Tathwell is a village in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The parish church is dedicated to Saint Vedast. There are only two churches dedicated to Vedast in Britain.
The following is from St. Vedast’s Church, Tathwell:
“Vedast was a monk in northern France. He is believed to have been born about 450 AD and was made the first Bishop of Arras in 499, holding the position until his death in 540.
The church at Tathwell was already dedicated to Vedast by 1182 however it is not known why. It is a rare dedication in England. There are known to have been two such dedications in Norfolk in medieval times, but now only one other remains, in Foster Lane, London.
A previous building may have been there in Saxon times as a section of ornamented tenth century grave cover has been found. However, the oldest portion of this building is the base of the tower dating from the 12th century. For reasons unknown the church was largely rebuilt in brick in 1778. The present windows were inserted in 1857 and the south door and porch in 1889.”
The pictures of the church were taken August 2019.
The church houses The Hamby Monument, a wall monument originally constructed around 1620, and later restored by their descendants, the Chaplin family. (In 1657, Sir John Hamby’s daughter Elizabeth married John Chaplin, son of Sir Francis Chaplin.)
This picture of the interior of the church is from The Churches of Legbourne Woldmarsh. The Hamby monument is on the left.
The following photo and other views of the monument at Hamby Monument were taken in 2011 by J. Hannan-Briggs.
Photo © J.Hannan-Briggs (cc-by-sa/2.0)
The following description was compiled by Julian P. Guffogg, from Hamby Memorial, St. Vedast’s Church, Tathwell:
“The Hamby Monument was originally erected in around the 1620’s as a single wall monument with kneeling figures of a couple of adults and all of the small children kneeling below. It is thought that sometime later a similar wall monument, possibly to the same family, was removed from the wall opposite to enable the large hanging wall monument by Prince Hoare of Bath to be erected. Rather than have the trouble of re-erecting the monument it was added on to the top of this one to leave it as it is today. The only other alteration which was carried out was the white marble tablet with the Chaplin inscription was inserted between the two lower adult figures round about 1714. So this monument was in actual fact originally two.
John Hamby was one of the Auditors to Elizabeth I and the family home was Brocklesby. He became very wealthy and as well as in 1567 bought Tathwell Manor and other manors. John married Jane Pickering of London and had 10 children. He died in 1573. His eldest son William (to whom the memorial is dedicated) was then aged 17. William died. unmarried, age 70, at Tathwell on January 21, 1626, having inherited the majority of his father’s lands which he left to his nephew Francis Hamby. He also instructed his executors to set up a monument of black marble with white alabaster pillars in memory of himself and his brother Edward and his wife Elizabeth, and their 13 children are depicted beneath. Other sons of John Hamby were Richard, vicar of Tathwell, Haughham and Raithby, and Allen, rector of Navenby.