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The Bosworth Monument
Proposed Reconstruction
From 1839 until 2005, The Bosworth Memorial currently
sat along the North window
sills of St Giles Church. Now it has pride of place over the newly constructed
vestry. This is a summary of the report by the Oxford
Archaeological Unit which led to the planned move..
The Bosworth Memorial figures celebrates Harvest Festival 2002
The Oxford
Archaeological Unit was asked to survey the remaining figures of the
Bosworth monument in St Giles Church, with a view to the possibility of the
monument being conserved or reconstructed. The monument is of Henry Bosworth,
Mayor of Oxford, who died in 1633, his wife Alice, and their three children (two
daughters and a son). At present the figures are placed on window sills in the
north aisle of the church
The surviving parts consist of five figures
(two parents and three children) and an altar, all of limestone with traces of
paint. Two important records of the lost monument survive in the Bodleian
Library: a drawing of the entire monument,
and a transcript of the inscriptions. According to
Rawlinson, probably writing in 1718, ‘In the upper end of the north ile
against the east wall therof an alabaster monument, thereon the proportion of a
man & his wife kneeling before a table with the three children’. The
reconstruction drawing, an anonymous view occurring in an extra-illustrated
version of Peshall’s 1773 edition of Wood’s City of Oxford, is a
circumstantial record but does not indicate the location of the inscriptions,
and as would be expected is not actually drawn to scale.
For the present purpose the remaining parts
have been photographed with a digital camera, and reproduced at scale within a
version of the Bodleian drawing. The true heights of the figures are given in a
second version, from which the height of the whole monument can be estimated at
1.8 m. The depth of each row of figures is no more than .35 m, and must have
been placed on a stepped plinth.
A simple reconstruction of the monument could
be attempted by placing the figures in their correct relationship on a stepped
plinth. If desired, and even without any further construction, an indicative
arcade of painted columns and arches could be placed on the wall behind the
figures. The arrangement shown is an
illustration of one possible option of placing the figures with such a painted
background on the existing shelf above the south vestry door (and beneath the
existing cornice). With the paintwork of the figures conserved, and copies of
the inscriptions incorporated or placed nearby, this would be a fitting
reconstruction of the spirit of the original monument.
Julian Munby
Oxford Archaeological Unit
July 2001
Felici Memoriae Henrici Bosworth Huijus Urbis
Nuper Senatoris Superioris Ordinis, Qui Annum
Agens 55 Tandem Post Tres Liberos Natos, Et
Duos Eorum Hoc In Templo Sepultos 30 Die Jan.
Anno Dom. 1633 Vitam Fragilem Finivit In Ter~
Ris, Ut Beatior Aeternam viveret In Caelis.
Hoc Monumentum .Alicia Vidua Ipsius Adhuc
Superstes Maerens Posuit Anno Dom. 1635 |
Parum Viator Reprimas Gradus Tuos,
Et Huic Sepulchro Lumina Uda Conjice,
Situs Qui Intra, Qualibusque Moribus,
Novisse Gestis Parius Hic Narrat Lapis,
Plus, Benignus, Providens, Amans Fuit,
Deo, Propinquo, Liberis Et Conjugi:
Amicus, Hostis, Justus, Expansa Manu,
Probi,.Improbi, Negotiis Et Pauperi.
Ita Est Moratus, Prole Qui Cum Duplici
Hac Sacra In Urna Dormiens Reconditur |
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