William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath

William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath (29 Sep 1557 – 12 July 1623) was Lord Lieutenant of Devon. His seat was at Tawstock Court, three miles south of Barnstaple in North Devon, which he rebuilt in the Elizabethan style in 1574, the date being sculpted on the surviving gatehouse.
He was born on 29 September 1557 in Devon, the eldest son of John Bourchier, Lord FitzWarin (died 1557) (who died shortly after his birth, having predeceased his own father John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath (died 1561) by his wife Frances Kitson (died 1586), a daughter of Sir Thomas Kitson (died 1540) of Hengrave Hall, Suffolk and Margaret Donnington, Countess of Bath. Her elaborate monument with effigy exists in Tawstock Church. William succeeded to the earldom on the death of his grandfather, John Bourchier, 2nd Earl of Bath in 1561.
He married twice:
He and his wife, Elizabeth, are buried in the choir of St. Peter's Church, Tawstock, Devon, where one can see their elaborate monument.
A magnificent and sumptuous monument exists in St Peter's Church, Tawstock, incorporating recumbent effigies of William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath and his wife Elizabeth Russell. It was restored in 1999 by Lawrence and Sue Kelland, mainly to replace the iron bands within the alabaster which threatened to rust and thereby expand to crack the stone. The iron was replaced with stainless steel and the monument was repainted. Kneeling to the left is their adult son and an infant child, whilst on the right kneels their adult daughter with a recumbent infant at her side. Two vines grow up on either side of the main effigies, on the dexter inhabited with heraldic escutcheons showing five generations of ancestry described by five shields of Bourchier impaling the arms of their wives. On the sinister vine are shown five similar escutcheons describing the ancestry of Elizabeth Russell over five generations as follows, from ground upwards:
At the top above the recumbent couple, the two vines meet at which point is displayed an escutcheon of Bourchier impaling Russell. On the top of the cornice to the dexter is shown a large escutcheon of the Bourchier arms, on the sinister the arms of Russell. Above the couple is a black tablet inscribed in capital gold lettering with an epitaph. On the base is a further tablet containing a mix of anagram, chronogram and epigram, to be deciphered by the viewer. At the feet of the Earl is his crest of the head in profile and shoulders of a bearded oriental man wearing a Phrygian cap with a pointed tasselled top flopped over. At the feet of his wife is a goat statant argent armed and unguled or, the crest of Russell, now with horns broken off.
The Bourchier crest was explained by John Weever (died 1632) as follows:
The Phrygian cap is an iconographical symbol of Oriental kings.
Above the couples' effigies is a black rectangular tablet inscribed in capital gold lettering with an epitaph in Latin as follows:
Translated into English thus:
On the base of his monument appears a cryptic tablet. It comprises separate elements of anagram, chronogram and epigram. Top: Bathon(i)ae Com(i)ti Devonae praefecto memoriae ergo ("To the memory of the Earl of Bath therefore to the prefect (i.e. Lord Lieutenant) of Devon"). Beneath this line is in the centre an inscribed skull and cross-bones, with to its left the image of a phoenix rising from a fire above which is Morior Orior ("I am dead, I shall arise") above which is inscribed on a scroll the well-known Roman epithet: Mors mihi lucrum ("Death to me is reward"). On the right side of the skull is an image of a circular dial inscribed around the circumference with the first two letters of the 12 months of the year. The top-most month, which is crowned, is IV i.e. JU for July, the month of his death. Above is inscribed: Finis Coronat ("the end crowns"), above which is inscribed on a scroll the French motto of Bourchier: Bon temps viendra ("The right time will come"). Within the skull is written on the top line grama, to which word three other words point from above the skull, ana-, chrono- and epi- (all Greek words in Latin form). These denote to the reader the presence of anagrams, chronograms, epigrams and other puzzles within the tablet. In the skull below the word grama are the two Latin words se and pul, and on the two bones which intersect behind the skull are written 4 more Latin words: ad, in, tum, and crum, which may all be combined together to form the sentences: in sepulcrum ad sepultum ("into the grave in order to be buried") or in sepultum ad se pulcrum ("in the act of burial one's-self (is made) beautiful"). Below is the anagram, on the top line the words Gulielmus Bourchier ("William Bourchier"), below which is the indicator ana-: and the name's Latin anagram Luge (si ob lucrum heri) ("mourn if on account of the profit of yesterday"). Below is a Latin epigram with some words in capitals, which may relate to a chronogram or other word-game: Quid sibi vult tumulus quidve haec insignia luctus est comes in superos ecce locumo tenens quare fles Devonia vel Bathonia quare ("If you wish to know what is this pile or why this great mourning, the Earl behold is above as place-holder (lieutenant), as weeps Devon and Bath"). Below is a chronogram: "eXIIt en bon teMps nVnCo VIenDra patet" (exiit en bon temps nunc (o?) viendra patet) a mixture of limited sense in Latin and the French motto of Bourchier, meaning "he went in good time now he shall come he seeks". When the capital Roman numerals are added together individually they make 1,623, the year of his death. Underneath is a further possibly cryptic epigram, with some words in capitals: Julius hoc mensis fuit Augustissimus anno atq(ue) secunda decem junge secunda dies non amor invidia est dolor euge lege alme viator et disce exemplo vivere: disce more sic cecivit (cecidit?) not elevit, translated as "The month of July was the most august in this year and the following day...is hatred not love, well-done! read O Traveller and teach by (his) example (how ) to live: teach (how) to die, thus he has fallen he has not arisen". At the end are two monograms: "R...E" and "AR".
A 1599 escutcheon in Weare Giffard Hall (about 8 miles south-west of Tawstock), then a seat of the Fortescue family, displays the arms of William Bourchier, 3rd Earl of Bath, with another two showing the Royal arms and those of Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford, Custos Rotulorum of Devon.