The Tudor Period 1485- 1603
The long association of Sandon with the Erdeswicke family began in 1338 with the marriage of Margaret Stafford and Thomas Erdeswicke. Their descendants remained at Sandon Hall until the 17th century.
The church remained under the patronage of the Abbey of Combermere until the abbey was dissolved in 1538, during the reign of Henry VIII. The Lay Rectorship was purchased from the Crown by John Check, who soon after sold it to Hugh Erdeswicke, the Lord of the Manor. Hugh was a staunch Catholic, as was his son, Sampson Erdeswicke, born around 1535. Sampson is remembered as a nationally noted antiquary and author who wrote the detailed Survey of Staffordshire.
The Erdeswickes lived on the moated island to the est of the church. The Scheduled Monument designation record for the moated site can be accessed via the National Heritage List for England (NHLE) here: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1011049.
Further development of Sandon All Saints
Further enrichments to the Chancel were ordered by Sampson Erdeswicke and completed before his death in 1603. These include:
An illustrated scheme of family and local history Heraldic shields on the sides of his grandfathers’ tombs, depicting the marriages of the man and woman in the tomb.
Family trees painted on the walls in the form of a tree with the families of Basset, Harcourt, Grey and Leigh and back to Edmund Ironside and Emperor Conrad.
His own magnificent monument with his recumbent figure and his two wives, inscribed with a Vernon family motto, 1601.
Stained glass heraldic shields in the east window illustrate all families that had owned Sandon land. Painted imitation windows with additional shields to complete his scheme.
Things to see in the church.
More details about the Erdeswicke additions can be found on the “6 Significant Features” page of the website. The following is an overview.
Several tombs of the Erdeswicke family can be found in the church. Four incised Tomb Chest Monuments from this period are:-
Hugh Erdeswicke (d. 1473) and Cecelia , who lived during the reigns of Henry 6th and Erdward 4th
Hugh Erdeswicke (d. 1500) and Elizabeth, who lived during the reigns of Edward 5th, Richard 3rd and Henry 7th
Sampson Erdeswicke (d. 1544) & Elizabeth, who lived during the reign of Henry 8th
Hugh Erdeswicke (d. 1596) and Maria, who lived during the reigns of Edward 6th, Mary 1st and Elizabeth 1st
The imposing monument to Sampson Erdeswicke can be found in the chancel. Below his effigy are the words ‘Vernon semper viret’, while above his head are two recesses holding the effigies of his two wives, Elisabeth Dikeswell and Maria Neale, widow of Everard Digby.
Above the tombs are wall paintings of the genealogical trees depicting the family relationships of the Erdeswicke family with the families of Bassett, Harcourt, Grey and Leigh, “possibly by Bryan, being a rare survival of post-reformation genealogical painting and may well be the most ambitious scheme of its type surviving in England”. (L. Shekede & S. Rickerby July 2003, Fabric and Moisture Survey, Technical Investigation and Conservation Report for the PCC)
The stained-glass windows on the east side bear the shields of the Malbanc and Stafford families, previous owners of Sandon. At the head of the north light is a shield of the arms of Williams Ferrars, Lord of Tutbury, overlord of the fee of Sandon.
Large incised alabaster tomb slab of 15thc, wall mounted, near the entrance door, possibly Stafford (Hanging upside down, well worn indicating previous position in a floor, with children denoted at the “top” and female on the “right”)
Also near the entance door a stone slab with cut into the stone, possibly the hilt of a sword and a book.
Historical connections
Sampson Erdeswicke married twice. His second wife, Mary Neale, widow of Everard Digby, was a widower with 14 children, one of whom was Everard Digby. Everard was executed in 1606 for his part in the Gunpowder Plot.
The Patrons of Sandon All Saints
1347 — 1486 Combermere Abbey
1530 — Richard Beresford and William Glossop
1577 — 1635 Hugh Erderswicke of Sandon Manor
The Vicars of Sandon All Saints
Records of the Vicars and Patrons of Sandon All Saints begin in the Medieval Period.
1486 Ralph Hanson
1530 Robert Aston
1577 Peter Boardman
The English Reformation
During this period a seismic change ocurred in the country in the form of relgion practicesd. It has become known as The English Reformation.
The ENGLISH REFORMATION and its’ impact at ALL SAINTS, SANDON
The Reformation of the Catholic Church initiated by the English king Henry VIII was not a single moment in time but a lengthy, evolving process, that was continued by two of his three children, with some set-backs. It began with a single objective, that of providing Henry with a son and heir, this then developed into a crisis about who wielded supreme spiritual authority in England and Wales: the King or the Pope. On his death the leaders of the Church proactively continued the reforms but on a divergent path than previously, that of Protestantism.
