Exeter Photo Walk 7 The Cathedral Treasures

This is a story about the history of Exeter and Great Britain and reveals how important a place Exeter held in that history. It's a tale of empire, invasion and occupation. It weaves its way through many of the most famous Kings and Queens of England and later the United Kingdom. Death from tropical disease, murder in the South Seas, mob violence and murder closer to home, and the turmoil of Royal disputes. Treasure hunters and knights and an evil scheming Queen nicknamed the "She Wolf of France".

This post features what there is to see inside the cathedral. For the building you can check out my previous post. Exeter Photo Walk 6 The Cathedral.

I am starting the tour with this beautiful bas relief "war memorial", featuring soldiers on horse back in warmer climes. It was erected in 1860 by the 9th Queens Royal Lancers but doesn't seem to relate to any specific war. It is erected in memory of all their comrades who fell in service in India. Interestingly those dying in action have just over one column for their names while those killed "From Effects Of Climate" have nearly two columns. The weather proved more deadly than the combat.

Further research revealed that this "action" relates to the Indian Mutiny. The Indian Mutiny or Sepoy Mutiny was a major uprising against British rule in India, between 1857 and 1859. At the time, British rule was carried out by the British East India Company. The mutiny ultimately led to a transfer of power from the company to the British Crown and ushered in the era of The British Raj.

One of those mentioned was....

Edinburgh Evening Courant - Tuesday 01 March 1859

Death of Major O. H. St G. Anson.—We have to record the death of Brevet Major Octavius Henry George Anson, son of the late General Sir George Anson, G.C.B., which occurred at Deyrah Dhoon on the 14th ult., from the great fatigue and exposure during the late mutiny. He served with the 9th Lancers in the battle of Punniar, for which he received a medal; the campaign on the Sutlej in 1846, including the battle of Sobraon, for which he received a medal; he was also in the Punjaub campaign of 1848-49, including the passage of the Chenab at Ramnuggur and battles of Chillianwallah and Goojerat for which he received a medal and clasps. He had served throughout the Punjaub and Gwallior campaigns, also from the siege of Delhi to the fall of Lucknow.

Octavius Henry St. George Anson (1817 - 1859)

The Minstrels’ Gallery high up in the north wall of the nave was created in the mid 14th century. Along its front, twelve angels are playing medieval instruments, giving the balcony its modern name and perhaps suggesting its function as a location for musicians and singers. It is the only medieval gallery of this type in England. Exeter Cathedral

Illustrated London News - Saturday 24 June 1933

The Martyr's Pulpit was one of the features added during the Victorian restoration carried out by George Gilbert Scott.

Scott’s last design for Exeter was the nave pulpit. This was paid for by a subscription raised to commemorate Bishop John Coleridge Patteson (1827-1871), the first bishop of Melanesia, who was killed on the Pacific island of Nukapu in 1871. The pulpit at Exeter is an elaborate design made by Luscombe in Mansfield stone, with panels of figure sculpture carved by Farmer and Brindley and was set up in 1877.

John Coleridge Patteson was an English Anglican bishop, and a missionary to the South Sea Islands, and an accomplished linguist, learning 23 of the islands' more than 1,000 languages.

In 1861, Patteson was selected as the first Bishop of the Anglican Church of Melanesia. He was killed on Nukapu, one of the easternmost islands of the Solomon Islands, on 20 September 1871.

Salisbury and Winchester Journal - Saturday 20 October 1877

A magnificently carved pulpit has been erected in memory of the late Bishop Patteson, who was killed in the South Pacific. Bishop Patteson was of a Devonshire family, and was ordained in Exeter Cathedral. The pulpit is yellow Mansfield stone, and rests on shafts of Devonshire marble. In the centre panel is representation of the body of the bishop being carried to the canoe that was to convey it to the ship lying off shore. The side panels represent the martyrdoms of St. Boniface and St. Alban.

