By far the largest and most striking of the wall monuments is a Jacobean family memorial of the 17th century set within an architectural frame of pink and black. The two principal figures, William Boteler (died 1601) and Ursula Boteler (died 1621) kneel facing one another either side of a prie-dieu.
Sir William wears plate body, arm and leg armour with white ruff at neck and cuffs. He is bare-headed, with beard, moustache and shoulder-length hair. His wife is dressed all in black except for her neck and cuff ruffs, with an arched widow’s hood and long veil hanging down over her pleated farthingale. Below the parents, the two sons and three daughters, one holding a skull to show that she has already died, kneel in similar fashion. The family crest, above, is surmounted by a boar’s head and neck.
Underneath, the epitaph for Sir William ends:
Thus walkt hee here uprightly his dayes ended
His soule oulde Jacob’s ladder is ascended
And for his wife, Ursula:
Here livd belovd, here lieth, belovd though dead
That hand dispensing still his dayly bread.
The monument was erected by their second son, Oliver Boteler, and Oliver’s brother-in-law, Richard Taylor, who married Oliver’s sister, Elizabeth.
There are two more noteworthy 1 7th century memorial brasses:
A memorial brass, ‘Helen Boteler, d 1639, wife of William Boteler of Biddenham and daughter of George Nodes of Shephall Esq’ is on the north wall of the north aisle. The top of the brass contains the incised half portrait of a lady in a Tudor gown with large puffed and slashed sleeves. Across the wide collar lies a chain necklace and large ornament. The lower section contains a Latin eulogy, the second half of which is a clever play on words.
Alice, wife of Edward Osborne, eldest daughter of William Boteler, departed this life on 12 June 1615. She was honoured with an acrostic epitaph on the north wall of the chancel:
Among the best, above the most admired,
Lovely to all, loving to whom she ought,
In zeale to God and goodness holy-fired,
Charie and chaste in word, and deed, and thought,
Exact in all that in that sexe is dearest,
Of vertue fullest, and of vices cleerest.
Sweet young resemblance of old Sacred Mothers
Blessed example (present and to come)
Of pious pity to her owne and others;
Rare help; rich hap to her deer Pheer at home;
None such as she thinks hee who, still her debtor
Huge thanks to Katherine Fricker, Mary McKeown and Diana Toyn for the exquisitely written “The Village of Biddenham through the Ages” book and to Mary for granting permission to use fragments in the writing of this section.