Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
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Brass in Minster Church, Sheppey is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
THIS rich specimen of military and female costume in the early part of the fourteenth century, is supposed to belong to the family of Northwood, which are ranked by Dugdale among the Barons of the Realm, they having been summoned to Parliament until the forty-ninth year of Edward the Third.
Northwood Chasteners (Chataigniers) so called from its indigenous chesnut trees, was an extensive manor in the parish of Milton, in the Isle of Sheppy. Roger de Northwode, who resided at the moated house here, was with Richard I at the siege of Acon, in the Holy Land; he and his Lady Bona were buried in Minster Church [Map], and Weever took these for their effigies: but the costume contradicts hima. Roger de Northwode, his son, procured of Henry III his lands in Kent to be held by knight's service instead of in gavel-kind. His son and successor, John de Northwode, was with Edward I at the siege of Carlaverock, where he was knighted. He was four times Sheriff of Kent in the reign of Edward I and was summoned to Parliament from the sixth to the twelfth year of Edward the Second. He married Joan de Badlesmere, probably a daughter of Bartholomew Lord Badlesmere, of Leeds Castle, in Kent, who suffered death for his political conduct in the reign of Edward the Second. John de Northwode died about 1337, and himself and his wife are perhaps the personages represented by this beautiful brass. There are many remarkable peculiarities about the armour of the male figure. The female wears the hair plaited and the wimple. The pointed lappets of her mantle, drawn over the shoulders, exhibit a lining of vair; originally a decoration of dress composed of small pieces of different coloured furs, afterwards an heraldic distinction. Northwood, according to Harris, bore, Ermine, a cross engrailed Gules. The bearing on the shield appears to be a cross engrailed, between twelve chesnut leaves for North- wood Chataigniers.
Note a. The costume cannot, however, be always considered as an infallible guide. "It was no uncommon thing to erect monuments to persons from one to five hundred years after their death, representing them in the habits of the time of the erection of the monument, and not of their own." Original Letter of C. A. Stothard, Memoirs, p. 13 i.