The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica says that Patteson was taken for a blackbirder (Blackbirding was the trade in indentured labourers from the Pacific in the 19th and early 20th centuries), and killed, but the natives realised their mistake and treated his body with respect, as it was found floating at sea, placed in a canoe, covered with a palm fibre matting, and a palm-branch in his hand". Wikipedia

The Exeter Cathedral Astronomical Clock dates from the fifteenth-century. It displays the hour of the day, the day of the lunar month and the phase of the moon. The modern clock mechanism was installed in 1885 by Gillett & Bland of Croydon, and restored in 1910. The Latin inscription "Pereunt et imputantur" below the main dial may be translated as "The hours pass and are reckoned to our account".

In the north aisle is this memorial belonging to Valentine Carey. He was born in about 1570 and his origins are uncertain but even with uncertain even possibly illegitimate beginnings he became the Bishop of Exeter. He was born in Berwick upon Tweed probably to the Hunsdon family and it is supposed that he was the illegitimate son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon. Illegitimate children of the nobility, while not having any legal status were usually still treated as nobility and usually given a suitable place in society. Illegitimate sons of Kings for example usually ended up as Dukes even if they couldn't enter the line of succession to the throne.

He had a distinguished career in the church and prior to taking up the post of Bishop of Exeter he was the Dean of St. Paul's in London. He was the Dean of the older St. Paul's, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. That cathedral was built in 1087 through to 1314. When Carey died in 1626, he was living in London, and as requested in his will, he was buried at old St. Paul's. Any tomb there was destroyed along with the cathedral in the Great Fire. This monument and effigy still survive in Exeter.

I cannot put a name to this tomb in the north aisle but it is not an uncommon sight in buildings of this age. Accurate depictions of cadavers on tombs were a valuable reminder of our immortality.

This is the Speke Chantry, a small chapel (The Chapel of St. George) dedicated to the tomb of Sir John Speke (1442 - 1518). Speke was Sheriff of Devon in 1517 and a Member of Parliament (1477). He was knighted in 1501.

The office of Sheriff is the oldest under the Crown. It is over 1000 years old; it was established before the Norman Conquest. It remained first in precedence in the counties, until the reign of Edward VII, when an Order in Council in 1908 gave the Lord-Lieutenant the prime office under the Crown as the Sovereign's personal representative.

The carvings in the chapel feature the Speke family arms of the double headed eagle and crest. The hedgehog of the crest features throughout. As here on a ceiling boss.

Moving on and this is the interior of the chapel of St. John the Evangelist which contains the tomb of Sir Gawen Carew, his wife Mary and that of his nephew Sir Peter Carew. It was erected in 1589 and restored in 1857.

Gawen or Gawain was an MP for Devon and for Plympton. He was a fourth son and his grandfather was Attorney General for England and Wales under Edward IV and Henry VII. As a fourth son he did not inherit titles or land but on the death of his father he did inherit £200 (£133,000 today) to be paid on his marriage. His father willed that he and his brother were left in the care of their older brother Nicholas.

Although well connected in Devon, his early career was at court in London. He had much involvement with affairs of state at the time. It was a risky time to be at court and individuals could fall in or out of favour. In 1538 he was imprisoned after killing an adversary but by 1540 he was receiving Anne of Cleves at Blackheath, fourth wife of Henry VIII.

Following the outbreak of war with France in 1543, Carew was ordered to accompany Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, to the Netherlands, and he brought with him four horsemen and four footmen. In 1544, he took part in the Boulogne campaign and in 1545 he captained the Matthew Gonson in naval engagements. He received his knighthood in 1545.

Carew testified against Queen Catherine Howard at her trial in 1542. As I said, it was a very risky business. He is accompanied in the tomb by his third wife Elizabeth née Norwich (d. 1594), a Lady of the Bedchamber to Elizabeth I.

Just below them in this bunk bed of a tomb is possibly the effigy of Sir Peter Carew. Sir Peter was Gawain's nephew and far better appointed in life than his uncle. Sir Peter was to inherit 20% of County Carlow in Ireland, an area of 6,360 acres, and the title of Baron of Idrone. The Irish connection did not serve him well though.

