At Dinsdale, on the southern margin of the county, close to the River Tees, there is in the church a late, small, but beautifully worked brass, only about 11 inches by 8 inches in size. It bears the coat of arms of eight quarterings, and records the merciful benefactions to the poor of the parish of Dinsdale of Mary, the wife of Thomas Spennithorne. She died in 1668, and was buried at Spennithorne.
In the magnificent cathedral of Durham most of the sepulchral monuments were destroyed either at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII., or when the cathedral church was used as a prison for Scotch prisoners of war after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. In 1671 Davies wrote his book on The Rites and Monuments of the Church of Durham, with the motto Tempora mutantur—on the title-page, giving a sad description of the past glories of the church. "Lodovic de bello Monte, Bishop of Durham," he says, "lieth buried before the high Altar in the Quire, under a most curious and sumptuous Marble stone, which he prepar’d for himself, before he died, being adorned with most excellent workmanship of Brass, wherein he was most excellently and lively Pictur’d, as he was accustomed to sing, or say Mass." This Bishop de bello Monte, or Beaumont, died at Brantingham, near Hull, in 1333. His gravestone, which was said to be the largest in England, still lies before the high-altar in Durham Cathedral, but the "most excellent workmanship of Brass" has utterly disappeared.
In Hartlepool Church there is a brass with the figure of a lady in a large hat, with ruff and farthingale; on another brass below it is the inscription:
HERE VNDER THiS STONE LYETH BVRiED THE BODiE OF THE VERTVOUS GENTELLWOMAN IANE BELL, WHO DEPTED THiS LYFE THE . vi. DAYE OF IANVARIE 1593 BEiNGE THE DOWGHTER OF LAVERANCE THORNELL OF DARLINGTON GENT & LATE WYFE TO PARSAVAL BELL, NOWE MAiRE OF THIS TOWEN OF HARTiNPOOELL. MARCHANT
whos vertues if thou wilt beholde
peruse this tabel hanginge bye
which will the same to thee vnfold
by her good lyfe learne thou to die.
In Haughton-le-Skerne Church there is a curious figure on a brass, representing a lady, who holds a baby on each arm. She was Dorothy, the wife of Robert Perkinson of Whessey, and she died, with her twin sons, in 1592.
At Houghton-le-Spring there is a brass to the memory of Margery, wife of Richard Bellasis. It pictures the kneeling figure of a woman with her eight sons and three daughters behind her. The Bellasis coat of arms is on the brass: the date is 1587.
In Sedgefield Church there is a rudely engraved, early brass, probably cut about the year 1300. It shows a small female figure, kneeling, and it has a coat of arms on both sides of the figure. From the shape of the two coats of arms, and from the conventional treatment of the features of the face, which is more carefully executed than the rest of the figure, it is believed that this is one of the oldest sepulchral brasses now remaining in England.
The tombstone to Dean Rudde, which lies in the floor of the chancel of Sedgefield Church, still carries its inscribed brass. The stone is a very large one. The black-letter epitaph is so much worn by the tread of the feet of many generations that it can only be read with some uncertainty. It seems to run:
Orate p aīa m̄ri Joh̄is Rudde in decretis baccalarii quondm̄ decani hui’ loci qui obiit xxix die decēbr’ Anno dn̄i Mº CCCCº lxxxx cui’ āīē ppiciet de’ amen.