Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 6.djvu/152

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80
PROCEEDINGS AT MEETINGS OF

Henry Kighley, Esq., left issue two daughters and co-heiresses; Anne, married to Sir William Cavendish, as before mentioned; and Katherine, married to Thomas Worsley of Worsley, Esq., county Lancaster.'

"The compiler of the pedigree from which these extracts are taken, appends the following note:—'Sir Gilbert is buryed in the North Quire of the Church, under a stone inscribed, Gilbertus Kighley de Utley Miles jacet hic tumulatus, &c., and upon the stone an escutcheon, a cross-moline, which I see in June, 1667. I then inquired for the Manor House of Kighley, belonging to this family, and was shown a poor cottage, where a simple schoolmaster lived, where they informed me stood formerly the hall and greate large buildings, but now converted into meadows, orchards, and gardens.' The writer of this, I believe, is not known, but the date renders it exceedingly interesting. It may also be observed, that a Gilbert de Kiggellay gave land to the Priory of Selby, about 1260;[1] and in the sixth Henry VI., it is recorded that Sir John de Kighley, Knight, accompanied Humphrey Duke of Gloucester to recover the town and castle of Crotoye, in France, with thirty men-at-arms, of which himself and one other were knights, the rest esquires, and ninety archers. Also, that Sir Henry Kighley attended Robert Lord Willoughby de Broke with 380 soldiers to Bretagne, in the 4th of Henry VII.[2]

"The tombstone of Sir Gilbert Kighley, as appears from the note given above, was originally placed in the north aisle of the old church. A new church has been recently erected on the same site, at a great outlay, adorned with costly windows and sumptuous monuments, and decorated and completed with great munificence, much to the honour of the town, the patron, the rector, and the inhabitants. But it is extremely to be regretted that no care whatever has been taken of these highly interesting memorials of the ancient founders; that they should have been left to perish in the open air, and the last and only memorial of them lying broken and neglected outside the church; thus treating the memory of this ancient and honourable family, and of those who, in the age of chivalry, in the days of Cressy and Agincourt, fought for their country and their religion, with the most contemptuous neglect.

"The stone No. 2, which is in better preservation, bears a simple cross; on the right a compass, or more probably a pair of shears, possibly having reference to the sex or occupation of the deceased; on the left a shield bearing the cross-moline, precisely similar to that on the tombstone of Sir Gilbert Kighley, a circumstance clearly showing its connection with that family, and it may have been the gravestone of Sir Gilbert's mother, of the family of Warde, as suggested above.

"The two remaining stones, Nos. 3 and 4, are much more ancient than Nos. 1 and 2, and, from their size and shape, it is probable that they have been lids of ancient stone coffins, and may have covered the remains of the before-named Ralph de Kighley and Richard de Kighley."

Sir William Lawson, Bart., during researches into the Roman remains at Catterick Bridge, Yorkshire, the CATARACTONIUM of Antoninus, amongst various interesting vestiges of antiquity, has found a fragment of

  1. Burt. Mon.
  2. Whit. Craven, 159.