The church is somewhat poor in detail, having suffered from the zeal of reformers, and from the ignorance and carelessness of "Bumbledom" in the succeeding centuries. At the Reformation there came down a fellow with a "counterfeit commission," and for "avoiding of superstition" tore up all the memorial brasses on the tombs, so that those that are left date from Elizabethan times—or later—and are of small interest. In a "restoration" of 1851 there was a regular "double twilight" among the tombs, which were taken up from their original resting-places, and deposited wherever the restorer thought fit. Amongst those thus displaced, and now standing at the west end of the north aisle, was the alabaster tomb of Julines Nethermyl, a worthy draper of the city, whose family entered the ranks of the squirearchy of Warwickshire, and bore arms like gentlefolk. In the front of the tomb is a bas-relief of Julines and his wife, with their five sons and five daughters, and the following inscription:—
"Hic jacit Julianus Nethermyl, pannarius, quondam Maior hujus civitatis, qui obiit xi die mensis Aprilis anno domini MDXXXIX., et Johanna, uxor ejus, quorum animabus propitietur Deus. Amen."[737]
The various crafts or trading companies had special chapels allotted to their use before the Reformation; the dyers, the present baptistery; the cappers, one adjoining the south aisle, while in a little parvise over the south porch, they still meet once a year, transact the company's business, eat, drink, and spread upon the table the venerable velvet cloth, once a pall, an interesting relic, albeit torn and faded, of the days when the making of cloth caps was one of the main industries of the city. The smiths and girdlers had chapels off the north aisle; and the drapers and mercers the space at the east end of the north and south aisles respectively. It was from its place among its fellows in the drapers' chapel that Nethermyl's tomb was brought, and many others stand behind a railing in the Mercers' Chapel in the south aisle. Here is a much defaced early Renaissance erection, traditionally known as "Wayd's tomb," and a most interesting relic of a city officer in the memorial to Dame Elizabeth Swillington and her two husbands, one of whom, Ralph Swillington, was sometime recorder of the city. Round the tomb is the legend: "Orate pro anima Elizabethe Swyllington, vidue, nuper uxoris Radulphi Swillyngton, Attornati Generalis Domini Regis Henrici octavi, Recordatoris Civitatis Coventrensis; quondam uxoris Thome Essex, armigeri; que quidem Elizabeth obiit anno domini millessimo CCCCC—."[738] The worthy attorney-general and recorder lies on the side nearest the spectator; the squire, Master Thomas Essex, in armour, on the side farthest off; Dame Elizabeth, wearing a pedimental head-dress, her hands raised in supplication, in the middle. The dame, the date of whose death is unknown, as the tomb was erected in her lifetime, lived at Stivichall, near Coventry, and gave £140 for the support of the poor and repair of roads in the neighbourhood of the city. Master Swyllington, who was made recorder in 1515, doubtless discharged his duties with all faithfulness, but I know of no memorable event in which he figures during his tenure of office.
All the pre-Reformation brasses save the one commemorating Thomas Bond are gone. One in the west end on the north aisle shows Maria Hinton (1594) and four swaddled babes. She was the wife of that Archdeacon of Coventry and Vicar of S. Michael's who had such a troublesome correspondence with James I. about non-kneeling communicants. Another in the south aisle shows the figure of Ann Sewell (1609) kneeling in prayer. The inscription runs:—
"Her zealous care to serve her God
Her constant love to husband deare,
Her harmless harte to everie one,
Doth live, although her corps lie here.
God graunte us all, while glass doth run
To live in Christ as she has done."
"Ann Sewell, ye wife of William Sewell, of this cytty, vintner, departed this life ye 20th of December, 1609, of the age of 46 yeares. An humble follower of her Saviour Christ, and a worthy stirrer up of others to all holy virtues."
The Sewell family, which gave two mayors to Coventry, have a great many American descendants.
On the wall near the south porch is a brass to Gervase Scrope (1705), who describes himself "as an old toss'd Tennis Ball."
In the Cappers' Chapel by the south porch are the Hopkins' tombs; and in the Dyers' Chapel is a monument to female friendship commemorating Dame Bridgman and Mrs Eliza Samwell. Above "Wayd's" tomb in the Mercers' Chapel is a monument to Lady Sheffington (1637), whose husband is described as a "true moaneing turtle."