A Memorial to a Wife

For our next piece of heraldry at Canterbury Cathedral, we come to the memorial to Priscilla (Fotherby) Kingsley, erected by her husband.

A (very) loose translation of the Latin text of this memorial is found in The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury by John Dart (1726)

Near this Place lies interr’d PRISCILLA, the Daughter of Thomas Fotherby,

Esq.; wife to William Kingsley, Gentleman;

to whom she bare seven Children, William,

Anna, Thomas, Anthony, Phoebe, Elizabeth, and Edward.

She was always earnestly enflam’d with Zeal, for divine Worship and pure Religion.

She was Dutiful to her Parents, Courteous and Civil to all.

A loving Wife. An indulgent Mother. And in a Word

a Woman of primitive Faith and Virtue.

After she had long Languished with that Chronical Distemper, she died the Day after

the Nones of August,

in the Year of our Lord

1683. Aged 33.

In Memory of his beloved Wife,

her sorrowful Husband hath erected this Monument.

William Kingsley (the eldest grandson of archdeacon Kingsley) and Priscilla Fotherby were married on June 15, 1667 (when she was 17 or 18) by Mr. Alday, then Vice-Dean.

The shield at the top of the monument shows the marshaled arms of William and Priscilla (Fotherby) Kingsley:

Though carved here uncolored, the blazon of this marshaled coat is: Vert a cross engrailed argent (Kingsley), impaled by Gules a cross composed of nine of lozenges at each end a fleur-de-lis or (Fotherby).