Braceys Memorialized in Churches
in Worcestershire
compiled by Edwin C. Dunn
Besides being one of the oldest Bracey families in England, the Braceys of Madresfield in Worcestershire are of particular interest to some Bressies in America because the descendants of John & Elizabeth (Ligon) Bressie of Sumner County, Tennessee, can claim direct descent from this ancient Bracey family. The property of Madresfield passed to the Lygon family in 1423 through a female heiress, Joan Bracey, who married Thomas Lygon. It is unknown if John Bressie could claim direct descent himself from the Braceys of Madresfield but when Elizabeth Ligon married John Bressie in Halifax County, Virginia, in 1802, their descendants could claim a direct descent from Thomas & Joan (Bracey) Lygon through the Ligon (as it came to be spelled) family.
The family lines of the Braceys and Lygons of Madresfield will be discussed elsewhere, as will be given a more detailed description of Madresfield itself. However, this article will give a description of how the presence of these medieval Braceys was remembered in church windows in Worcestershire. It is here that the earliest known extant likeness of a Bracey exists.
Malvern Priory
A description given by Thomas Habington (1560-1647) of the windows in Malvern Priory indicates the greatness of the Braceys in earlier times.1 "On the east end of the Quyre is erected over Mr. Walwyn a monument raysed of[f the ground?] with this inscription …. On the right side of the Tombe …. In the third pane…Gules, a fesse Or and twoe molletts in cheife Argent; Bracy."2
"Now to discend from the quire to the Iles which encompasse it round about. … In the rest of the first north window, a man all armed saveing his head covered with a black night cap, and on his coate armour Gules, a fesse Or and twoe mollets in cheife Argent pierced Sables, Bracy, behinde him his wife praying with her wymplet, being a token of greate honour, the subscripcion, Orate ….. Willelmi de Braci et Agnetis vxoris ejus. In the next pane a man and his wife praying with this subscripcion, Orate pro animabus Willelmi de Bracy et Johanne vxoris ejus. In the third pane the like, and vnder, Orate pro animabus Willelmi Braci et Issabellæ vxoris ejus. In the fowerth pane a woman and her two sonnes, and written, Orate pro animabus Johannæ Bracy, Willelmi et Thomæ filiorum ejus. Above in theise fower panes are the fower Doctors of the Lataine Church, and at everie of theire feete, saveing St. Gregorie’s, which is broken out, William Bracy armed as in the first pane with a collar of gold about his neck prayeing, as his armes in his coate armour in every place doe manifest; and over all this is first Braci’s armes, and for his creast on a wreath azure a man’s heart of a tawney coller, with mantling doubling and helmett; secondly, Bracy as in the first pane prayeing; 3. Bracy quartering chequy Or and Azure, the great Earle Warren’s armes, ancistor I think to Agnetes Braci, whose muffled chynn doth show nobility; thirdly, Braci quartering Argent fretty Sables, Vernon; 4thly, Braci armed and prayeing as before; fifthly, Bracy, quartering Azure, a bend barry indented Or and Gules, or else on a bend Or twoe bars indented Gules, Bracye’s ancient armes or Hatton’s Armes; and in the aspireing height of the window, Bracy, impaleing quarterly Azure and Argent, per fesse indented, Bracy quartering with small difference Acton; and next Braci impaleing Azure, a crosse Argent, Braci impaleing Aylesbury."3
Then, elsewhere: "…in the little low window on the south side of the church, Gules a fesse and towe molletts in cheife Artgent; Braci."4 "In the fowerth window" on the north side of the church "a man as before," ie. kneeling, "armed, and on his coate armour Gules, a fess Or and twoe molletts in cheife Argent, Bracy, and his wife prayeing ioyntly."5
In the church of Hanley’s Castle, Habington had this description of a window: "…returninge to the northe windowe … Asure a bend barry indented Or and Gules, the Armes of Bracy Lord of Warendon, Bracy of Warindon rather than Hatton, telling vs hee was somewhat in this parishe."6 The Braceys of Madresfield also held Warndon.
