The tomb of John Bullock II [c.1539-1607] of Darley Abbey, at St Alkmund’s church in Derby, is a high-quality memorial commissioned by his son, John Bullock III [1576-1641] of Darley Abbey & Norton. It was probably created by a London-based workshop, and erected shortly after 1609.
It has been moved twice: first, when the medieval church of St Alkmund’s was replaced in 1844-46, and secondly, when that was demolished in 1968 for road improvements. The tomb was then transferred to the successor church of St Alkmund’s, erected 1967-72, on Kedleston Road. In the medieval church it was positioned against the East wall of the South aisle, and the armorial panel was noted in 18331Stephen Glover, The History, Gazetteer and Directory of the County of Derby, Vol. II, 1833, 478. as being on the North side of the tomb; that is, at the head. When moved to the 19th century church, the tomb was re-assembled at the West end of the South aisle with the armorial panel re-positioned to the South side of the tomb2J Charles Cox, Notes on the churches of Derbyshire, 1875, 120-121.; that is, at the foot, as now. When he died in 1607 John Bullock II was one of the most significant persons from Derby, and his tomb reflects his status both locally and nationally. Bess of Hardwick, whose memorial is in All Saints, Derby – now the cathedral - died in 1608 so, within the short space of a few years, Derby gained two funerary monuments of considerable artistic and historical importance.
John Bullock II, eldest son of John Bullock I [c.1510-1579] of Greenhill in the parish of Norton, Derbyshire, was born c.1539. He became a rich Elizabethan lawyer at the Inner Temple in London, where he had rooms in Figtree Court, and held various posts including that of Treasurer from 1586- 88. He purchased Darley Abbey, Derby, from Edmund West in 1574, possibly with money which his wife, Elizabeth Smythe, brought with her as dowry on their marriage on 4 October 1573 at St Mary le Bow, London. She was a widow, and came from a family of legal professionals: her father, William Pierson of London, was described as ‘scrivener & attorney in the [Court of] Common Pleas’3John Stow, A Survey of London written in the year 1598, Sutton Press, 2005, 226-7.. When she died on 11 August 1582, she was buried in St Alkmund’s, Derby, with an alabaster mural monument setting out her family history4The 1582 memorial, reported on by Stephen Glover in 1833 and J Charles Cox in 1875 [who says it was ‘no longer extant’], was recorded by Bassano in 1710: ‘Here lyeth Elizabeth, late wife of John Bullock, of Derley, th esq. which Elizabeth dyed the 11 day of August, 1582. She had issue three sons and three daughters, two of which daughters dyed before her, and lye here by their uncle [i.e.step-father]: Elizabeth was daughter of William Pireson, of London, and Anne, his wife, daughter of William Carkerke, gent: William and Anne had issue five sons and three daughters. Anne after married Sir Thomas Chamberlayne, knt. And had issue by him one son. Upon the face of the stone is a verse of God’s word, Job ix. 19. And under it ‘vincet post funera virtus’.. John Bullock II served as M.P. for Tamworth in 1571, held the stewardship of the manor of Arnold in Nottinghamshire in 1574, and is believed to have acted as
lawyer for the Manners family, earls of Rutland.5Bullock, John [d.1607], History of Parliament Online, 2017, 1-2. Roger Manners of Whitwell, Derbyshire, was a particular friend for whom John Bullock II negotiated admission to the Inner Temple in 1594, and nominated as an executor of his will in 1607.
In addition to Darley Abbey, John Bullock II acquired considerable property in his homeland at Norton to serve as an inheritance for his son, John Bullock III, through a series of purchases and exchanges made over a number of years. As early as 1572 he acquired a half of the manor of Norton, and by 1585 had purchased other lands including Norton Hall from Anthony Babington of Dethick. To consolidate his holdings, he exchanged some lands with Edward Gill of Norton in 1588, others with John Parker of Little Norton in 1592 and, in 1594, bought yet further lands situated in the hamlet of Jordanthorpe from his cousins the Bullocks of Unstone.
