Image: St Andrew's church - memorial to Thomas Dereham - geograph.org.uk - 1637066

Description: St Andrew's Church, West Dereham, Norfolk, monument erected in 1722 by w:Sir Thomas Dereham, 4th Baronet (1678-1739). w:Pietra dura (inlaid coloured marble), Florence, by w:Filippo della Valle (1698-1768) and w:Ferdinando Fuga (1699 – 1782). As it developed in Florence, the technique was initially called opere di commessi (approximately, "Fitted together works"). Medici Grand Duke Ferdinando I of Tuscany founded the Galleria di'Lavori in 1588, now the Opificio delle pietre dure, for the purpose of developing this and other decorative forms. (Text from Wikipedia). See better image[1] Latin inscription D(eo) O(ptimo) M(aximo) Thomas Dereham Baronettus Richardi Dereham Militis et Baronetti et Franciscae Dereham filiae primogenitae Roberti Vicecomitis de Purbeck filius. Erga prudentem providam et amantissimam matrem nec non erga liberalitatem Thomae Dereham Militis olim Jacobi II Regis Angliae apud Cosmum III Hetruriae Magni Ducem ablegati Richardi Dereham de Boston in Comitatu Lincolniensi Armigeri primogeniti Richardi Dereham Militis et Baronetti consobrini quiin manerium de Dereham se redegit propriis sumptibus palatium denuo aedificavit dominationem redituum ampliavit viduam consobrini executricem testamentariam et filium heredem constituit ut memoria beneficae magnanimitatis illustrium decessorum suorum posteritati transmittatur adhuc vivens hoc gratianimi monumentum posuit Anno Domini MDCCXXII Which may be translated: "To the best and greatest God, Thomas Dereham, Baronet, the son of Richard Dereham, Knight and Baronet, and Francisca Dereham, first-born daughter of Robert, Viscount of Purbeck. Towards his wise forseeing and most loving mother and not least the liberality of Thomas Dereham, Knight, at one time the Ambassador of James II, King of England, at (the court of) Cosimo III (de Medici), the first-born of Richard Dereham, Esquire, of Boston in the County of Lincolnshire, a cousin of Richard Dereham, Knight and Baronet. So that not the Manor of Dereham he drove back by his own expense (and) built anew the mansion he increased the lordship. He appointed as his testamentary executrix the widow of his cousin and her son as his heir in order that the memory of the beneficent magnanimity of his illustrious decessors might be transmitted to posterity. Still living, he (i.e. Thomas Dereham, Baronet) placed this monument of a grateful spirit, in the year of Our Lord 1722"Background Text of "Mira66" on Flicker[2]: Memorial to the magnanimity of Sir Thomas Dereham V (d. 1697) and his father, sir Richard Dereham (d.1710). Variously coloured stones. Attributed to monument Ferdinando Fuga and Filippo della Valle. Commissioned 1722 by Sir Thomas VI († 1739) Blomefield was the first to note that the tablet had been made in Florence. This was confirmed by Julien Litten in the article cited below, which clarifies the commission and the confusion caused the complexities of the many Sir Thomas Derehams. Pevsner understandably thought that the monument was a memorial to Sir Thomas V (†1697). He had been knighted by James II, and from 1681–1689 was the Resident Minister at the court of Cosimo III Medici, not in Florence but at the court of the Doge of Genoa. He had been accompanied by his cousin’s son, seven year old Thomas Dereham VI (†1739), who stayed in Florence where he was educated at the court of Cosimo III de’ Medici. The older Sir Thomas appointed his young cousin his heir and the younger Sir Thomas had made one short visit to West Dereham in 1695, before settling in Florence. He returned to England briefly in 1718 and again in 1722, at the request of Sir Isaac Newton, President of the Royal Society. Sir Thomas had been elected a member in 1720 and had been invited to deliver a paper by the Florentine eye surgeon Antoni Benevoli on cataracts. It was on this visit that he commissioned the memorial, which is both a tribute to Pietro da Cortona’s great Jupiter ceiling (from the 1640s) in Palazzo Pitti, the Medici throne room, whose curved frame is echoed in the frame of the inscription (sic, the two shapes are not similar! See File:Giove che incorona il principe mediceo (sala Giove).jpg). The exuberant (both in colour and design) foliage (i.e. heraldic mantling) surrounding the central cartouche with the family coat of arms appears to have been influenced by recent French furniture design. Litten’s attribution to w:Filippo della Valle (1698-1768) and w:Ferdinando Fuga (1699 – 1782) is based on their tomb to Sir Thomas VI of 1739-1741 in the Venerable English College, Rome. But in 1722 both were still apprentices and their work is usually more restrained than this memorial.Heraldry Quarterly of 8, overall an inescutcheon of a baronet: 1: Azure, a buck's (deer's) head cabossed or (canting arms of Dereham (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.280 "Derham of West Derham, Norfolk, Bart")). Also in 4 corners of frame. Two crests of Dereham above: A bear rampant sejant sable muzzled lined and ringed or charged on the shoulder with an annulet argent and An eagle rising (Derham, An ancient crest See Bl. Nor/, vii. 329. (per Farrer)). Motto : Virtute me involvo. 