On 25 August 1580, during the Second Desmond Rebellion, Carew was in the vanguard of the army of Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton, when it was ambushed by Irish insurgents in the narrow valley of Glenmalure in the Wicklow uplands. The English attempted to climb the steep valley sides, but Carew, exhausted by trying to run in heavy armour, was captured. He was disarmed, and his captors planned to hold him for ransom, until "one villaine most butcherlie ... with his sword slaughtered and killed him". Wikipedia

Due to the fact that the inscription naming Sir Peter is later, some dispute that this effigy is Sir Peter and believe it to be that of Adam Montgomery de Carew the progenitor of the family.

In the same chapel is this tomb to Edmund Stafford, Bishop of Exeter which also forms part of the Lady Chapel next door. Looking through the Lady Chapel one can see a matching tomb on the south side to Bishop Branscombe.

Stafford died in 1419 and while the effigy is contemporaneous to his death, the highly decorated twin chest tombs and canopies of the two bishops are later, added in the 15th century.

Stafford was a second son, yet again showing the custom of the time that first sons inherited while the spares entered the church. He became Dean of York and was also named Keeper of the Privy Seal, later Chancellor of England until 1399 and then again in 1401 and King's Councillor in 1406. During this career he was also Bishop of Exeter with visits to his diocese few and far between while in government office.

In the Lady Chapel are some more splendid tombs. This, the most imposing, maybe because the lady is lying on her side and looking out at us, not to mention that she has her supporting arm around a skull. This is Lady Dorothy Doddridge and considering she lies here, immortal in some ways, over four hundred years after her death in 1617, not a great deal is known about her. It is probably a sign of her time that most of what we know is about her first husband who was a comrade in arms of Walter Raleigh.

Sir Edward Hancock travelled the high seas with Raleigh looking for gold for Elizabeth I. A book did get published about his travels, The Discovery of Guiana. He did however leave Dorothy all his estates and cash when he committed suicide after the arrest of Raleigh. Dorothy then married John Doddridge an "incorruptible" judge of the King's bench known as "the sleeping judge". He listened to his cases with his eyes closed. At least that is what he said.

Definitely asleep now, right next door to Dorothy, is the tomb of John Doddridge who wanted to be buried alongside her.

Sir John Doddridge (1555–1628) was an English lawyer, appointed Justice of the King's Bench in 1612 and served as Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1589 and for Horsham in 1604. He was also an antiquarian and writer. As a lawyer he was influenced by humanist ideas, and was familiar with the ideas of Aristotle, and the debates of the period between his followers and the Ramists. He was a believer in both the rationality of the English common law and in its connection with custom. He was one of the Worthies of Devon of the biographer John Prince (d.1723). Wikipedia

Ramism was a collection of theories on rhetoric, logic, and pedagogy based on the teachings of Petrus Ramus, a French academic, philosopher, and Huguenot convert, who was murdered during the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in August 1572.

In an interesting event in history, Doddridge took part in a national conference brought about by the accession of James I to the English throne. James I was the son of Mary Queen of Scots who was executed by Elizabeth I. On the death of Elizabeth he was next in line to the English throne although he was already King of Scotland. England had never had a King James before while Scotland had had five. This made James unusual as he had two regnal numbers, James VI of Scotland and James I of England.

The burning question was this. After James I became King of England what nationality were the people of England and Scotland? Or more precisely, did people, or "Englishmen and Scotchmen" to be precise, have reciprocal naturalisation? Was an Englishman born after James I was on the English throne also a Scotsman? And vice versa.

His conference had a majority view that this was not the case. The case then went higher to the Lord Chancellor of Ellesmere and twelve other judges who reversed that opinion.

But here is where it gets really interesting and even controversial in a contemporary sense. Calvin's Case as it was called, established that a child born in Scotland after the Union of The Crowns, was considered to be an English subject. This case was subsequently adopted by courts in the United States and played a part in shaping the American rule of birth right citizenship. This US rule which is just as controversial today as it's forebear, is about to undergo much scrutiny and will almost certainly end up in the US Supreme Court.

The small chapel of St Saviour and St. Boniface is also known as Bishop Oldham's Chantry and here is the effigy of Hugh Oldham Bishop of Exeter between 1504 and 1519. He was a notable patron of education as a founder and patron of Manchester Grammar School and Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to which he donated £4000, or £2.6 million in today's value..

