Ralph Fitzherbert

Infobox Person
name = Ralph Fitzherbert


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caption = Alabaster memorial
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resting_place = Norbury
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nationality =English
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education = unknown
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title = Lord of Norbury
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successor = John Fitzherbert
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religion = Catholic
spouse = Elizabeth Marshall
children = six sons including Anthony Fitzherbert
parents = Nicholas Fitzherbert and Alice Booth
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Ralph Fitzherbert (died 1483) was Lord of the manor of Norbury, Derbyshire. His effigy in his suit of armour at Norbury church are reproduced in the Victoria and Albert Museum, in contemporary armour.

Biography

Fitzherbert was born to Nicholas Fitzherbert and his wife Alice. In 1442 Nicholas Fitzherbert and his son and heir, Ralph, gave all their lands at Osmaston and other lands at Foston and Church Broughton in exchange for Norbury. [Cox, J. Charles. 1877. "Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire". Page 229. Chesterfield, Edmonds.] The Fitzherberts held it until 1872. [Bowyer, L.J. Rev. 1953. "The Ancient Parish of Norbury". Page 31. Ashbourne. J.B. Henstock.] Norbury had been rented by Fitzherberts ancestors since 1125 on a yearly rent of 100 shillings.Fitzherbert married Elizabeth Marshall who was an heiress to Upton in Leicestershire. Elizabeth had a number of children: Margaret, Dorothy (who married Thomas Comberford), John (died 1531), Henry (died before 1532), Thomas (died 1532), Richard, William, and Anthony. So many of his sons died young, that it was his sixth son, Anthony, who eventually succeeded him as Lord of the manor of Norbury. [http://library.ferris.edu/~cochranr/gen/fam00252.htm ferris.edu] Accessed 22 May 2008] The seven sons are shown as figures on the side of Ralph's memorial. They are not shown in the order of their birth. First is shown Richard, who became a knight of Rhodes, and then Thomas, who was the rector of Norbury from 1500 to 1518 and precentor of Lichfield Cathedral. The third figure is thought to be John, who was the heir and is thought to have commissioned the memorials for his parents and his grandfather in Nottingham Alabaster. The fourth to be shown is Henry, with a purse, who was a mercer in London. The final three are thought to include William, prebendary of Hereford Cathedral and Lincoln Cathedral and Chancellor of Lichfield as well being rector of Wrington in Somerset, and Anthony, who was the most notable. Anthony and William were boys when their mother's will, dated 14 October 1490, was read. Under the terms of that will, John was required to pay five pounds a year to cover Anthony's studies. This investment led to him being a leading and eminent English judge. [Anthony Fitzherbert in Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913]

Both Ralph's and Elizabeth's wills are still available, and her will states that she "should be buried in the church of Saint Barloke before the image of Saint Nicholas and beside the body of her husband, Ralph Fitzherbert." [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=anpVguz_mlMC&pg=PA14&lpg=PA14&dq=fitzherbert+%22elizabeth+marshall%22&source=web&ots=BDc-ROvmZM&sig=z09YAPaNrsWuPqIpubkroiqIYbE&hl=en#PPA15,M1 Forgotten Shrines] by Bede Camm, Published 2004, Gracewing Publishing, ISBN:0852446152]

The memorial to Fitzherbert in Norbury church is well regarded, [ [http://www.andrewspages.dial.pipex.com/dby/kelly/norbury.htm Kelly's Directory of the Counties of Derby, Notts, Leicester and Rutland] London (May, 1891) - pp.274-275] and is thought to have been made at the same time as the matching memorial to Nicholas Fitzherbert from Chellaston alabaster. Ralph's feet rest on a lion; next to it and under Ralph's shoe crouches the small figure of a bedesman. The bearded bedesman is telling his rosary for the souls of the departed. Ralph bears the Yorkist livery collar of alternating suns and roses, with the White Boar of Richard III as a pendant. Since the destruction of the effigy of Ralph Neville (d. 1484) at Brancepeth, this is the only surviving representation of a boar pendant. Fitzherbert died two years before Richard III lost his crown and life in the nearby Battle of Bosworth.

The armour portrayed on the effigy of Ralph Fitzherbert has been reproduced as a fully-functional suit of plate [ [http://www.englyshe-plate-armourie.co.uk/Gal_EnglishArmour.html Ralph Fitzherbert armour] ] [http://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/Graham_Turner.html Graham Turner who purchased the armour] accessed 8 June 2008]

The sculptures themselves were copied in the 19th century as plaster casts which are held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. [ [http://vam.london.museum/collections/sculpture/cast_collection/database/object.php?id=249&id2=0&action=&hits=&page=&pages=&object_type=&country=&start_year=&end_year=&object=&artist=&maker= Victoria and Albert Museum] accessed 22 May 2008]

Catholicism

The bedesman illustrates Fitzherbert's beliefs and these continued in his family in his descendants at Padley (see his great grandson Nicholas Fitzherbert).

References