John Bullock II and his wife, Elizabeth, had 4 children: their only daughter, Elizabeth, married Francis Fitzherbert of Tissington on 26 January 1596 at St Alkmund’s, Derby; the eldest son, John Bullock III, married Catherine Fanshawe of Ware Park, Hertfordshire on 30 June 1608 at Barking, Essex; the second son, Francis Bullock, married Hester Tindall of London on 17 February 1605 at All Hallows, London Wall; and the third son, Henry Bullock of Brampton, near Chesterfield, married Rosamund Barley of Barlow after 1607.
On 18 April 1607 John Bullock II made his will. He died on 12 October 1607 and was buried the next day on 13 October 1607 in St Alkmund’s church, Derby. The reason he was buried so quickly after his death – before word had got around – was probably to avoid great crowds attending his interment. It was customary for a funeral dole to be distributed to the poor who attended the burial of wealthy people, but John Bullock II sought to avoid this undignified and potentially expensive free-for-all by leaving money in his will to the poor to be administered by the curates and churchwardens of the parishes of Derby: All Saints, 4 pounds; St Peter’s, 30 shillings; St Warburgh’s, 30 shillings; St Michael’s, 20 shillings. He wanted the money “to be distributed amongst the poore of the same parish so that they content themselves therwith and come not abroade to the church at my buryall or to my house at Darly for any other releefe…”
He made special provision for the poor of the parish of St Alkmunds, leaving 20 shillings each year to be distributed on Christmas Eve and Easter Eve: “Item I will and bequeath to the Curate and Churchwardens of St Alkmunds in Darby and their Successors for ever To be distributed to the poore of the same parish at their discretion the yearely somme of Twenty shillings viz at Christmas Eve Tenn shillings and upon Easter Eve other tenne shillings.” He remembered the parish of Norton in Derbyshire, from where his family came, with an extra- special bequest of £30 to be invested to bring in an annual income of 30 shillings for the use of a tradesman – on condition that the tradesman fitted his criteria: “Provyded always and my mynde and will is No person [that is not an householder within this parish having a wife children and servaunts], nor any that is an unthrift, haunter or keeper of alehouses or lewd company, druncard, common gamer, or not coming to the church upon the Sabbath day or not being of a good religion and repented for an honest person shall have any part of the sayd stocke of Thirtie poundes.” He
nominated Henry Brownell [1561-1634], a scythe-smith living in Jordanthorpe, to be the first recipient of this bequest.
The Tomb
The chest tomb, first illustrated in 1833 in Stephen Glover’s History, Gazeteer and Directory of the County of Derby6Glover, op cit, 478., is made from Derbyshire or Nottinghamshire alabaster. It is set upon a moulded plinth, and is decorated on the front and the right-hand end only. The other two faces are uncarved indicating that when commissioned it was always intended that the tomb should fit in a corner of the church. Stephen Glover states: “To the wall in the east end of the south aisle is erected a worthy tomb of alabaster, well adorned with carved work…” The front of the tomb consists of two recessed panels, surrounded by intricately interlaced strap-work between 3 supporting pilasters enriched with rosettes. Glover mentions that these recessed panels originally carried inscriptions in gold lettering but which were no longer legible by 1833: “In two tables on the side of the monument has been a deal of writing in gold letters, but not now to be taken.” Charles Cox, writing in 1875, adds: “On two panels in front of the tomb was formerly a long inscription in gold letters, but it was illegible even in Bassano’s time [1710]”7J Charles Cox, Notes on the churches of Derbyshire, 1875, 120-121..
Above this frontage, the tomb bears an entablature consisting of moulded architrave, strap-work frieze and cushion-moulded cornice with dentils. The cornice has small blank shields which may have been painted with heraldic charges. On top of all this is laid the ledger-slab on which rests the effigy.
The effigy of John Bullock II – which may well have been painted in colours originally - shows him with a highly-fashionable large moustache and pointed beard. He is dressed in a tunic, with neck ruff and matching cuffs8Identical neck ruff and cuffs are shown in the 1601 portrait of Thomas Fanshawe of Ware Park [1533-1601], illustrated in The memoirs of Ann Lady Fanshawe, [1907], opp.264: the editor remarks [p.278] that the effigy of John Bullock is ‘clad very similarly to Thomas Fanshawe’. John Bullock III [1576-1641] was married to Katherine, daughter of Thomas Fanshawe of Ware Park, of the Fanshawes of Fanshawe Gate in Dronfield., secured by 19 large and closely-spaced buttons – always a sign of wealth – and tied at his waist by a sash, beneath his lawyer’s gown. The back of his head is missing because a piece of the alabaster has broken away, but enough survives to show that he wears a close-fitting lawyer’s cap with decorative border pulled down to his ears. His head rests above a large book – probably a legal treatise – placed on a richly embroidered pillow with tassels. With his right hand raised to the side of his head he is shown in the traditional pose of contemplation, whilst in his left hand he holds a small book – probably a prayer book - to help him in his devotions.