Henry’s wife Catherine of Aragon had for five months, previously been married to Henry’s elder brother Arthur, until Arthur’s death in 1502. Through a dispensation from the Pope at the time, Catherine and Henry were able to marry in 1509. The marriage produced one surviving child in 1516;- Mary. But a male heir was what was needed and by 1526 Henry had become infatuated with Anne Boleyn. He then began to explore ways to dissolve his marriage.
1491 Henry VIII 1547. 1547 Edward VI 1553.
1553 Mary I 1558. 1558 Elizabeth I 1603.
The religious backdrop to this was Cardinal Wolsey’s 1515 appointment to reform the Church’s regional [Diocese] administrations and raise the standards in monasteries and priories. Not all the monasteries and priories were built on the scale of the ruined monastic remains like those nearby at Croxden, that we see today. Some of their locations today, would not be associated with ever having had a religious building in the Middle-Ages. By 1515 some monastic buildings were decaying through neglect, occupied by few monks [whereas thirteen was the considered standard] and friars, though they did have gifted land to produce an income, these foundations were not wealthy and had incurred debts.
Croxden Abbey. Looking west down the length
of the Nave of the Church, from the altar.
For example;-The Augustinian Priory at Calwich, near Ellastone, Staffordshire, there was a single Canon in residence, instead of the four stipulated].
In 1524, Wolsey closed 21 religious houses he felt were in similar circumstances.
There was also a lack of enforcement in following the Rule of the spiritual life which had become common place. Abbots and priors were very protective of their rights and privileges particularly between adjacent religious establishments and were not above being involved in violent disturbances. Here are two examples;-The manor and church of Sandon had been given to the Cistercian Abbey of Combermere, at its’ founding in 1133. Subsequently the Abbey was always in debt and in 1414, its’ Abbot was accused of counterfeiting gold coins. An abbey servant in 1520 was accused of murdering one of the monks, the corpse was hidden in the abbey, this was reported to Thomas Cromwell, who gave a dire warning regarding their independence and authority. Cromwell is a name associated later as being Henry VIII’s right-hand man, at least while he was useful to him.
While a priest named Martin Luther had instigated in Europe, an international debate in 1517, with his ‘Ninety-five Theses’. These ranged from his theological views and interpretation to objecting to spiritual money making to fund the building of Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. His views opposed those of the Catholic Church and with the availability of printing they spread throughout Europe. His 1522 translation of the New Testament from Latin into German, encouraged others to do the same in their own Countries. While in England William Tyndale’s translation into English of the New Testament was printed in Antwerp in 1526, and copies then smuggled into England.
Simultaneously Henry VIII started to try and have his marriage annulled on the grounds that it broke canon law, but he found that he did not possess the power to do this when it was rejected by Pope Clemet VII. He therefore set about finding a way to achieve this. There then followed years of threats and counter threat between them, with both testing the extent and limit of what they thought to be their authority and power.
Henry realised that if he curbed the power of the Church by asserting his authority over it, he would be able to obtain his annulment to marry Anne Bolyn. As Wolsey had been unsuccessful in getting an annulment from the Pope, in 1529 he was arrested and stripped of his offices. Henry thereby acquired the Palaces of Whitehall and the coveted Hampton Court. By 1533 pressure by Henry on the clergy to acknowledge him as Supreme Head of the Church, brought results and the Acts of Appeals started the severing of the ties with the Catholic Church and Rome. This was followed by the Act of Dispensations which stated ‘this your grace’s realm, recognising no superior under God but only your grace …’.
Henry formerly married Anne Boleyn in 1533 by Cranmer the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. Later that year she bore him a daughter:- Elizabeth.
In 1535 Thomas Cromwell was given powers to act in all ecclesiastical matters. He had deduced that the financial
wealth of the accumulated lands of the monasteries and priories could be appropriated and sold. And if this land and materials was sold to the aristocracy that they would be less rebellious to the severance with the Catholic church and be more acquiescent to Henry as head of the Church of England. The dissolution would also eliminate throughout the kingdom any possible focus of Catholic resistance.
Surveys of land holdings, interviews and inventories of moveable valuables and livestock were conducted resulting in the closing in two tranches, of all the religious houses, priories, alms-houses by 1539 and later the chantry chapels in 1547.
These changes were not without opposition, the first on a national scale being the revolt of the Northern Counties called the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536.
