unless we suppose the artist to have had strange 

 notions of giant limbs, martial beauty, and military 

 attire. 



On the south side of the chancel is a neat tablet 

 of white marble, in memory of Ann, the wife of the 

 Rev. John Webb, who died 22 of Nov., 1812, ae. 52. 

 There are other monuments in the chancel to the 

 memory of John Hill, and Richard Johnson Hill, 

 Esqrs. ; the latter of whom was cut off in the prime 

 of life, in 1793, at the early age of 32 : and in the 



* Sir Richard Chomley, who usually resided at Rox- 

 by, near Thornton, had so much enlarged his possessions 

 in Yorkshire, that he was nearly upon an equality with 

 the first nobility. He loved pomp, and generally had 

 50 or 60 servants in attendance; nor would he ever go to 

 London without a retinue of 30 or 40 men. He was 

 bred a soldier, and delighted much in feats of war, be- 

 ing tall in stature and strongly made. His hair and 

 eyes black, and his complexion so swarthy, that he was 

 called " the great Black Knight of the north." His se- 

 cond wife was lady Catherine Clifford, one of the most 

 celebrated beauties of the age in which she lived; and 

 Henry VIII , during the life of her first husband, Lord 

 Scrope, having heard much of her charms, desired him 

 to bring her to court, which he declined. She was a 

 woman of singular prudence and virtue, and lived hap- 

 pily with Sir diehard until the time of his death, which 

 happened at Roxby, A. D. 1 578, in the 64th year of his 

 age. He was buried in Thornton church, in which 

 there is an ancient monument, with a recumbent figure 

 supposed to be his. 



IlindcrweU's Scarborough, p. 344* 



