Monument to Catherine Payne (d.15 April 1590), wife of William Stewart, Esquire, of the Isle of Ely, and one of the daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas Payne of Castle Acre, Norfolk. Her daughter Elizabeth Stewart married Robert Cromwell of Huntingdon, by whom she had issue including Lord Protector w:Oliver Cromwell. William Stewart's father was Nicholas Stewart, a brother of Robert Steward (d. 1557) (aliter Styward / Wells) the last Prior of Ely Abbey, in Cambridgeshire, and the first Dean of Ely Cathedral which replaced it at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Nicholas was the uncle of both Sir w:Mark Steward (1524-1604), MP, and of his brother Robert Steward (1526/30-1570), both of whose whose grand monuments and effigies survive in Ely Cathedral. Latin inscriptions (see clearer images[1]):

Hic inhumatur Catherina una filiar(um) et hered(um) Thomae Payne quonda(m) de Castelacre Generosi et nuper uxor Gulielmi Stewardi de Ely Armi(geri) quae obiit 15 Apr(ilis) 1590 ("Here is buried Catherine one of the daughters and heirs of Thomas Payne, sometime of Casle Acre, Gentleman, and recently the wife of William Steward of Ely, Esquire, who died on 15 April 1590"). Latin verse below which may be translated as:

(source:[2]):"As you always studied this house, so you were always devoted to God, so faithful to your husband, so good, so providence to your children, so pious a ruler of your servants and bearer of burdens. Equal to all, kindly to the good. Thus at last to Christ, whose orders you horoured. You gave yourself dying with a non-doubting soul.

Heraldic shields:

• Centre top, quarterly of 6 (Source: Clay, J. W., ed. (1897). The Visitation of Cambridge made in Anno 1575, continued and enlarged with the Visitation of the same county made by Henery St George, Richmond Herald, marshall and deputy to Willm. Camden, Clarenceulx, in Anno 1619, with many other descents added thereto. Harleian Society, 1st ser. 41. London, pp.7-11, pedigree of "Stuart" [3]):
  • 1&6: Argent, a lion rampant gules debruised by a bend raguly or (Steward, augmentation of honour) w:Augmentation of honour to the arms of Steward given by the French King Charles VI (1368-1422) to Sir Alexander Steward "The Fierce" (a grandson of w:Alexander Stewart, 4th High Steward of Scotland (died 1283), from whose first son were descended all the Stuart kings of Scotland), for service done by his father Andrew Steward to that king and to the king of Scots, and also to John the French king, grand-father to Charles VI. Evidently alludes to the following event. An armed knight foughtwith a lion, and having broken his sword, which lay in fragments at his feet, snatched up a rude club with which he combatted the beast. In allusion to this, in some books the following crest is given to the Steward family A sword broken in two, the pieces placed in saltire on a wreath, and surmounting a ragged staff erecly or. (Source: Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, 1777, pp.183-5[4])
  • 2: Steward / Stewart, Hereditary High Steward of Scotland
  • 3: Vert, three boar's heads couped argent (Boreley) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.101 "Boreley / Borseley of Wiltshire")
  • 4: Argent, a lion rampant sable on the shoulder a mullet or (Walkfare) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.1066 Or / argent, a lion rampant sable "Walkfare of Norfolk")
  • 5: Azure, a chevron gules between three hurts (Baskerville).

Crest: A sword broken in two in saltire argent pommel and hilt or surmounting a ragged staff erect or (Steward) (Source: Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, 1777, pp.183-5[5])

• Dexter/Left: Steward / Stewart, High Steward of Scotland with inescutcheon the Steward Augmentation, impaling Gules, three crescents argent a chief ermine (Fulnetby/Fulnesby/Fulneby) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.382) for his first wife Mary Fulnetby of w:Fulnetby in Lincolnshire;
• Sinister/right: Steward Augmentation impaling Vert, a fess between three leopard's faces or (Payne) (for his second wife Catherine Payne) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.782 "Payne of Dunham, Norfolk")