Text this colour is a link for Members only. Support us by becoming a Member for only £3 a month by joining our 'Buy Me A Coffee page'; Membership gives you access to all content and removes ads.

Text this colour links to Pages. Text this colour links to Family Trees. Place the mouse over images to see a larger image. Click on paintings to see the painter's Biography Page. Mouse over links for a preview. Move the mouse off the painting or link to close the popup.



All About History Books

The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.

XXXIX Monument Of Mrs Howard By Nollekens In Wetheral Church, Near Corby, On The Banks Of The Eden

XXXIX Monument Of Mrs Howard By Nollekens In Wetheral Church, Near Corby, On The Banks Of The Eden is in Wordsworth Poems.

Stretched on the dying Mother's lap, lies dead

Her new-born Babe; dire ending of bright hope!

But Sculpture here, with the divinest scope

Of luminous faith, heavenward hath raised that head

So patiently; and through one hand has spread

A touch so tender for the insensate Child

(Earth's lingering love to parting reconciled,

Brief parting, for the spirit is all but fled)

That we, who contemplate the turns of life

Through this still medium, are consoled and cheered;

Feel with the Mother, think the severed Wife

Is less to be lamented than revered;

And own that Art, triumphant over strife

And pain, hath powers to Eternity endeared.

Become a Member via our 'Buy Me a Coffee' page to read complete text.

On 9th September 1789 Maria Archer (age 21) died in childbirth at Corby Castle, Cumberland [Map]. Monument in Holy Trinity Church, Wetheral [Map] sculpted by Joseph Nollekens (age 52) costing £1500. He regarded it as his finest work; entitled Faith. When Nollekens realized that his work was destined for so remote a part of the Kingdom it is said that he burst into tears as he felt so few people would see it. This work is represented on the Nollekens Monument in Paddington Parish Church by William Behnes. On seeing the sculpture Wordsworth wrote "XXXIX Monument Of Mrs Howard By Nollekens In Wetheral Church, Near Corby, On The Banks Of The Eden".

Maria Archer: Around 1768 she was born to Andrew Archer 2nd Baron Archer and Sarah West Baroness Archer. On 22nd November 1788 Henry Howard and she were married.