Belchamp Hall - 17th Century

Having been asked to write a supporting document for the stabilisation of the Raymond Memorial in the church of Belchamp Walter I started to take another look at the research that I had performed earlier. I started my history of the village and the church from what I could see in the church and the information sheet that was in the church on my first visit.

Subsequent research turned up an account from Thomas Wright's History and Topography of Essex and the Alan Freer tree of the Descendants of William the Conqueror. I was pleased that I could cross-reference some of the dates that I see on the Raymond memorial. However, there seemed to be a lot of information that was not recorded in any other source that I could find. I was also concerned that I was probing in areas that I had no business and started to suspect that I was possibly revealing things that were not wanted to be revealed. This coupled with the realisation that Thomas Wright was probably taking his primary source from the Raymond family.

The names commorated on the Raymond memorial are only partially explained. The principle inclusions are obviously the 3 John Raymonds, Oliver Raymond and his wife Francic (nee Harris), some of Oliver and Francis' childen and William Raymond.

The memorial is dated 1720 but William Raymond who died in 1732 is included on the marble slab. John Raymond III died in 1720 and was only 31 years old when he died. This leads me to suspect that the memorial was commissioned by William.

The two vaults

The tomb or vault that the memorial is dedicated is under the floor of the nave in front of the North door. Presumably it was sealed in or around 1720 and a new vault was started under what is now the altar in the chancel at this time.

The memorial on the South Wall of the chancel details the occupants of the chancel vault. John Mayne St. Clare Raymond seems to be the inspiration for this memorial and according to the dates on it the last interment was 1939.