HEXAB1053

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Matrix of Ogle Brass

matrix | memorial

stone

The matrix of the Ogle brass remains in the Sanctuary. NCH3 p193fn gives text of the plate at its foot. The inscription, in straight Black-Letter type, is exceedingly difficult to read.
The manner of representing the heraldic colours on the brass is interesting. The second and third quarters, which bear the blue voided escutcheon of the Bertrams on a gold field, had the escutcheon sunk in the brass and the sinking filled with a blue enamel or pigment. The first and fourth quarters bear the Ogle arms. These were represented by sinking the whole of the quarter except a narrow margin. The space was then run in with a white metal composed of six parts of tin to one of lead and a small quantity of silver. This metal represented the silver field, and the three crescents and the fess were cut out in it and filled with red pigment.
Arms: The arms of Ogle and Bertram quartered. Quarterly 1^st and 4^th argent three crescents and a fess gules [for Ogle], 2^nd and 3^rd or an orle (an escutcheon voided) azure [for Bertram].

Hic jacet Robertus Ogle, fili Elene Bertam filie:
Roberti bertam militis qui obiit in vigilia omnm
Sanc. Aº Dmi mº ccccº xº cuius aie p.picietr Ds ame.

Hic jacet Robertus Ogle, filius Elene Bertram filie
Roberti Bertram militis, qui obiit in vigilia Omnium
Sanctorum, Anno Domini mºccccºxº cujus anime propicietur Deus. Amen.

Latin

Here lies Robert Ogle son of Elene Bertram daughter of Robert Bertram, knight, who died on the vigil [eve] of All Saints, AD MCCCCX [1410]. May God be merciful to his soul. Amen.

1410s

c1715 Warburton MS: “A little lower, on the same [south] side the choire, is a tomb covered with black marble, and there, upon a plate of brass, the arms of those two ancient and flourishing familys of the Ogles and Bertrams of this county, viz., Quarterly, first, ar. a fess between three crescents gu.; second, or an orle az.,the 3^rd as the 2^nd; the 4^th as the first. And on another brass plate, this inscription, Hic jacet Robertus Ogle, filius Elene Bertram, filie Roberti Bertram militis, qui obiit in vigilia Omnium Sanct. ano dom. 1404, cujus anime propicietur Deus. Amen. {The will of Robert Ogle, dated 7 Feb 1411, is printed in Durham Wills, vol.II, p.47. (38 Sur. Soc. Publ.) Warburton's reading of the date of his death is therefore incorrect.}” [Proc.Soc.Ant.Ncle. vol.8 1898 no.18 p145]
“… along with Sir Robert Ogle, led the successful attack of the English left wing at Otterburn …” (battle in August 1388 won by Scotland) [Peter Armstrong, Otterburn 1388]
Robert Ogle … died on the vigil of All Saints, the 31^st of October 1410, and was buried in Hexham Abbey church under a black marble slab bearing the arms of Ogle quartering those of Bertram at each corner, which were enamelled in colours, and on a brass plate and inscription in contracted Latin. A beautiful chantry was placed over the tomb [HEXAB199]. Only three of the four corner shields and the label bearing the inscription remain.
The arms on the tomb are 1 and 2 argent, a fess between three crescents gules, 3 and 4 or. an orle, azure. [Wright 1823 pp.88–89]
It has generally been concluded that the date on the tombstone in the abbey church at Hexham is 1410, but it is to be remarked that the X used for ten is undersized and may have been meant for nine. It is clear from a charter dated 12 May, II Henry IV (1410) that he, Sir Robert Ogle, was then dead and the writs for his inquisition post mortem, are dated 8 Nov 1409, and were taken at Newcastle, 17^th and 21^st April, 1410, and they state he died on the Vigil of All Saints [31^st Oct] 1409. Another inquisition was taken at Durham, 23 June 1410. It is clear therefore that he died on the 31^st Oct 1409, and that this date should have been on the tomb, and that therefore the questionable X is possibly meant for IX in a contracted form, the inscription itself being contracted. But this conception does not suit Sir Robert Ogle's will, which is given in the second volume of the publications of the Surtees Society, and is dated 7 Feb 1410. [Proc.Soc.Ant.Ncle. 1899 Vol.IX No.30 p.298]
The corner pieces, which are known to have borne the arms of Ogle and Bertram quarterly, now retain only the latter coat. [Raine Preface II p.lxix]
He desired to be buried in St Mary's porch of the parish church of Whalton and to be covered with lead ‘at my own trouble and expense.’ That he was not buried there seems to be explained by the fact of there having been a plague raging at Hexham up to the year 1410, and that it was therefore impossible to move the body.
Sir Robert Ogle (1353–1409) had a great (×5) grandson Cuthbert, 7^th Baron Ogle (1540–1597), who married (c.1565) Catherine, daughter of Sir Reynold Carnaby.
08Aug2022: “My 17-Times Great-Grandfather. | FRANK SIDNEY OGLES, b.3/2/1940” [Visitor recollection, no address]

Chancel/Presbytery

CND: C1; NCH3 p.193; Hodges 1888 p.52 & Pl.34.