Then we have Henry the Eighth, a shepherdess, “a Witch with blue gown, red petticoat and high crowned hat,” a friar in a mask, a Sardinian knight, a Puritan, a sailor, “Lord Vere Bertie a very good Falstaff,” and many Spaniards, among them “Dr. Willis: a Spaniard with a prodigious good mask.”
THE NORTON DISNEY BRASS
NORTON DISNEY
Norton Disney (= de Isigny, a place near Bayeux) was the home of a family who lived here from the thirteenth century to nearly the end of the seventeenth.
THE BRASS
The castle was in the field near the church, just across the road to the west, but has quite disappeared, as has also the seventeenth century manor-house. The church, which is well worth a visit, belonged to the Gilbertines of Sempringham (see Chap. [IV.]). The manor is now the property of Lord St. Vincent, a title bestowed on Admiral Sir John Jervis when he so handsomely defeated the Spaniards near the cape of that name on the coast of Portugal in 1797. On opening the door you find that you have to descend three steps into the church. Here the arcade consists of two Norman arches, and one next the chancel smaller and of later date. There are old carved benches without poppy-heads, and a very plain old oak screen with rood stairs on the south side. The east window is filled with stained glass in memory of the Lord St. Vincent who fell at Tel-el-Kebir. The aisle has an old roof with carved bosses, and there is a very deeply carved font. Outside, the look of the church is spoilt by some very inharmonious additions, among these is the north chapel to the chancel, inside which, on a rough brick floor, are the monuments which give the church its interest; these are six in number, three to ladies. One of them is a recumbent effigy in coif and wimple of “Joan d’Iseney,” 1300. One a curious sepulchral slab with the half-effigy of a lady at one end and her feet showing at the other, with Norman French inscription to “Joan Disney.” Another is the recumbent effigy of Hantascia Disney, a name of frequent use in the family. Close to this on the ground is a slab with the matrix of a fine brass of a knight under a canopy, while another knight is on an altar tomb in the chancel. These are all of the fourteenth century. But the most important is a brass of the sixteenth century. This is a thick brass plate three feet by two, now set in an oak frame and hinged so that one may see the reverse side on which is engraved a long inscription in Dutch recording the foundation of a chantry in Holland in 1518 by Adrian Ardenses and the Lady Josephine Van de Steine. The face of this brass is divided horizontally into five compartments, at the top is a pediment with a shield bearing the Disney arms impaling those of Joiner in the centre, and on either side are crests of the Disney and Hussey family—a lion passant regardant and a stag couchant under a tree. The next compartment shows the half-length figures with their names below of “Willm Disney Esquier” in armour and helmeted, and “Margaret Joiner” his wife; he in profile, she three-quarters face, they are kneeling at a faldstool with open books, their hands joined in prayer, and between them on a scroll: “Sufferance dothe Ease.” Behind him are four sons and behind her five daughters, all with hands joined in prayer and with their names engraved on labels above them. The next compartment shows three shields with the arms of Hussey, Disney and Ayscough, in which Hussey has three squirrels sitting up, Disney has three fleurs de lys, and Ayscough three asses coughing. In the compartment below these are the half-length figures of Richard Disney, full face in armour with very high shoulder-pieces, and his two wives who are three-quarter face; and below are their names engraved thus: “Nele daughter of Sr Wilton Husey Knyght, Richard Disney, Janne daughʳ of Sʳ Wilton Ayscoughe Kᵗ.” Behind the first wife are ranged in two tiers her seven sons and five daughters and their names were engraved above them. “Sara, Ester, Judeth, Judet and Susan” are still there, but the sons’ names are gone; a bit of the brass which held them, about six inches by one and a half, having been cut out, in connection, it is said, with a lawsuit arising out of Richard Disney’s will. They can be supplied from Gervase Holles’ MS. as William, Humphrey, John, Daniel, Ciriac, Zachariah and Isaac.
The lowest compartment has this inscription:—
“The lyfe, conversacion and seruice, of the first above named Willm Disney and of Richard Disney his Sonne were comendable amongest their Neigbours trewe and fathefull to ther prince and cutree and acceptable to Thallmighty of Whome we trust they are receved to Saluation accordinge to the Stedfast faythe which they had in and throughe the mercy and merit of Christ oʳ Savior. Thes truthes are thus sette forthe that in all ages God may be thankfully Glorified for thes and suche lyke his gracious benefites.”
THE DISNEYS
No dates are given, but William Disney’s will was proved in 1540; Richard Disney’s in 1578; and that of Jane, the second wife of Richard, in 1591. She was the younger sister of Anne Askew, who was so cruelly burnt for heresy at Smithfield in 1546, because she had read the Bible to some poor folk in the cathedral. She had previously been married to George St. Poll of Snarford, by whom she had a son. Canon Cole, in his “Notes on the Ecclesiastical History of the Deanery of Graffoe during the 15th and 16th centuries,” says that “such demi figures as these are rare in the 16th century, and helmets are seldom seen on the heads of knights at this date,” and he shows an engraving of the brass, which, of course, cannot be earlier than 1578. Richard Disney was one of those who profited most largely by the dissolution of the monasteries. His first wife, Nele Hussey, was grand-daughter of the unfortunate John Lord Hussey, who was beheaded in 1537. Early in the next century one branch of the Disneys removed from Norton to the next parish of Carlton-le-Moorland, where Ursula Disney’s burial on August 22, 1615, is in the register; and her husband, Thomas, removed to Somerton Castle, three miles to the east, the lease of which he bought from Sir George Bromley, but, having no issue, he sold it again to Sir Edward Hussey. Canon Cole also notices that it was while the Disneys were at Carlton that the very unusual event in Elizabethan times, the rebuilding of a great part of the parish church, took place. Churches, as a rule, were getting dilapidated, and the archdeacon’s visitations, preserved in the bishop’s registry at Lincoln, some of which go back to the time of Henry VII., show many presentments for absence of service-books, decay of walls and roofs, or churchyard fences. For instance, at Bassingham in 1601 the churchwardens are cited “for that their churchyard fences toward the street are in manie places downe, by reason whereof their churchyard is abused by swyne and such unseemlie cattell.”