File:Arkesden Church of St Mary - Richard and Mary Cutte monument inscription, in Essex, England.jpg

English: Church of St Mary the Virgin at Arkesden, Essex, north-east wall of the south aisle, inscription and arms on canopy of free standing monument to Richard Cutte (d.1592) and his wife Mary Elrington (d.1594), a daughter of Edward Elrington of w:Theydon Bois in Essex, "Chief Butler of England" to King Edward VI, with recumbent effigies. The monument is brightly painted and restored, and has an entablature with inscriptions – supported by six octagonal columns – with obelisk pinnacles over each corner between which is a coat of arms within scrolling and topped by skulls. On the plinth face are five relief effigies of children.

Heraldry

The heraldry is very uncertain as little is known of the pedigree and marriages of this family (see below). Shield of 8 quarters, identified by Rev. T.J. Griffinhoofe, Vicar of Arkesden in 1869:

• 1: Argent, on a bend engrailed sable three plates (Cutte/Cutts)
• 2: Argent, a chevron between three bugle horns stringed sable (Coney) (not listed in Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.220)
• 3: Argent, on a bend cotised sable three mullets pierced of the first (Esmerton) (not listed in Burke, p.330)`
• 4: Per saltire argent and sable a saltire counter-changed (Marshall?) (Per saltire or and sable a saltire counter-changed (as given in Transactions of Essex Archaeology and History Society) Papworth, John Woody, Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.II, London, 1874, p.1060 "Marshall", not listed in Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884)
• 5: Paly of six argent and vert (Langley) (Burke, p.583 "Langley of Langley, County Durham and Sheriff Hutton, Yorkshire")
• 6: Per pale vert and or, a cross patoncée argent (Fox) (Burke, p.373, "Fox of Essex": Per pale vert and sable, a cross pattée argent)
• 7: Argent, on a chief gules two crescents or (Bigwood) (also per Burke, p.82, no territorial designation given)
• 8: Argent, two bars sable in chief three cinquefoils of the first (Walden); Burke, p.1063, with tinctures reversed: Sable, two bars argent in chief three cinquefoils pierced of the first

For pedigree of Cutts family see: Transactions of Essex Archaeology and History Society, 1st Series, Volume 4 (1869), pp.25-43[1]:

• H. W. King, The Descent of the Manor of Horham, and of the Family of Cutts, pp.25-41;
• An Abstract of the Lord Cutts, his Debts given in by his Majesty's command, March 17th, 1698, p.42;
• Pedigree of the Family of Cutts v. Cutte of Horham and Arkesden Co, Essex, by G. H. Rogers-Harrison F.S.A., Windsor Herald, pp.42-3

Text from Transactions of Essex Archaeology and History Society

Transactions of Essex Archaeology and History Society, 1st Series, Volume 4 (1869), pp.25-43, esp pp.37-8[2]
Mr. Griffinhoofe has also kindly communicated the following description of the Monuments of the Cutte family in Arkesden Church : There is a very large monument of clunch, painted and gilded, to the memory of Richard Cutte, Esq. , and his wife, at the east end of the south aisle. Their effigies, larger than life, rest under a canopy supported by six pillars. The figure of Richard Cutte is clad in mail. Altogether it is a fine specimen of Jacobean work. An inscription round the cornice informs us:

Heare lyeth Richard Cutte Esquier sonne and heire to Peter Cutte Esquier sonne and heire to John Cutte Esquier sonne and heire to Richard Cutte Esquier, which Richard was brother to Sir John Cutte of Horram Hall in thaxted treasurer of the most honourable household of the Mighty King Henry 8. This Richard dyed 16 Aug. 1592. Heare lyeth also Mary Cutte late wife of this Richard & daughter of Edward Elrington of Thoyden Boys in Essix Esq. chief butler of England to the most renouned King Edward 6, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. This Mary dyed 20 Jan. 1594.

Kneeling around this tomb are the figures of their four sons and two daughters each with an inscription as follows:

• Richard Cutte, eldest sonne of this Richard & Mary Cutte, who caused this monument to be erected;
• William Cutte, second sonne, married Ann Betenham, daughter of Daniel Betenham of Pluckley in Kent Esq;
• Francis Cutte, third sonne, married Katherin Bondail daughter of John Bondail of Spanton in Yorkshire Esquier;
• John youngest sonne;
• Barbara Cutte, eldest daughter, married Roger Godlafe of Bucknam-Ferry in Norfolk Esq;
• Dorothy Cutte, youngest daughter, married Thomas Bendish of Steeple Bumpsted in Essex Esq.

