Name	Pelham daughters 1559??
Date	1559 - 1559
Gender	Female

There is a wall-monument monument to Sir Nicholas Pelham, his wife Anne Sackville and ten children. The parents are kneeling with the children below. Sir Nicholas is famous for having led the defence of Seaford against a French expeditionary force which had previously burnt the village of Brighthelmstone (now known as Brighton). Sir Nicholas headed a force of Sussex gentry and yeomen. He sat twice in Parliament in Queen Mary's reign and was later knighted by Queen Elizabeth.

The family of ten children is divided into two groups: the sons below their father and the daughters below their mother, separated by an hour-glass. "The two eldest sons [Sir John and Sir Thomas] wear armour, the four others in cloak, tunic, trunk hose, stockings and shoes. The four girls are dressed similarly to their mother, except the youngest who has a cap" (Mosse, 1933, 128-9).

Sir Nicholas Pelham was of Laughton in Sussex, and lineal ancestor of the earls of Chichester. He was MP for Arundel 1547, sheriff of Surrey and Sussex 1549, and knighted 17 November in that year, and afterwards twice knight of the shire for Sussex. He died 15 December 1560 [actually 1559], aged 44 (Nicholls, 1848, 243).

The monument is dated 1559, the year of Sir Nicholas' death (Nairn and Pevsner, 1965, 553; Good, 2000). Sir Nicholas wears semi-armour; he is bareheaded and bearded. The women's clothes are considerably later in style - more typical of the 1590s than the 1560s. Anne Sackville wears "ruff, stomacher, farthingale, mantle, bonnet with rear lappet folded forwards, the hair forced up in front" (Mosse, 1933, 128).

The inscription with its pun on the name Pelham reads:

His valour's proof her manie virtues prayse

Cannot be marshaled in this narrow rooms

His brave exploit in Great King Henry's dayes

Among the worthys hath a worthier toombe:

What time Ye French sought to have sackt sea-foord

This PELHAM did repell them back aboord.

No guide book available.

Good, M (2004) The Buildings of England Database, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Mosse, H (1933) The monumental Effigies of Sussex (1250-1650), Hove: Combridges, 128-129

Pevsner, N & Nairn, I (1965) The buildings of England: Sussex London: Yale University Press, 553

National Monuments Record (English Heritage), Images of England, (www.imagesofengland.org.uk)

Nichols, J -ed (1848) The Diary of Henry Machyn: Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London (1550-1563) 378-83 at URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45541&strquery=St%20Michael's%20church%20Lewes. Date accessed: 08 August 2007