Relhan Collection : 145 Fen Ditton church. Mural tablet to Willys family 1625-1724

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The drawing has been cropped at the top to fit it in album. The hand is unlike Relhan’s and he perhaps had an associate. Transcripts may have been made on more than one occasion. Thomas Willys (d. 1626) bought Fen Ditton manor from the Crown in 1606. He already owned Eye manor in Horningsea and soon acquired others, so the Willys family owned all the medieval manors in the two parishes until 1732. This handsome black and white marble wall tablet is decorated with armorial shields, some of which are left blank, marking the graves of 5 of Thomas Willys’ descendants and 2 of their wives: his son Richard, who predeceased him 1625, Richard’s widow Jane (d. 1628), their son Thomas, d. aged 90 in 1701 and his wife (and mother of 13 children) Anne (d.1685), their son John (d.1704), John’s son Thomas (d.1705), and his son Thomas, who died unmarried in 1724, leaving the estate to 2 unmarried cousins. Cole mentions there were spurs, helmets, coats and streamers etc over this memorial, which no longer are seen. The first Thomas Willys is buried in Horningsea (<b>214</b>).</p><p>Palmer 1932; VCH 2002</p></p>