Relhan Collection : 133 Comberton. Arms of Anne Gardiner of Connington, etc

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>It is most likely that this title should be Conington not Comberton. No explanation is given for this sheet, unlike any other in this collection, containing flags, a helmet with crest, the arms of Gardiner (labelled around the bottom edge, two mounted knights, one wearing the helmet drawn above, the other holding a gun) facing one another as if jousting with a lance on the ground, presumably recording an event in family history. Benton lists this as ‘Anne Gardiner of Connington, etc.’ without any explanation. The estate of Conington (Cambs) was sold to Sir Thomas Cotton of Conington (Hunts) and it passed to his son Philip, d. 1710, then Philip’s nephew Thomas, already resident at Conington Hall (Cambs), who died of a drunken rage in 1729 because his daughter Frances eloped with Dingley Askham, ‘his low-born attorney’). This couple held the Cotton estates until Askham’s death in 1781, after they had rebuilt the church (<b>129</b>). Their daughter Harriet married Sir Thomas Hatton of Longstanton, joining the 2 estates until Enclosure, when it passed to Harriet and her husband, the Revd Philip Gardner, who died in 1826 at Conington Hall. There are several marble tablets to Askhams and Gardners on the N wall of the nave, and Cottons on S wall, but the heraldry in this drawing could not be found. </p><p>VCH 1989; Saunders P Pers comm</p></p>