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St.
Mary’s grounds hold an estimated 26,000
burials, most with no surviving memorial. Amongst
the recorded burials are six Archbishops of Canterbury.
Several aristocratic burials took
place on the site in the 16th century including
Lady Anne Howard, daughter of Edward IV and Elizabeth
Boleyn, the mother of Anne Boleyn and grandmother
to Queen Elizabeth 1st.
A memorial tablet to Nancy Storace,
buried in the churchyard in 1817 can be seen in
the building. She was a renowned English opera
singer and played the role of Susanna in the first
performance of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
in 1786.
Out in the garden is the Tradescant
family tomb, a Victorian sandstone replacement
of two earlier memorials. Nearby is the stately
tomb of Captain William Bligh of the Bounty who
spent the last years of his life in Lambeth. The
tomb is made of particularly fine stoneware, pale
in colour and extremely hard wearing. It is called
Coade stone and it was manufactured close by,
on the banks of the Thames..
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| Picture
by Gavin kingcome |
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Elias
Ashmole, buried here in 1692, was a contemporary
of the Tradescants and became acquainted with
the father and son when they all resided in Lambeth.
After the death of John Tradescant the younger
in 1662, Ashmole acquired the Tradescant’s
private museum collection. He deposited the artefacts
in the University of Oxford and the remaining
items can still be seen today in the city’s
Ashmolean Museum.
Continuing something of a horticultural
tradition, James Sowerby was buried here in October
1822. A local resident and museum owner, Sowerby
was a talented botanical artist and teacher. He
was commissioned by William Curtis to illustrate
The Botanical Magazine.
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