Henry married six times, and with his new supremacy over the Church had two dissolved and three of his wives executed. He was able to secure an heir with his third wife Jane Seymour in 1537:-Edward, who became King in 1547.
1491 Henry VIII 1547. 1547 Edward VI 1553.
1553 Mary I 1558. 1558 Elizabeth I 1603.
In 1547 the nine-year-old Edward succeeded to the throne and the country was governed by a regency council which included Archbishop Cranmer. Under Cranmer’s influence the Church moved towards Protestantism. A new set of Injunctions were issued, though seemingly a reissue of the 1538 Henrician ones, they had subtly changed. A few examples:- all processions banned, condemning the use of the rosary, the removal of relics, images etc, the clergy to destroy all images, banning the burning and maintaining of the Sepulchre and Rood-screen lights, except for two on the altar. This last injunction also severed the social connection between the Church building and the parish groups which had existed to provide the lights.
The same year the Dissolution of Colleges Act was passed, it is also known as the Abolition of Chantries Act. At Sandon this resulted in the abolishing of services in the Stafford family’s Chantry Chapel built in 1450, located at what is now called the North Aisle [it was ‘… in 1851 remodelled inside to serve as the family chapel of the Earls of Harrowby.’;- Nikolaus Pevsner]. With the Chantry’s closure, its’ endowed lands, which financed the services held for the Stafford family, went to the Crown.
The former Stafford family Chantry Chapel of 1450-1547.
Refurbished by the Earl of Harrowby in 1851.
In 1549 the Act of Uniformity banned the use of Latin and the first Book of Common Prayer was published, a comprehensive guide to all the daily services throughout the year, but with changes and some alterations that affected the whole population.
Here is an example, of a change that became very visible in Sandon and every other parish in the kingdom to this day:- This is part of the Marriage Ceremony ‘viii. Of Matrimonie’ …‘… And the Priest taking the ring shall deliver it unto the man: to put it upon the fowerth finger of the womans left hande the minister saying ...’ At this time, in Britain and Europe the wedding ring would have been placed on the right-hand, and this is still the case in some countries.
The book also stated that the communion bread and wine did not contain the presence of God [transubstantiation] and that all services were to be in English. It also instigated another rebellion, this time in Devon and Cornwall, during which approximately 5,500 people were killed.
In effect what parishioners for generations had been accustomed to see and interact with within the parish church had been consigned to history. Although it was one thing to issue these orders from the centre of the country, it was another to ensure their implementation the further parishes were from it.
Resistance took many forms, passively, banned movable items such as vestments and plate were hidden away, some to be discovered centuries later. In Staffordshire the bones of Saint Chad, buried in Lichfield Cathedral were to be discovered in the 19th century at Aston-by-Stone and a priest’s vestments found hidden at Paynesley/Draycott.
I n 1553 the fifteen-year-old Edward died and there then
followed the short reign of Lady Jane Grey, followed by
Edward’s sister Queen Mary I.
1491 Henry VIII 1547. 1547 Edward VI 1553.
1553 Mary I 1558. 1558 Elizabeth I 1603.
M ary’s faith and beliefs however were not those of her father and brother, but that of the pre-Henrician Church;-the Catholic Church. In 1554 she married the future king of Spain Philip. This brought about resentment and potentially posed problems for the future succession regarding their respective kingdoms.
The couple set about overturning the Injunctions and legislation that had gone before. They got the approval of Parliament in overturning Henry’s laws, but had to agree to not returning land holdings back to the monasteries, leaving it in the ownership of the influential purchasers.
This reversion of practices, incurred the parishes finding the finance to re-purchase for its’ church: silver plate;-chalices, communion cups etc, install furnishings, images, linen cloths, holy water stoops, surpluses etc, etc. of course, some items re-emerged from their hiding places. The list of items is lengthy and could not be afforded by every parish.
Once again there was opposition, but stiffer than before. To counter this the heresy acts of the Middle-ages were revived, with the sentence of being burnt at the stake being carried out.
The couple were unable to produce an heir and Mary died of cancer in 1558, and was succeeded by her sister Elizabeth I.
1491 Henry VIII 1547. 1547 Edward VI 1553.
1553 Mary I 1558. 1558 Elizabeth I 1603.
E
lizabeth sought a protestant church that was acceptable to Catholics [but not puritans]. She allowed Catholics to worship in private for example. In 1559 a new version of the Prayer Book and Royal Injunctions were issued and an Act of Supremacy [1558] and an Act of Uniformity [1559] were passed, which established the beginnings of a national church. The Prayer Book reinstated the rites and ceremonies and ornaments of the church which her brother had issued in his 1552 Prayer Book. Fines were now introduced for absenteeism from Church on Sundays or holy days, or who spoke out against the use of this Prayer Book. The Act of Supremacy established the Sovereign as supreme in all things spiritual and temporal, and that foreign rulers spiritual or temporal had no authority within the realm. It required those in office to take an oath and in 1563 this was extended to MP’s, schoolmasters and those taking holy orders.
