St Mary's Church, Shelton, Norfolk, monument to Sir Robert Houghton (1548-1624), of Lincoln's Inn and Norwich, Norfolk, a Judge of the King's Bench and a MP for Norwich in 1593. Third son of John Houghton of Gunthorpe, Norfolk by his wife Agnes Playford, a daughter of Robert Playford of Brinton, Norfolk. He married Mary Rychers, a daughter of w:Robert Richers/Rychers (by 1524 – 1587/89) of Lincoln's Inn, London and Wrotham, Kent, a lawyer who served as a Member of Parliament for Reigate in Kent in 1547, April 1554 and November 1554, and for Grampound in Cornwall in 1558, a son of Henry Richers of Swannington in Norfolk, of an old gentry family, by his wife Cecily Tills, a daughter of Robert Tills of Runhall in Norfolk.^[1] Sir Robert Houghton died at his chambers in Serjeants’ Inn on 6 Feb. 1624 and was buried at St. Dunstan-in-the-West, City of London. (History of Parliament biography[1]). Also monument to his son Francis Houghton, Esquire, and his wife Helen (Armiger ?).

The kneeling effigies have been re-positioned wrongly, father Sir Robert Houghton, in red robe of a judge, should kneel opposite his wife, under the arch and on the viewer's left (dexter), in the position of honour, and the son Francis Houghton face his own wife, in the foreground, possibly on the plinth below.

Heraldry

Five shields, three visible here, one for father one for son, one combined, father counter-impaling son:

• Argent, on a bend sable three eagles displayed or (Houghton) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.510 "Houghton of Gunthorp, Norfolk") impaling Argent, three annulets azure (Richers of Swannington, Norfolk) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.855 "Richers of Norfolk")
• Houghton impaling: Azure, two barrulets argent between three helmets or (Armiger of North Creake) (Farrer, Edmund, Church Heraldry of Norfolk, Vol 2 (1889), p.198 [2]) (? for Helen (Armiger)?, wife of Francis Houghton) (Azure, three helmets or between two bars argent "Armiger of North Creek, Norfolk", per Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.24, thus with charges transposed; Azure, a fess cotised argent between three close helmets or "Armiger of Suffolk")

Inscription

Latin inscription (Deemed by Farrer (1889) to be "very illegible", quoting Blomefield, History of Norfolk, Vol. V, p.272) (transcribed by jmc4 - Church Explorer[3]):

Debito Honori Optimi Mariti Roberti Houghton Equitis Judicisque de Regis Banco cuius Cineris Divi Dunstani Templum infra Londinum Custos est. Hic quoque Locus cum Filii sit Patris etiam Monumentum esse Optimo Jure videtur vendicare. Memoriae piae Charissimi Filii nostri Francisci Houghton Armigeri necnon Helenae Uxoris eius. Ut quorum Corda conjugalis Amor, Animas, Una Fides (uti spes nostra) in Aeternum univit, eorum ossa Unum hoc Sepulchrum condat conjungat Ego Maria Roberti Richers de Rootham in Comitatu Cantii Armigeri Filiae, bene Merito marito, duobus Filiis, Filiabus tribus, Oh Dolor ! orbata, totiesq(ue) partim Mortua Johanne Houghton, Unico minimoque Natu superstite, Reliquorum Consortii Avida, Potissimum vero Coronam Beatitudinis Anhelans, utq(ue) cum Salvatore Vivam Dissolutionis cupientissima hoc Poni Sacrum meas Reliquias Hic condier Jussi Per mortem itur ad Vitam 1623.

("In duty of honour of the best husband Robert Houghton, Knight, and a Judge of the King's Bench, the ashes of whom are kept at the Church of St Dunstan (at The Temple ? - i.e St Dunstan's in the west on Fleet Street) below London. Here also the place with the best law the monument seems to vindicate of the father of the son. Of pious memory of our most dear son Francis Houghton, Esquire, and not least of his wife Helen. In order that the hearts of whom ... the bones of them here this one tomb should join, I Mary, the daughter of Robert Richers, Esquire, of Wrotham in the County of Kent, with well deserving husband , with two sons, with three daughters, Oh Sorrow! ....")

Blomefield's text

Francis Blomefield, 'Hundred of Depwade: Shelton', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 5 (London, 1806), pp. 263-274 [4]

There was a grand antique mansion or manor-house here, built by Sir Ralf Shelton, in a square form, with an outside wall imbattled, and a turret at each corner, moated in, with a grand gate space at the entrance, and a turret at each corner of it. In the windows and ceilings were many coats of the matches of the Sheltons, &c. but the whole is now ruinated. The demeans and the park, &c. were sold by the Sheltons from the manors, as I am informed, to Sir Rob. Houghton, Knt. serjeat at law, and one of the justices of the King's Bench; who died seized of the manors of Leffley, Buxhall, Bretenham, and Hecham, in Suffolk, and their letes; leaving Francis his son and heir, 30 years old; who died in 1629, leaving Robert his son and heir 6 years old, who inherited the said manors. (fn. 30)

This judge was born at Gunthorp in Norfolk, Aug. 3, 1548, and was buried 6 Feb. 1623, in the church of St. Dunstan in the West, London, for whom there is a noble canotaph in this chancel, with his effigies in his judge's robes, and those of his wife, and son and his wife, kneeling on the top of it, and this inscription,

Debito Honori Optimi Mariti Roberti Houghton Equitis, Judicisque de Regis Banco, cujus Cineris Divi Dunstani Templum infra Londinum Custos est, Hic quoque Locus, cum Filij sit, Patris etiam Monumentum esse Optimo Jure videtur vendicare. Memoriæ piæ, Charissimi Filij nostri Francisci Houghton Armigeri, necnon Helenæ Uxoris ejus (ut quorum Corda conjugalis Amor, Animas, Una Fides (uti spes nostra) in Æternum univit, eorum ossa Unum hoc Sepulchrum condat, conjungat.

Ego Maria Roberti Richers de Rootham in Comitatû Cantij Armigeri Filiæ, bene Merito marito, duobus Filijs, Filiabus tribus, Oh Dolor ! orbata, totiesq; partim Mortua Johanne Houghton, Unico minimoque Natû superstite, Reliquorum Consortij Avida, Potissimum verò Coronam Beatitudinis Anhelans, utq; cum Salvatore Vivam, Dissolutionis cupientissima, hoc Poni Sacrum, meas Reliquias Hìc condier Jussi. Per mortem itur ad Vitam. 1623.