Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/183

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SEPULCHRAL MONUMENTS AT CLIFTON REYNES, BUCKS.
153

But this Sir Thomas Reynes was living in the latter half of the fourteenth century, and according to Lipscomb in 1366, which is too late for the apparent date of the effigies. Moreover, the arms of Tyringham appear on the tomb impaling those of Reynes, that is, Tyringham on the dexter and Reynes on the sinister side, which, according to the present rules of heraldry, would make the husband a Tyringham and the wife a Reynes. Consequently, this coat could not have been introduced in allusion to Sir Thomas Reynes' marriage with Cecilia Tyringham, but may be the arms of a married lady of the Reynes family, (according to the heraldic usage of that time,) who was a near relation of the deceased. As Tyringhams and Reynes had lived near each other for several generations, they had probably inter- married before the alliance here mentioned. Moreover, this Sir Thomas and his wife are commemorated by a brass with their effigies and respective arms properly impaled. These considerations are sufficient to show that the heraldic bearings on the tomb afford no conclusive evidence for assigning it to Thomas Reynes and Cecilia Tyringham.

The manuscript history of the parish, already referred to, assigns it to Ralph de Reynes, the father of Thomas who married Cecilia Tyringham, and the nephew or great-nephew of Robert, the last of the Borards, and consequently the heir and representative of that family.

This Ralph de Reynes was twice married; first, to Amabel, daughter of Sir Henry Green of Boughton, near Northampton, by Catherine, daughter of Sir John de Drayton; secondly, to Amabel, daughter of Sir Richard Chamberlain of Petsoe Manor, adjoining that of Clifton. The arms of Green and of Drayton, as we have already seen, are found on the south side of the tomb, as are those of Chamberlain on the north side. But since the arms of Chamberlain are impaled with those of Reynes on the sinister or wife's side, these impaled arms are probably to be referred to some lady of the Reynes family who had married a Chamberlain, whilst another, as we have seen, appears to have married a Tyringham. Nevertheless, though we find on this monument no impalement of Reynes with either Green or Chamberlain on the sinister side, the MS. History may not be wrong in assigning it to Ralph de Reynes, who died about A.D. 1310. Apparently he was the first of his family who possessed the manor