Charles Fotherby (1549-1619) had been vicar of several Kent parishes before serving as Dean from 1615 until his death. His tomb in the Dean’s chapel is striking for its many images of death. Woodman (1981) describes it well “a thoroughly nasty tomb” with Fotherby ” emerging from a veritable carnary”. The cartouche above is to Priscilla Kingsley, Fotherby’s neice who died in 1683 – it incorporates (on top) the Fotherby arms of nine lozenges and four fleurs-de-lis. Above this is a circular portrait on copper of Dean Isaac Bargrave, chaplain to Charles I who spent time in Fleet Prison, victim of the First English civil war. He died in Canterbury in 1643 but the portrait, attributed to the English painter Cornelius Jansen, was not commissioned until 1679.
What to see:
- the large assembly of memorials to Dean Fotherby, Dean Bargrave and the Kingsley family (Image 1)
- striking images of bones, skulls and other funereal objects (Image 2)
- the Fotherby arms on the cartouche of Priscilla Kingsley (Image 3)
Sources: see standard cathedral sources; also Cowper (1897)
DL