Over the bank holiday weekend I paid a visit to All Saints Church in Ashover, Derbyshire to look at the effigies of Thomas Babington and Edith Fitzherbert.
The Babingtons and Fitzherberts were both Derbyshire gentry families, the Babingtons serving as the High Sheriffs of the county and the Fitzherberts as knights and MPs. As befitting their status, Thomas and Elizabeth have memorial effigies in alabaster, with detailed carving depicting both of them in their finery at prayer and surrounded by miniatures of their children.
Along with other effigies in this style and status, such as those of Edith’s parents in Norbury, most of the children are each show with individual clothing and accessories, though some duplicates are thought to representative of children who died.