Dame Ann Hennicker (d.1792)
/Dame Ann Hennicker (d.1792)
December 12, 2020
One of the grandest monuments in the Cathedral is to Dame Ann Hennicker (d.1792), featuring two allegorical figures of Truth and Father Time produced from artificial Coade stone, developed by notable early British businesswoman Eleanor Coade.
Dame Ann Henniker passed away on the 18th July 1792, aged 65. Her husband Lord John Henniker was the son of a Russian Merchant and Freeman of Rochester. He also became a merchant, dealing in leather and furs, and had a long career in politics. He erected a grand marble monument to his late wife in the south nave aisle. The monument and inscription clearly serves to immortalise an impressive political and mercantile pedigree for the family.
At the top of the monument, below the Hennicker family arms, records:
‘In a vault near this Monument is deposited all that was mortal of DAME ANN HENNIKER, late the Affectionate Wife of SIR JOHN HENNIKER of Newton Hall, and Stratford in the County of Essex Bart. He Represented Sudbury in the first Parliament of His Present Majesty, and in two successive Parliaments in the Town and Port of Dover in this County.’
The inscription on the marble sarcophagus below reads:
'‘She was the eldest Daughter of Sir JOHN MAJOR BART. of Worlingworth Hall in the County of Suffolk Member for Scarborough, and Coheiress with her surviving Sister ELIZABETH DOWR. DUTCHESS of HENRY DUKE OF CHANDOS. Two sons JOHN late Member for New Romney, And BRYDGES TREGOTHICK Lieutt Coll of His Majestys 9th Regiment of Dragoons, and one Daughter ANN ELIZABETH COUNTESS of Aldborough, are left with the Disconsolate & much Afflicted Husband, to mourn Her loss, who, after 45 Years of Conjugal Felicity, in the Practice of every Virtue resigned Her Soul to God, at Bristol Hotwells the 18 of July 1792 Aged 65. Her second Son Major Mercht. of London died the 3d. of Feby. 1789, and lies buried at Stretham: he left 5 Children, vizt. JOHN MINET, MARY ANN, MAJOR JACOB, ELIZABETH FALL, & BRYDGES JACKSON, ALL INFANTS, NOW LIVING.’
The designer of the two statues is somewhat of an enigma. They were traditionally ascribed to Thomas Banks RA, but this has been disputed. The statues are formed of artificial Coade stone, used for moulding statues, decorations and ornaments of the highest quality that remain virtually weatherproof today. The product was created around 1770 by Eleanor Coade, who ran Coade's Artificial Stone Manufactory, Coade and Sealy, and Coade in Lambeth, London, from 1769 until her death in 1821. Coad stone continued to be manufactured by her last business partner, William Croggon, until 1833.
Depictions of Truth and Time as personifications is a common motif in art of this period. Allegorical imagery has been used throughout history, where a character is used to convey a broader message that would otherwise be difficult to illustrate. The god and personification of fortune and luck from antiquity Fortuna is depicted in the Cathedral’s c.1200 Wheel of Fortune. Truth is often depicted as a naked or partially-clothed woman, as truth is often said to be revealed or revealing.
Time is often depicted with wings – as time is said to fly. It is also common for him to hold an hourglass and scythe. The hourglass represents the one way direction of time. The association of Old Father Time with the scythe has an obscure origin, extending back to antiquity when the ancient Greeks began to associate chronos, their word for time, with the agricultural god Cronos, who had the attribute of a harvester's sickle. In more recent centuries Old Father Time has become closely associated with the Grim Reaper – the personification of Death.
At some point the scythe carried by Time was broken. Truth also seems to have once been holding an item, although not her characteristic mirror. Both figures were removed for conservation by Cleere Conservation in 2003 when the figures were cleaned and the scythe repaired. The recipe and techniques for producing Coade stone have been rediscovered by Coade Ltd., which produces sculpture at its workshops in Wilton, Wiltshire.
In 1800, John Henniker succeeded his father-in-law as second Baronet of Worlingsworth Hall, and was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Henniker, of Stratford-upon-Slaney in the County of Wicklow. He died on the 18th April 1803, aged 78, and was buried with his wife in the vault next to the Dame’s monument. His is another grand allegorical monument, in the bay next to hers.
The monument, erected by his two surviving sons and signed by the sculptor John Bacon Junior in 1806, features the marble relief figures of Virtue (the personification of moral excellence) being crowned with a laurel wreath by Honour. In Latin, the main sense of honour is ‘reward for excellence’ in the form of esteem, status, or a position. So the message is that Baron Hennicker’s titles and political positions were a just reward for his moral excellence.
Below is the portrait relief of Lord Henniker and a relief of Dover Castle. Above, in rays, is 'Sic itur ad astra'. The inscription records:
‘The Remains of The Right-Honourable JOHN LORD Henniker, of an ancient Family in this County, are placed here by his Desire, in the same Vault with those of his beloved Wife Dame ANN HENNIKER. He succeeded to the Dignity of Baronet, by the original Patent, on the Decease of Sir JOHN MAJOR, Bart. in February, 1781, and was created by the Best of SOVEREIGNS, BARON HENNIKER, of STRAFORD-UPON-SLANEY, in the Kingdom of Ireland, in July, 1800. Humble to his GOD, loyal to his KING, Kind to his Relatives, benevolent to All, at the Age of Seventy-nine, in the stedfast Hope of Immortality, he completed a Life of unshaken Integrity, the 18. Day of April, 1803. Piety was in him blessed with Prosperity, This Monument was erected to his Memory by his two surviving and affectionate Sons, JOHN HENNIKER MAJOR, Lord HENNIKER,and the HONOURABLE GENERAL BRYDGES TREGOTHIC HENNIKER.’
Jacob Scott
Research Guild
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