In the church of Warndon, Habington made these discoveries: "In the east wyndowe of the Chauncell and myddell pane Asure a bend barry indented of six Or and Gules, Bracyes auncient coate. Impalinge Asure, the rest broken. In the next pane, the same armes Impalinge Gules, three fishes nayant Argent, Roche of Ireland. In the body of the churche and southe wyndowe Gules, a fesse Or and twoe mollets in cheyfe Argent, Bracy, most neere resemblinge Poher’s armes." 7
He continues: "The fyrst lordes which I can yet fynde weare the Pohers of whom John le Poher thys 13 Ed. I had possessyons heere…. The next to Poher, and hys heere (as I guess by hys Armes) was Brascy, or more truly Braci, Lord of Warmedone, for I fynd Sir Robert Braci, so wrytten, 20 Ed. 3, in a private evydence. Yf you will see the greatenes of the Bracies looke in the windowes of the bewtiful church of Maluerne…." 8
In his description of the Warndon church, he raises the question of the origin of the Bracey arms. "In the body of the Churche and southe wyndowe, Gules, a fesse Or and towe mollettes in cheife Argent. This coate is often boren ini Maluerne’s faire churche and ealsewheare as Bracie’s Armes, but in my opinion is Poher’s coate, which Braci, as heyre to Poher, did assume for hys owne; for before King Edward the thyrd, 13 of hys raygne, quartered Fraunce and England, all our gentellmen bore singell coates, in so muche as yf a gentellman had marryed with a gentellwoman, who was an inheritrice and had a sonne by her, thys heyre, yf hee was, moreover, used to keepe hys father’s name and bear hys mother’s coate, or, on the contrary, to take hys mother’s name and continewe hys father’s armes; and so Bracie, of Warmedon, and the Ligons, theyre heyres, have borne eaver synce not Bracie’s, but theyre auncestor’s Poher’s Armes."
"In the body of the Churche and the southe windowe is Gules, a fesse Or, and towe Mollets in Cheyfe Argent. Nowe to delyver my opinion of thease, contrary, I thincke, to the opinion of all, I am certaynly persuaded that those in the east wyndowe of the Chauncell are Brace’s Armes, for the cheyfe windowe in the Chauncell is eaver (I take it) the place for the Armes of the Lord of the Mannor and Patron of the Churche; and Sir Robert Bracy … was Lord of Warmedon, 20 Ed. 3. These in the body of the Churche, beeinge a fesse and molletts, weare the Armes of John le Poher, who, as it appearethe in the Recordes of the Exchecker, was estated of landes in Warndon, 13 Ed. I; for the Armes are the coate of Poher except onely the fesse, which Poher bearethe Argent, a nyce difference, and vsed in former tymes as a distinction of brothers; and this is contrary to all the Lygons and heraughtes, who acknowleadge thys fesse and mollets for Bracye’s coate." 9
[Source: Roy S. Walker, A History of the Bracey Family in England and America (1990)]
In the four hundred years that have elapsed since Thomas Habington visited Malvern Priory, much has changed. Only a couple fragments of the stained glass have survived.10 "At the feet of each of the four doctors, according to Habington, was the kneeling figure of a William de Bracy, in armour and armorial tabard. Pieces of a white scroll on a green brocade background have survived, bearing the inscription ‘Will..m de braci’. Above the scroll, now in the Museum window of Malvern Priory, is the head of a gentleman facing right with a collar of SS round his neck. Evidently this was formerly part of a figure of William de Bracy wearing armour and an heraldic tabard, kneeling in prayer, since his raised right hand hidden in a gauntlet has survived together with the head. The livery collar, a dark band to which the gold SS are attached, is of obscure significance, though it was certainly a mark of some distinction and worn originally by adherents of the Lancastrian John of Gaunt who died in 1399."
"In the north clearstory window is a gentleman with the arms of Bracy and his wife. His head and right hand are lost, but the heraldic tabard and his armoured legs below with the studded scabbard of his sword are well preserved. His lady’s hands and body are lost, but her head with its butterfly headdress and her red skirt remain. The persons are probably Thomas Lygon carrying the Bracy arms in right of his wife Joan, the heiress of the Bracys of Madresfield. The beginning and end of the inscription survive below: Tho(mas lygon et Johanna) uxor."11
Footnotes
1John Amphlett, ed., A Survey of Worcestershire, Thomas Habington (1550-1647?) (Oxford, 1895), 2 vol.
2Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 179-181.
3Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 184-185.
4Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 187.
5Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 189.
6Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 271.
7Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 449.
8Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 450.
9Ibid., Vol., pp. 451-452.
10Roy S. Walker, A History of the Bracey Family in England and America (1990), p. 14, quoting from G. McNeil Rushforth, Medieval Christian Imagery as Illustrated by the Painted Windows of Great Malvern Priory, Worcestershire (1936).
11Ibid.
© 2000 Edwin C. Dunn