English: All Saints Church, Thornage, Norfolk, south wall - 1583 Easter Sepulchre monument, with Tudor arch, to Sir William Butts (d. 3 September 1583), High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in 1563. (Source: Farrer, Edmund, Church Heraldry of Norfolk, Vol 2 (1889), pp.407-8[1]). He married Joan/Jane Bures, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Henry Bures of Acton in Suffolk. He left his property to his niece Anne Butts (wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1st Baronet (c.1540–1624) of Redgrave in Suffolk, who with her husband and mother are there interred), the daughter of his brother Edmund Butts, by his wife Anne Bures, another of the co- heiresses of Bures of Acton. (See Heraldic Visitation of Norfolk, Vol.I, p.344).

Heraldry

Four shields: (Source: Farrer quoting "Blomefield, Norfolk, Vol.9, p.446", who recorded effigies present)

• Top: Quarterly of 4:

• 1&4: Azure, on a chevron or between three estoiles of the second as many lozenges gules (Butts)
• 2&3: Gules, a boar passant or charged with a martlet for difference (Bacon of Cambridge); (Gules, a boar sable, armed and unguled or, per Visitation of Norfolk, Vol.I, p.343)

• Two crests:
• 1: A wyvern (Bures?)
• 2: A horse's head couped gules accoutred and maned or on the head two feathers erect (Butts of Norfolk) (alternatively: A horse's head argent (bay-coloured ?) on the head a plume of three feathers or and of the first (or and azure?) the face and mane covered with armour or bridled of the last). Motto : Soyez sage et simple.

• Bottom left: Same as top;
• Bottom centre: Quarterly of 4 impaling quarterly of 4:

• 1&4: Butts;
• 2&3: Bacon of Cambridge;

impaling:

• 1: Ermine, on a chief indented sable two lions rampant or (Bures)
• 2: Azure, three oak leaves or (Mervis/Mervisse/Mervesse of Suffolk) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.680 "Mervis")
• 3: Chequy or and gules, a cross azure (Rowdon of Suffolk) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.875, with field Chequy argent and gules)
• 4: Ermine, a chevron sable between three cinquefoils gules (Fermour) (Ermine, a chevron between three cinquefoils sable, per Burke, 1884, p.347 "Fermour"). In Visitation of Norfolk, Vol.I, p.343, it is given as Ermine, a chevron sable between three roses gules seeded and leaved proper for "Farmor" (sic))

• Bottom right: Quarterly of 5:

• 1: Bures
• 2: Rowdon
• 3: Mervesse
• 4: Fermour
• 5: Per bend wavy sable and or (unknown)

See also

Monumental brass and ledger stone in St Mary's Church, Redgrave, Norfolk, of Ann Bures, a daughter of Henry Bures (d.1528) (whose brass survives in Acton Church in Suffolk), and wife of Edmund Butts, a son of Sir William Butts, doctor to King Henry VIII. Two of her sisters also married sons of Sir William Butts. (Source: https://www.mbs-brasses.co.uk/index-of-brasses/ann-butts) As the verse below her effigy explains, she was a wife for a far shorter period than she was a widow:

As the ledger line inscription states, her only child, Anne Butts, married Sir Nicholas Bacon (ancestor of the Bacon baronets of Redgrave) the eldest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon (1510-1579), Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to Queen Elizabeth I. Arms: Two shields:

• Dexter/left: Gules, on a chevron between three estoiles or as many lozenges of the field (Butts) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.156);
• Sinister/right: Ermine, on a chief indented azure two lions rampant or (Bures) (Burke, 1884, p.145)

Other information

The church of All Saints was extensively restored in the late 1800s to early 1900s and the stained glass windows date from that time > 764504 - 764509 - 764511 - 764516. Older survivals are a monument to William Butts, d. 1583 (seen here), and a ledger stone set into the west wall, depicting Anne Heigham, the wife of Sir Clement Heigham, at her prayerdesk > 764497; she had eight children and died in 1590 at the age of 84. The church is open every day. For more information see : http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/thornage/thornage.htm