The Heraldry
The arms of Bullock are described in the language of heraldry as: ‘Ermine, a chief Gules, a label of five points Or’. They can be seen carved at Unstone Hall, dated 1655, for George Bullock; engraved on the brass memorial to Anna Bullock dated 1685 in Dronfield church; and painted on the memorial in Tissington church to Francis Fitzherbert, who had married Elizabeth Bullock for his first wife, in 1595.
On John Bullock II’s tomb, the end panel at the foot displays the arms of Bullock impaling arms which pretend to be Pierson – the family of John Bullock II’s wife, Elizabeth. However, I can find no trace of the Pierson family of London bearing arms. It may be that these arms of a ‘fesse engrailed between
six cross crosslets’, is an invention that John Bullock III approved to lend greater visual importance to his father’s memorial. William Camden, Clarenceux herald, bore these particular arms and was friends with the Chamberlaine family of whom Sir Thomas Chamberlaine was Elizabeth Pierson’s step-father.
Beneath the label of five points, and at the centre between the top row of ermines, is a crescent – the cadency mark which denotes the second son: John Bullock II of Darley was the son of John Bullock I of Greenhill who was the second son of Philip Bullock [c.1480-1541] of Unstone in the parish of Dronfield. The arms of Bullock of Darley, with this crescent, were recorded by the heralds at the Visitation of Derbyshire in 1611, and shown alongside the family tree. Precisely these arms are carved on an oak chimneypiece from Greenhill Hall, now displayed at Bishops’ House, Sheffield, but with the crescent inverted as a result of a later repair: James Bullock [1580-1632] of Greenhill, for whom the chimneypiece was made, was the nephew of John Bullock II of Darley.
The crest above the shield is of 7 bill-hooks - a pun on the name Bullock - enfiled by a mural crown. Glover mis-identified this crest in 1833 when he observed that it ‘seems to be a sheaf of arrows in a coronet’.9Glover, op cit, 478. The crest was granted to John Bullock II’s son, John Bullock III, on 20 June 1609 – a fact clearly stated in the entry for Bullock of Norton in the Visitation of Derbyshire held at Chesterfield on 18 August 1662:
“Arms: Ermine, on a chief gules a label of five points or. Crest: A sheaf of seven bills enfiled with a mural crown gules. The Crest was granted to John Bullok of Norton & Derley in com Derb: Esqr by Ric: St George Norroy 20 Junij 1609 7 Jac:”
The grant of this crest came just over a month after John Bullock II’s will of 1607 had been proved in the Probate Court of Canterbury on 7 May 1609. So, it seems likely that John Bullock III of Darley & Norton erected this tomb to his father shortly thereafter10A couple of years’ time-lag between the death of a person and the creation of a commemorative memorial was quite normal. When John Bullock II’s son-in-law, Francis Fitzherbert, made his will on 12 February 1612 he specifically stated that “my executors within twooe years nexte after my decease cause to be made by some skilfull workeman and brought to Tyssington one semelye Tombestone of Alablaster whereon shalbe purteyed the aproportion of A man and twooe women lyke for myself and my twooe wives with our Coates of Armes engraven thereon…” proudly displaying his arms surmounted by the newly granted family crest. At this time, too, the crest was carved above the Bullock arms on the Greenhill Hall overmantel and was created as a plasterwork ornament in ceilings at Greenhill Hall for James Bullock11Greenhill Hall was demolished in 1964: the carved oak chimneypiece with the Bullock arms was acquired by Sheffield Museums and is now on display at Bishops’ House, Sheffield; the plasterwork ceiling was carefully removed and installed at Cartledge Hall, Holmesfield. and at Old Brampton Hall for Henry Bullock [1580-1634], John Bullock II’s youngest son, where it still survives.