276 ANXIEXT MEMORIAL BRASSES OF DORSET. 



The inscription below in old Plnglish type is as follows : — 



*' Ifxre X\>etb Milliam IRapper, ifiSrotber unto Sr 

 IRobert IRapper Ikn^obt vvbo after jvi i^ears travell in 

 tora^ne lanbes marieD Bnne Sbelton tbe Dauobter 

 ot Milliain Sbelton of ©ncjer parfte in Bssej 

 Bsquier, b^ wboni be Mb vi Sonnes, an& nowe 

 bis soule be^noe witb (5o^, bis bo^ie bere restetb 



in 3esu Cbrist be^nge of tbe age of ^eres. 



Beceaseb tbe ba^c of Hnno 2)omini 



16 — " 



William Napper died in 1 61 6 — some years after his brass was cut. 



Heraldry. — On the shield immediately above the effigy are the 

 arms of Napper, als. Napier. Argent, a saliaire behveen four roses 

 gules (the saltaire should be engrailed), with a crest above, a lap- 

 wing. The crest otherwise given for Napier is, a dexter arm couped 

 at the elbow, vested gules, turned up argent, graspirtg a crescent proper. 



The arms above, on a small escutcheon, are a little puzzling, 

 but plain enough if read as being a shield belonging to a 

 monument to William Napper's grandfather and grandmother: 

 they are, Napper, impaling, ^r^^///, a lion 7-anipant gules, on a chief 

 sable ^ escallops of the first, Russell of Berwick, and no doubt were 

 engraved for James Napier, Esq., who settled at Swyre temp. 

 Henry VII. (son of Sir Alec. Napier, Kt., of Merchiston, 

 Scotland, by a sister of Robert Stewart, Duke of Athol), and 

 married Anne, daughter of John Russell of Berwick, Esq., and 

 his wife, Elizabeth, nee Frocksmer (see Swyre brass). 



The brother mentioned on the brass was Sir Robert Napper, 

 als. Napier, of Middlemarsh Hall, Dorset, Knt., Lord Chief 

 Baron of the Exchequer in Ireland 1593, High Sheriff of Dorset 

 1606, died 1 61 5, and buried at Minterne, who by his will 

 endowed and founded the Dorchester Almshouses, known by his 

 desire as " Napper's Mite," 20th August, 161 5, "tending only to 

 the glor)- of God and to the relief of the poor." 