2: Argent, on a cross gules an annulet of the first (Vere) (Source: Farrer, Edmund, Church Heraldry of Norfolk, Vol 2 (1889), pp.171-2 [3]); Possibly Argent, a cross gules an annulet for difference ? Possibly intended for Villiers (see ancestry of mother of 4th Baronet): Argent, on a cross gules five escallops or. 3: Gules, an eagle displayed argent (Godard/Goddard, per Farrer; Burke, p.405 gives "Godard of Walpole, Norfolk" as Gules, an eagle displayed or). See Francis Blomefield, 'Freebridge Hundred: Walpole', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 9 (London, 1808), pp. 99-121 [4] 4: Gules, three dexter gauntlets pendent argent a canton chequy or and azure (Denvers (de Denver) of Walpole, Norfolk (Burke, p.280): Farrer: "Denver") See Francis Blomefield, 'Freebridge Hundred: Walpole', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 9 (London, 1808), pp. 99-121 [5] 5: Lozengy argent and sable, on a bend of the second three crescents of the first (Gargrave of Nostel, Yorks (Per Farrer & Burke, p.388); 6: Argent, on a chief indented gules three cross-crosslets fitchée of the first (Gurgrace of Craven, Yorks. (not listed in Burke) The charges on the chief might be taken for "or," and are drawn like "crosses flory fitchée" (per Farrer)) 7: Sable, three lions passant in bend between two bendlets engrailed argent (Browne of Bechworth - variant of Browne, Marquess of Sligo); 8: Sable, a cross flory between four annulets argent (unknown family).Another shield: Quarterly of 4: 1&4: Ermine, a chevron gules (Touchet/Tuchet); 2&3: Gules, a fret or (Audley).Further reading Francis Blomefield, 'Clackclose Hundred and Half: West-Dirham', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 7 (London, 1807), pp. 321-338; Nikolaus Pevsner and Bill Wilson, Buildings of England. Norfolk 2: North West and South, New Haven and London, 1997, p.764; Julien Litten, ‘A Florentine monument at West Dereham, Norfolk and its patron’, Church Monuments, Journal of the Church Monuments Society, XXXIII, 2018, pp. 85-96 "A chance invitation from Sir Isaac Newton led to the commissioning of a vertical armorial ledgerstone at West Dereham, Norfolk and a large funerary monument in the Chapel of the Venerable English College, Rome, both being a collaboration of Ferdinando Fuga and Filippo Della Valle. Sir Thomas Dereham (d.1739), an extraordinary aesthete educated in Tuscany and affiliated to the Jacobite Court in Rome, an enigmatic individual, spy and informant to Pope Clement XII, is the link between these two works of art"[6] Edward Corp, ‘The Stuarts in Italy 1719-1766: A Royal Court in permanent exile’, Cambridge 2011, p. 218 Vernon Hyde Minor, ‘Passive Tranquillity: the sculpture of Filippo della Valle’, Philadelphia 1997, pp. 53-56Other information St Andrew's church > 1637020 - 1637046 stands on the site of a smaller Saxon church which was situated to the west of the churchyard. When the two parishes were united in 1401, St Peter's church fell into disrepair and was eventually abandoned. West Dereham Abbey, with its own church (dedicated to St Mary) was located approximately a mile south of St Andrew's church. The abbey was dissolved in 1539. The tower of St Andrew's church is believed to be the second largest of its type in Norfolk. It is constructed entirely of so-called puddingstone (carstone), with the core infilled with chalk stone. The internal diameter is 5.33 metres and the wall is 1.18 metres thick. It is believed that the tower was built against an older church and opinion is divided as to whether the church is of Saxon or Norman build. The tower windows are Norman > 1637035. The south porch is an addition dating from the 15th century. The church was extensively restored in the 19th century and the pews were installed at that time but the pulpit > 1637057 is 17th century (albeit restored). Some of the windows contain fragments of medieval stained glass > 1637054 and the east window > 1637052 has 15th century glass that was salvaged from the nearby abbey after its dissolution. The octagonal font > 1637072 dates from the 14th century. The church contains several memorials to members of the Dereham family > 1637062. A life-size alabaster statue commemorates Hon Col Edmund Soames > 1637067 who fought for William III and died in 1706 > 1637070. The poorbox > 1637073 by the south doorway was made from a 16th century table leg.
Title: St Andrew's church - memorial to Thomas Dereham - geograph.org.uk - 1637066
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Author: Evelyn Simak
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