Image ID: 18451

Holme Pierrepont Church of St Edmund

Next to Holme Pierrepont Hall
Holme Pierrepont
England

The church, dedicated to St Edmund, contains numerous monuments of the Pierrepont family. Its form is gothic, but in the style of the time of Henry VII, with large and numerous windows, and consisting of a nave, side aisles, and a square tower surmounted by a handsome lofty spire. The family vault of the late Dukes of Kingston, and of Earl Manvers, is on the north side of the choir, with a lofty monument over it, supported by Corinthian pillars and ornamented by deaths heads in wreaths, intermixed with fruit and foliage. The inscription informs us that: 'here lyeth the Illustrious Princess Gertrude, Countess of Kingston, daughter of Henry Talbot Esq., son to George, late Earl of Shrewsbury. She was married to the most noble and excellent Earl of Kingston'. A very fine altar tomb to the memory of Sir Henry Pierrepont, Knight, in 1615, is on the south side. He is in armour, and in the attitude of prayer. On the sides of the tomb are a son, four daughters, and an infant in swaddling clothes, and over it an highly ornamented tablet. Here' too, is buried 'Young Oldham', considered to be a poet of great merit, and patronised by William, Earl of Kingston, who also wrote the very elegant Latin inscription on his monument. An amusing tale is told in J Holland Walker's 'Links with Old Nottingham' :- 'An extraordinary story is told of the second Earl. He became enraptured by the beauty of Miss Chudleigh, who, in addition to receiving his advances and encouraging those of the Duke of Kingston, married a certain Captain Harvey. After a few years she got tired of Captain Harvey, and finding all the witnesses of the wedding were dead, she destroyed the register of her marriage, and in 1679 married the Earl of Kingston. She led him a dreadful life, and after his death seized upon certain family properties and succeeded in estranging her friends. News of her bigamous marriage leaked out, and she took refuge in France, where she died. Her true character came out just before her end. She had spent the greater part of her life tormenting and worrying the wretched Earl, her husband, and her final wish was that her coffin should be chained to his in the vault of Holme Pierrepont Church, a wish which, needless to say, was never carried out.'

Date: 1947

Organisation Reference: NCCS001504

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