Bagenall Family

In the chapel of St Nicholas in Westminster Abbey are buried Dame Sydney Bagenall and Lady Anne Charlotte Bagenall, the two wives of Nicholas Bagenall (1629-1712), Member of Parliament, of Newry in Ireland and Plas Newydd in Anglesey in Wales. Sydney (Grosvenor) was buried on 5th September 1684 (they had three daughters) and Anne (Bruce) daughter of the 2nd Earl of Elgin and 1st Earl of Ailesbury, was buried on 13th March 1713 (they had a son and a daughter). Neither has a monument or gravestone.

A free standing monument of black and white marble with a coat of arms on the pedestal and a marble urn surmounting a pyramid was erected to Nicholas and Anne's only son Nicholas, who was unfortunately squashed by his nurse while in bed (the nurse was probably Frances Dobbs). The inscription is painted in yellow:

This monument is erected to ye memory of Nicholas Bagenall (son of Nicholas Bagenall of ye Isle of Anglesea Esq. and of ye Rt.Honble. ye Lady Charlott Bagenall his wife, one of ye daughters of the Rt.Honble. Robert late Earl of Aylsbury, Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Household) who was born ye 31th day of Decembr. Anno Domini 1687 and by his nurs[e] unfortunately overlayd the 7th of March following

The monument was moved slightly to the south east in the 1960s. The coat of arms "Barry, ermine and or, a lion rampant azure" was repainted at this time but the ermine design was unfortunately omitted.

Lady Bagenall, in her will, requested that the heart which was in the urn [presumably the young Nicholas'] be taken out and put into her dead body with her heart, and that the urn be set up over her grave. It is not known if her wish regarding the hearts being united was carried out.