He was employed by Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of King Henry VII), rising to be the chancellor of her household by 1503. During this time he was preferred with many religious posts all over the country, being made archdeacon of Exeter in 1502 and finally bishop of that city in 1504, a decision that was probably influenced by Lady Margaret. He was yet another younger son.

George Oliver in his Lives of the Bishops of Exeter (1861), relates an anecdote, originally told by John Hooker in the late 16th century, regarding the bishop's punctuality of dining at eleven o'clock in the morning, and of supping at five o'clock in the afternoon. Apparently to ensure precision he had a house-clock to strike the hours, and a servant to look after it. If the bishop was prevented by important business from coming to table at the appointed time, the servant would delay the clock's striking the hour until he knew that his master was ready. Sometimes, if asked what was the hour, the servant would humorously answer, "As your lordship pleaseth," at which the bishop would smile and go his way. Wikipedia

Sir John Speke, whose tomb we saw earlier in this post, and Bishop Oldham jointly planned the construction of two new chantry chapels in complementary positions off the north and south choir-aisles of Exeter Cathedral. Oldham's chapel, off the south aisle, was apparently complete by 1513. As Speke's featured hedgehogs, Oldham's featured owls.

This is the carved retable of Oldham's chapel which features several biblical scenes, including the Annunciation, the Vision of St. Gregory and the Nativity.

You can clearly see that the heads of most of the figures have been removed. Statues and other figures have been damaged, whilst the owls in the chapel remain intact. The most notable damage is on the panels of the retable above the altar where all the figures have been decapitated. This destruction may have happened around 1537, when King Henry VIII imposed a new Dean of Exeter, Simon Heynes, who soon set about implementing orders relating to the abolition of pilgrimages, cults and offerings to images. Dean Heynes was likely responsible for ordering the damage to these panels depicting the cult of St Gregory, a 6th-century pope. Exeter Cathedral

A feature of old cathedrals are misericords. Misericords are small, hinged ledges on the underside of seating in medieval church choir stalls, named after the Latin misericordia (mercy) because they provided a "mercy seat" for clergy to rest on during long services by providing a partial support. Beneath these ledges are elaborate carved figures, often depicting mythical creatures, everyday scenes, religious symbols, and even humorous or rude subjects, providing a fascinating glimpse into medieval culture and belief.

In Exeter is this unusual elephant misericord, the most famous in their complete set of 13th century misericords. It is believed that the sculptor, who probably never saw an elephant copied it from a drawing of an animal given to Henry III as a present.

On the north side of Exeter Cathedral’s Lady Chapel, in a recessed niche, lies the recumbent effigy of Sir Richard Stapledon, politician and judge, dressed as a mediaeval knight, along with horse, faithful squire, and page. He and his younger brother, Bishop Walter Stapledon, were both murdered in London at the hands of an angry mob on October 14, 1326. Sir Richard was trying to rescue his brother the Bishop from being attacked by the worked-up crowd but failed, and both men were killed. Bishop Stapledon’s tomb is nearby in the cathedral.

This period in history was a rare, maybe even a unique example of a political battle between a rightful King and his Queen Consort. The Stapledons took the loyal side of the King who became increasingly unpopular while his Queen fought to depose him. The mob in London sided with the Queen.

The Queen had returned to England from France with a small mercenary army in 1326, moving rapidly across England. The King's forces deserted him. Isabella deposed Edward, becoming regent on behalf of her young son, Edward III. Some believe that Isabella then arranged the murder of Edward II.

A walk around Exeter Cathedral is a stroll through the turbulent history of Britain, when the tiny city of Exeter, being the key city in the powerful and wealthy South West, was punching well above its weight.

The "Golden Gates" at Exeter Cathedral are a historic set of gilded gates from 1876, that separate the nave from the quire (choir). These ornate gates are a significant architectural feature and are sometimes ceremonially opened for events and services. While they were once hidden under layers of paint, they were restored and re-gilded in recent years, revealing their historical beauty and enhancing the approach to the Cathedral from the north.