The Beale Memorial
The Beale Memorial in the east corner of St. Thomas Beckett Chapel shows a pictorial history of this local Maidstone family spanning 200 years from 1399 onwards.
The Beale's held an honorable position in Maidstone at least 600 years ago, contemporary with Archbishop Courtenay the builder of All Saints church.
The memorial itself is a plate of copper 30" long and 18" wide containing a geneology of six generations of the family the designer himself representing the seventh. It is divided into six spaces vertically, each space representing a generation. Each space is then divided into three compartments horizontally.
The cenral compartment contains the figures of the parents, the Christian name of the wife - or two where there was more than one wife - and the relationship of the husband to the person who erected the memorial.
The left compartment represents the sons, with the name of the one who succeeded the family honours.
The right compartment represents the daughters, all kneeling. The first and third sections, there apprantly being no daughter, a short Latin sentance is introduced. In the fourth section the skull is emblematic of an early death of a daughter.
A summary of the family line:-
JOHN BEALE (wife's name
not given) died in 1399
WILLIAM (one of the Corpus Christi Brotherhood married Katherine
died 1429
JOHN married Agnes and Alice. Died 1461
ROBERT married Agnes. Died 1490
WILLIAM (twice Portreve) married Johanna. Died 1534
THOMAS (twice Mayor) married Johanna Cobb and Alicia Wolgate.
Died 1593
THOMAS (his son) who erected this monument
In this chapel aisle, by the Priests door, can be found the Stoop originally used to hold Holy Water when the church was built and when all places of worship were Roman Catholic. This changed with Henry VIII when the break from Rome meant that certain partsof doctrine were abandonded ans so the stoop ceased to be used.
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