The tomb of Archbishop Scrope is on the north side of the altar in the Lady Chapel. This Archbishop joined the insurrection against Henry IV, and was beheaded in a field on Bishopthorpe Road. Four of the vicars-choral conveyed the body to the Minster and buried it in the chapel of St. Stephen. Scrope was generally regarded as a martyr.
In the vestry is the Horn of Ulphus, formed from an elephant’s tusk, the mouth of which is encircled by a carved band of oriental design. Shortly before the Norman Conquest, Ulph, son of Thorold, lord of a great part of eastern Yorkshire, laid this horn on the altar in token that he bestowed certain lands on the Minster. There are also an ancient coronation chair, the mazer bowl of Archbishop Scrope inscribed: “+Recharde arche beschope Scrope grantis on to alle that drinkis of this cope XLti dayis to pardune”, a silver pastoral staff bearing the arms of Catherine of Braganza, taken by the Earl of Danby from James Smith, Bishop of Callipolis, whilst walking in procession to the Minster to assume the office of vicar-apostolic of the Northern District, to which he had been appointed by the Pope. Adjoining the vestry is the chapel of Archbishop Zouche, which contains a picturesque mediaeval well. Near the entrance to the crypt are two fine quadrant cope chests covered with gracefully curved ironwork.
Amongst the monuments in the Minster is an effigy of Prince William of Hatfield, the second son of Edward III. The others are principally of archbishops. The tomb of Walter de Gray consists of a bearded effigy on a slab under a solid canopy supported by shafts. That of William Greenfield is a table tomb bearing a brass on which he is depicted. Above is a roofed canopy surmounted by a figure of the archbishop. On a table tomb is a recumbent effigy of Archbishop Savage under a panelled, arched canopy. Henry Bowet was buried in a tomb surmounted by a lofty canopy. That of John Dolben, who bore the Royalist standard at Marston Moor, is figured in white marble. The effigy reclines on a high base. Treasurer Haxey’s memorial represents a wasted corpse in a winding sheet, worked in stone; an iron trellis surrounds it, supporting a black marble slab on which minster dues used to be paid. In the north transept is a memorial window to Sir Frank Lockwood, M.P. for York. The inscription below is by Lord Rosebery. In the south transept is a beautiful monument to the late Dean Duncombe. The monument to the wife of Archbishop Matthews records she was first married to a son of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury.
“She was a woman of exemplary wisdom, gravity, piety, bounty, and indeed in other virtues not only above her sex, but the times. One excellent act of her, first derived upon this church, and through it flowing upon the country, deserves to live as long as the church itself. The library of the deceased archbishop, consisting of above three thousand books, she gave it entirely to the public use of this church. A rare example that so great care to advance learning should lodge in a woman’s breast! but it was the less wonder in her because she was kin to so much learning.”
She was the daughter of a bishop, and one of four sisters all of whom married bishops.
The Minster Close is bounded on two sides by the city walls. At Westminster on 18 May, 1285, Edward I granted a
“License for the Dean and Chapter of St. Peter’s, York, to enclose the churchyard and precinct of their church with a stone wall twelve feet high all round, for the prevention of nocturnal incursions of thieves in the streets and lanes in the said precinct,