The 1559 Prayer Book and the Injunctions sometimes contradicted themselves. An example;-The permanent position of the Communion Table [the removal of stone altars had previously been ordered] were given, as to be within the Chancel but also as the location where the altar had previously been sited, against the East Wall.
Following the 1660 Restoration of a Sovereign [Charles II] a new Book of Common Prayer was issued in 1662 and this is used at Sandon.
Sandon’s present-day altar is a Communion Table and stands against the east wall. It is dated 1644 and was made from half a six-legged refectory table [the date is carved on what originally the table’s middle-leg]. The date is of interest as 1644 was the third year of the English Civil War.
The Communion table, formerly a six-legged
refectory table and carved with the date 1644.
Elizabeth as her reign proceeded and the possibility of her having an heir receded, she like her father Henry, had to plan for the succession. To add to Elizabeths’ difficulties her cousin Mary the catholic, abdicated Queen of Scots arrived in England in 1567 requesting protection. She was to be moved to various Staffordshire castles and houses, ostensibly a prisoner treated as a guest. Revolts flared and plots to free Mary and overthrow Elizabeth followed Mary from house to house over the following twenty years.
In 1568 a Catholic priest training college was founded at Douai, France and soon afterwards catholic priests were entering the kingdom to sustain the catholic faith, which had been declining due to the ageing and dwindling number of priests. In 1570 the Pope sought to re-establish his authority in the kingdom, and give support to Catholics, excommunicated Elizabeth thereby giving permission for her overthrow. She in turn legislated to make it treasonable to act under the pope’s authority, be a priest, Jesuit or shelter them. The penalty for this was to be hung, drawn and quartered if a man or burnt if a woman.
In effect the pope had initiated religious battle-lines, despite being advised not to. Catholics who were living contentedly under Elizabeth were now forced to decide where their allegiance both secular and spiritual lay. By the 1580’s the kingdom had become Protestant conforming to the Elizabethan settlement of 1558 and 1559. Catholicism had become a ‘small sect’. But instead of the previously destroyed monastic buildings becoming centres of opposition to King Henry, the local Catholic gentry’s halls and houses took their place. Eventually some counties became noted for their resistance especially Staffordshire and Lancashire.
But Elizabeth’s wish for a settled kingdom was to have further setbacks. Mary Queen of Scots through her entrapment, involved in the ‘Babington Plot’. This was a plan formulated in 1586 by Walsingham and treasurer Cecil, two of Elizabeth’s ministers, to ensure a Protestant succession of her son, the future James I.
These events took place near Sandon at Chartley Manor, situated on the road to Uttoxeter. Mary was tried and executed at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587. The following year Spain attempted a seaborne invasion of England;- the Spanish Armada. This was defeated by Elizabeths’ navy, aided by fire-ships and storms.
There is a longstanding view that the Reformation ended with Elizabeths’ Settlement Acts. Though there are at least four schools of thought that historians take about it. One of these is the ‘Long Reformation’ and that Henry’s desire for a quick divorce set in motion a process that continually re-surfaced into the 17th and 18th centuries. Could that be true? Something to ponder on:-1605 Gunpowder Plot. 1630-1649 a resurgence of church practices, decoration and ceremony coupled with a Puritan Parliament resulting in the Civil War-Charles I executed. 1650-1659 A Puritan Government. 1685-1688 James II a catholic monarch forced into exile. Another is that the local parish Church before the Reformation, was a thriving, interacting, cohesive focal point for society.
With thanks to Phil Wheeler for this summary
Sources. ‘The Stripping of the Altars’ Traditional Religion in England c.1400-c1580’-Eamon Duffy. 1992. with many reprints. A comprehensive study, detailing national and village parish religious life before and the effects during and after, of the Reformation.
‘Papists and Puritans under Elizabeth I’ [1558-1603] Patrick McGrath. Blandford. 1967.
‘Monastic Staffordshire’ John L. Tomkinson. Churnet valley Books, 2000. An illustrated, historical progression of the various Orders, their monasteries and priories from Saxon times and the condition of them in 2000.
‘Dieuclares Abbey’ situated near Leek. Michael Fisher.