On the west side is the salutary warning to the living: As ye now are, so once were we As we now are, so shall ye be. When ye remember us, forget not yourselves. Shield at the head of Cutte's monument: Cutte: Argent, on a bend engrailed sable three plates, impaling Elrington: Argent, a fesse indented bezantée between six storks sable, 3 and 3 (usually given as five storks). On the south side of the monument quarterly of 8 (as listed above).

Some account of the family of Cutte

Heraldic Visitation of Essex, 1558[3] (very brief, starts with Richard Cutte who married Mary Elrington, effigies represented in this monument) Text from Transactions of Essex Archaeology and History Society:

In 1502 Sir John Cutte purchased this estate (Horham Hall in Essex) of whom (from whom) I do not find, but very probably of Richard Quadryng or his assigns. Sir John Cutte was Treasurer of the Household to King Hen. VIII. , and, according to Leland, built the present mansion. ' By indenture dated 17th March, 1514, Queen Catherine of Arragon, Consort of Hen. VIII., granted the Manor and Borough of Thaxted to Sir John Cutte, to hold during her life , under the rent of £57 7s. And by Letters Patent of King Hen. VIII. , dated 29 June following, he had a grant of the reversion of the same in fee- farm under the same rent. He died 4th April, 1520, and held not only the Manor and Borough of Thaxted, but also divers estates and parcels of land here and elsewhere. By Elizabeth his wife he left two sons, John and Henry. John, the elder son and suc cessor, was 13 years old when his father died. He married Lucy Browne, and died 1 July, 1528, leaving an only son, John, then aged 3 years. He was of Horham and Childersley, in Co. Cambridge, was Knighted, and served Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in 1551. He died in 1555, leaving by Sibell, his wife, one son, John, then aged 10 years, and two daughters, Ursula and Elizabeth. He, too, was afterwards Knighted ; and so noted for his house keeping, that Queen Elizabeth sent to him the Spanish Ambassador, to be entertained during a sickness in London. But being more magnificent than prudent, by license dated 2nd April, 1599, he alienated the Manor and Borough of Thaxted and Spensers-fee to Thomas Kemp, Esq., in trust, who had before purchased of his father Coldham's fee, a reputed manor in this parish . He departed this life in 1615, and appears to have been the last of his family who possessed Horham . He had two wives. By Elizabeth, the first, daughter of Sir Arthur D'Arcy , he had a daughter Elizabeth, married to Sir HumphreyStafford ; and by the second, Margaret, daughter of William Brocket, he left an only son, John, AND OF THE FAMILY OF CUTTS . 31 afterwards a Knight. Sir John was of Childersley, and married first, Anne, daughter and co -heir of Sir Thomas Kemp, of Ollantye, Wye, Co. Kent, Kt. He married, secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Weld, of Edmonton, and died in June 1646, leaving two sons, John and Henry. The latter died unmarried in 1661 . John, the elder, was created a Baronet 2 June, 1660, but dying unmarried at Saruin in 1670, the Horham and Childersley line became extinct. He gave his estates to Richard Cutts, of Arkesden, his collateral relation. I have followed out this line beyond the period when the family ceased to possess Horham, until its extinction : and as in pursuing my investigations I have found that the pedigree of Cutte or Cutts, as recorded by Morant, is very inaccurate and defective, the present seems an opportune occasion for correcting it ; and with that view an authenticated genealogy of the family, courteously contributed by G. H. Rogers-Harrison, Esq. , F.S.A., Windsor Herald, is appended.

Of the ancestry of Sir John Cutte, the builder of Horham Hall, we have no account. No genealogies of the family ascend beyond him . Even the epitaph in Arkesden Church for Richard Cutte, who died in 1592, which is specially genealogical, claims for him no more remote ancestry than to have been son and heir of Peter, son and heir of John, son and heir of Richard, which Richard was brother of Sir John Cutte of Horham, " Treasurer of the most honourable household of the mighty King Hen. VIII.” It may, perhaps, therefore be reasonably inferred that prior to the time of Sir John Cutte they were of no note, and that he was the founder of the fortunes of his family. That he acquired great estates will be seen by his Will, as well as in the pages of the County History. Leland says that “ Old Cutte maeried the doughter and heyre of one Roodes about Yorkshir, and had by her a 3 hunderith markes of landes by the yere.” This authority we have accepted. Again, Leland says that “ Young Cutte married one by the procurement of my Lady Lucy.” She whom “ Young Cutte" wedded was Lucy Browne, a widow, sister and co -heir of Lady Elizabeth Scrope, wife of Thomas le Scrope, and daughter of John Neville, Marquess Montacute. And it is , I think, plain, from the Will of Sir John Cutte, that the marriage was by procurement” of the Lady Elizabeth Scrope, by covenant made for that end, when “ young Cutte young indeed, for he was but a boy of 13 at his father's death, prior to which it had been covenanted that he

should wed the widow Browne.