"The drawing No. 1, represents the tombstone of Sir Gilbert Kighley, Knight, and Margery, his wife, who was the daughter of Hornby, and widow of Sir Robert Urswick, Knight. She married, for her third husband, Alexander Leedes, Esq. On the stone is sculptured a cross-flory, on the left side of which are two armorial shields, and, on the right, a sword, denoting his profession. The upper shield, though much mutilated, undoubtedly bears, Ar., a fess sable, for Kighley; the other, a cross- moline. It may be remarked, that the Wardes of Guiseley (one of whom, Sir Simon Warde, founded the neighbouring priory of Esholt, in the twelfth century) bore for their arms a cross-moline; and as the family name of Sir Gilbert Kighley's mother is not mentioned in the pedigree, it is possible she may have been of that family, and that the second shield is charged with her coat armorial. This interesting stone is decayed and broken, parts of the inscription being defaced; but the following is legible:—
Gilbertus Kyghley de Utlan et Margeria Utor . . Ao D'ni M .. . . .
"Gent's History of Ripon, published in 1731, contains an imperfect woodcut of this grave-stone, and gives the date of it as 1022, which is evidently an error. It is uncertain whether sepulchral crosses, with inscriptions, were in use in England until after that period; and shields, with armorial bearings on gravestones, were of still later introduction. It is remarkable that Whitaker, the historian of Craven, gives the date 1023,[1] without any observation. According to the pedigree of the family, the correct date would probably be the latter part of the fourteenth century.
"As the pedigree of this ancient family (preserved in Harl. MS., 4630, fo. 337) has, I believe, never been printed, the following particulars may not be uninteresting:
"'At a very early period, the Church of Kighley was given by Ralph de Kighley to the prior and canons of Bolton (who were patrons in 1545), and the gift was afterwards confirmed by the donor's son, Richard de Kighley—most probably, the same person whose name occurs first in the MS. Ped. Sir Henry Kighley succeeded Richard, and married Ellen, daughter of Sir Hugh Venables, Knight. He held lands in Utley and Kighley, &c., 21st Edward I. (1293), and obtained from that monarch a charter for a market and fair, as well as free warren, which (as Camden observes in his notice of the family) "was accounted in that age for a speciall favour." The name of Kighley occurs amongst those Yorkshire knights who served with King Edward I. in Scotland and elsewhere: it may, therefore, be fairly assumed that Sir Henry was that person. He was succeeded by his son, Henry Kighley, Esq., who did homage for his lands to the Lord of the Honour of Skipton, in the 4th of Edward II. (1311). This Henry was succeeded by Sir Gilbert Kighley, whose monumental stone has been described. Sir Gilbert's son and successor was Richard Kighley, living in the 20th of Edward III. (1347); and who paid aid for making the king's eldest son a knight. He had issue William, living about the 36th of Edward III., whose son and heir, Henry, married Margaret, daughter of Sir Robert Hesketh, Knight. The grandson of this marriage,
- ↑ Whit. Craven, p. 157.
