Name	Elizabeth Southcotte (née Robins) 1585
Date	1585 - 1585
Gender	Female

John Southcotte (died 1585) and his wife Elizabeth (née Robins) are commemorated in a plain tomb-chest with painted alabaster recumbent effigies. The man wears judge’s robes (Good, 2004; Pevsner and Bettley, 2007, 843; Lewis, 1848, 629-633; Hough, 1983, 179).

The inscription (in translation) reads:

“Monument of John Southcotte, formerly one of the Justices of Queen Elizabeth appointed to hold pleas for her, who held the aforesaid place upon the bench for 23 full years.

He took to wife Elizabeth Robins of the city of London, and had by her xiii offspring, of whom three only now survive, to wit John his son and heir, Martha wife of Francis Stonour esquire, and Anne, given in wedlock to Francis Curson esquire. After he had completed seventy-four years more or less, he fell asleep in Christ the xvii day of April, Anno Domini 1585”

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

Hough, J (1983) Essex churches, Bury St Edmunds: Boydell

Lewis, S - ed (1848)  A Topographical Dictionary of England at URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51418&strquery=witham. Date accessed: 25 November 2007.

National Monuments Record (English Heritage), Images of England, (www.imagesofengland.org.uk), accessed 25 November 2007

Pevsner, N & Bettley, J (2007) The buildings of England: Essex, Yale: London

www.withamparishchurch.org.uk, accessed 25 November 2007

Whitworth, J (2008), www.essexchurches.info/AtoZ.asp