Alas, this particular heraldic rabbit hole turned out to be mostly empty. Because I could find very little about the men it memorializes, and next to nothing about the coat of arms carved onto it.
Still, it's more about the journey than it is the destination, isn't it?
Here is the memorial to Lt. Gen. Henry Withers, with an additional inscription to his close friend, Col. Henry Disney.
The Lieutenant General has his own page on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Withers
However, he does not appear in my digital copy of the Dictionary of National Biography (including Supplements 1 and 2), or much of anywhere else that I could find. And for that matter, neither does Col. Disney.
We are told that his background and origins are unknown, although the funeral monument here states he was descended from a military family and gives his age as 78, which means he was born about 1651. He never married; his will divided his estate between his sister Elizabeth and his close friend, Colonel Henry Disney, with whom he shared a house in Greenwich and who arranged his burial here in Westminster Abbey.* His memorial contains lines reportedly written by the poet Alexander Pope, who was a friend of both men.
Beneath in its own panel is the added inscription for Disney:
My best blazon would be: Quarterly; 1 and 4, ? three lions passant guardant in pale ?; 2 and 3, ? three escallops ?.
However, he does not appear in my digital copy of the Dictionary of National Biography (including Supplements 1 and 2), or much of anywhere else that I could find. And for that matter, neither does Col. Disney.
We are told that his background and origins are unknown, although the funeral monument here states he was descended from a military family and gives his age as 78, which means he was born about 1651. He never married; his will divided his estate between his sister Elizabeth and his close friend, Colonel Henry Disney, with whom he shared a house in Greenwich and who arranged his burial here in Westminster Abbey.* His memorial contains lines reportedly written by the poet Alexander Pope, who was a friend of both men.
Here WITHERS, rest! thou bravest, gentlest mind, thy country's friend, but more of human kind. Oh born to arms! Oh worth in youth approv'd! Oh soft humanity, in age belov'd! For thee the hardy vet'ran drops a tear, And the gay courtier feels his sigh sincere. WITHERS adieu! yet not with thee remove, Thy martial spirit, or thy social love. Amidst corruption, luxury, and rage, Still leave some ancient virtues to our age; Nor let us say (those English glories gone) The last true Briton lies beneath this stone.
Beneath in its own panel is the added inscription for Disney:
Near this place lyes the remains of Collonell HENRY DESNEY who surviving his freind [sic] and companion Lieutenant Generall WITHERS but 2 years and 10 days is at his desire buryed in the same grave with him. Obit 21 die Novembris 1731
At the base of the monument is this coat of arms (unhatched, and thus we can only guess, probably incorrectly, at what the color are supposed to be):
My best blazon would be: Quarterly; 1 and 4, ? three lions passant guardant in pale ?; 2 and 3, ? three escallops ?.
I have no idea where these arms come from. They do not appear in either Burke's General Armory or Papworth's Ordinary of British Armorials.
Burke gives a similar coat to the first and fourth quarters for "Disney (Lincolnshire). Argent three lions passant in pale gules." However, the lions here are also guardant, so there may or may not be a relationship to Col. Disney.
Burke gives a similar coat to the first and fourth quarters for "Disney (Lincolnshire). Argent three lions passant in pale gules." However, the lions here are also guardant, so there may or may not be a relationship to Col. Disney.
* Sure, let’s go ahead and pretend that Withers and Disney were merely good friends and companions. You know, like Achilles and Patroclus in the Iliad, or more recently in American history, J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson. But don't get me wrong; I do not intend this as a slur on either man. It simply is what it is.
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