page_title: Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale
caption_attribution_description: In St Michael's chapel, off the north transept of Westminster Abbey, is a remarkable monument commemorating Lady Elizabeth Nightingale. She was born in 1704, the eldest of three daughters of Washington Shirley, Earl Ferrers and Viscount Tamworth (d.1729) and his wife Mary. Her sisters were Selina, Countess of Huntingdon (d.1791 aged 83) and Mary, Viscountess Kilmorey who died in 1784. On 24 June 1725 Elizabeth married Joseph Gascoigne (1695-1752), son of the Revd. Joseph Gascoigne, Vicar of Enfield in Middlesex. He assumed the surname of Nightingale on becoming heir to his kinsman Sir Robert Nightingale. Of their three sons, Washington, Joseph and Robert, only the first survived his father but then only by two years. She died on 17 August 1731 following a miscarriage caused by the shock of a violent flash of lightning. The child, Elizabeth, survived and later married Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne and died in 1755. The monument was not erected until 1761, and gives an incorrect date of death for Lady Nightingale. The inscription reads: "Here rest the ashes of JOSEPH GASCOIGNE NIGHTINGALE of Mamhead in the county of Devon Esqr., who died July the 20th 1752 aged 56. And of Lady ELIZABETH his wife, daughter and coheir of WASHINGTON Earl Ferrers; who died August the 17th 1734 aged 27. Their only son WASHINGTON GASCOIGNE NIGHTINGALE Esqr. deceas'd, in memory of their virtues, did by his last will order this monument to be erected". Elizabeth and Joseph are buried in a vault in the north ambulatory nearby. The monument is by the sculptor Louis Francois Roubiliac. It depicts a skeleton of Death emerging from his prison to aim his deadly dart at the dying figure of Elizabeth above. She is held up by her husband who, in horror, tries to ward off the stroke of death. The idea for this image may have come from a dream that Elizabeth's brother in law (the Earl of Huntingdon) had experienced when a skeleton had appeared at the foot of his bed, which then crept up under the bedclothes between husband and wife. The figure of Death has lost its lower jaw and the spear is a later wooden replacement. John Wesley called the monument one of the finest in the Abbey, saying 'the marble seems to speak'. The famous American writer, Washington Irving, declared it 'among the most renowned achievements of modern art'. It is said that one night a robber broke into the Church but was so horrified at seeing the figure of Death in the moonlight that he dropped his crowbar and fled in terror. The crowbar was displayed for many years beside the monument but it no longer remains.
context_page_description: Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale, of Enfield, Middlesex, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1734
  Nightingale was baptized as Gascoigne on 19 December 1695, the eldest son of Rev. Joseph Gascoigne, vicar of Enfield, and his wife Anne Theobald, daughter of Francis Theobald of Barking, Suffolk and his wife Anne Nightingale. He was educated at Enfield under Dr Uvedale and was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge on 1 July 1712. In 1721 he succeeded his father and in 1722 he succeeded his younger brother Robert to the estates worth nearly £300,000 of Sir Robert Nightingale, 4th Baronet. He thereupon assumed the additional name of Nightingale. He married Lady Elizabeth Shirley, daughter of Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers, of Chartley, near Stafford on 24 June 1725.
  Nightingale was returned as Member of Parliament for Stafford at the 1727 British general election. He voted with the Opposition in every recorded division, He did not stand again at the 1734 British general election.
  Nightingale’s wife Elizabeth died on 17 August 1731 following the premature birth of her daughter Elizabeth as a result of the shock caused by a violent flash of lightning.
context_section_description: Joseph Gascoigne Nightingale (1695–1752), of Enfield, Middlesex, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from  1727 to 1734
  Nightingale was baptized as Gascoigne on 19 December 1695, the eldest son of Rev. Joseph Gascoigne, vicar of Enfield, and his wife Anne Theobald, daughter of Francis Theobald of Barking, Suffolk and his wife Anne Nightingale. He was educated at Enfield under Dr Uvedale and was admitted at Trinity College, Cambridge on 1 July 1712. In  1721 he succeeded his father and in 1722 he succeeded his younger brother Robert to the estates worth nearly £300,000 of Sir Robert Nightingale, 4th Baronet. He thereupon  assumed the additional name of Nightingale. He married Lady Elizabeth Shirley, daughter of Washington Shirley, 2nd Earl Ferrers, of Chartley, near Stafford on 24 June 1725. 
  Nightingale was returned as Member of Parliament for Stafford at the 1727 British general election. He voted with the Opposition in every recorded division, He did not stand again at the 1734 British general election.
  Nightingale’s wife Elizabeth died on 17 August 1731 following the premature birth of her daughter Elizabeth as a result of the shock caused by a violent flash of lightning. They had  three sons, Washington, Joseph and Robert. Nightingale  moved to Mamhead house in Devon for respite and recovery. He died on 16 July 1752. Of the sons, only Washington survived him  by only two years. His daughter Elizabeth also survived him and married Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne but died, also in childbirth, in 1755. They are commemorated by a  spectacular monument in Westminster Abbey by the sculptor Louis Francois Roubiliac. It depicts a skeletal Death emerging from his prison to aim a fatal dart at the dying figure of Elizabeth Nightingale.
caption: Monument commemorating Lady Elizabeth Nightingale and Joseph Nightingale in St Michael's Chapel, Westminster Abbey, London.
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