Monumental brass formerly in Lincoln Cathedral of Philip Tilney (d.1453) of Boston, Lincolnshire and of Ashwell Thorpe in Norfolk. Dressed as a monk. Drawn by William Sedgwick, an assistant to William Dugdale (1605-1686). His illustrations (contained in BL Add. MS 71474) remain the only known record of the memorial brasses formerly existing in that Cathedral.

Philip Tilney (d.1453) married Isabel Thorpe (d.1436), a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edmund Thorpe of Ashwell Thorpe in Norfolk. Their grand-daughter was w:Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey (c.1445-1497), the first wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk. The arms of Thorpe and Tilney are quartered by the Howard family.

Description by Blomefield

The brass is recorded by Blomefield (History of Norfolk, 1806) as follows (Francis Blomefield, 'Hundred of Depwade: Thorp', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 5 (London, 1806), pp. 142-163 [1]):

Sir Edmund Thorpe (of Ashwell Thorpe, Norfolk) left two daughters his coheiresses; Joan Thorpe, who married Sir Robert Echingham, Knt. and after to Sir John Clifton of Bukenham Castle, Knt. but on failure of issue according to the entail, the estate of the Thorps vested in her sister Isabel Thorpe, who married Phillip Tilney of Boston in Lincolnshire, Esq. and they kept their first (manorial) court in 1436, in which year she died, and lies interred under a marble with a brass circumscription in Thorp's chapel (in Lincoln Cathedral?), with the arms of Tilney, Argent, a chevron between three griffin's heads erased gules impaling Thorp (Azure, three crescents argent), quartering Bainard/Baynard (Sable, a fess between two chevrons or), and her effigies. Isabel's brass was inscribed:

Hic jacet Isabella que fuit Uxor Phillippi Tilney, Armigeri, una Filiarum et Heredum Edmundi Thorp Militis et Domine Johanne quondam Domine de Scales, Consortis sue, que obiit decimo die Mensis Novembris, Anno Domini MCCCCXXXVI cuius animae propicietur Deus Amen.

After her death, her husband retired from the world, took on him a religious habit, and turned secular canon, and was admitted to St. Butolph's prebend in Lincoln Cathedral, where he was buried in 1453; the arms of Tilney impaling Thorp, quartering Bainard, are on his grave-stone there, inscribed:

Hic j'cet Philipus Tilney, Canonicus et Residentiarius Ecclesiae Cathedralis Beate Marie Lincoln: nuper Armiger; Filius Frederici Tilney Armigeri, Filii Philippi Tilney Militis, ac maritatus Isabellae uni Filiarum Edmundi Thorp de Ashwell-Thorp in Comitatu Norfolcie Militis, et Domine Johanne Domine de Scales, nuper Consortis eiusdem Edmundi qui obiit penultimo die Mensis Octobris Anno Domini MCCCCLIII^o cuius animae propicietur deus amen: For Charity.

At his feet is inscribed the following verse (Blomefield, expanded using Sedgwick's drawing):

They had three daughters, Marion, Grace, and Maud, and three sons, Hugh, Robert, and Frederick Tilney of Boston, Esq. the eldest son and heir, who inherited all the Thorps; he married Elizabeth Cheney, daughter and heir of Laurence Cheney of Cambridgeshire, Esq. and had only one daughter w:Elizabeth Tilney, Countess of Surrey (c.1445-1497), the first wife of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk.

Heraldry