English:

St Peter's Church, Merton, Norfolk - 19th century stained glass, south aisle east window.

Royal arms

Three royal coats of arms of English monarchs, as borne between 1406 and 1603, but probably for the Tudor dynasty, the central one circumscribed by the Garter and the pane semée with the crowned letter "M", thus possibly for Queen Mary I. The side panes both decorated with the royal motto Dieu et Mon Droit, that on the left also with the crowned letter "R"/"H" ? with the supporters of King Henry VII (a dragon gules and a greyhound argent) and that on the right with another crowned letter (indecipherable "R"/"H" ?), with the later supporters of King Henry VIII (a crowned lion or and a dragon gules).

Roundel of Robert FitzWalter

At top is a roundel in 13th century style showing the mediaeval knight w:Robert FitzWalter (d.1235), feudal baron of Little Dunmow, Essex, mounted on a horse, circumscribed in Latin ROBERTUS FILIUS WALTERI (as shown on his surviving seal in the British Museum), and displaying the arms Azure, a fess between two chevrons or, later adopted by the de Grey family of Merton Hall, as is visible on their monuments. However the arms of Robert FitzWalter were of different tinctures, and are known to have been Or, a fess between two chevrons gules, a difference of his cousins de Clare, Earl of Gloucester (Or, three chevrons gules). Robert Fitzwalter was one of the leaders of the baronial opposition against King John, and one of the twenty-five sureties of Magna Carta. See: Horace Round, "The Fitz Walter Pedigree", Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, New Series, vol. 7 (1898), part 3, p. 329.

These are in fact the arms of the de Cornard/Cornherd/Conerth of Great Cornerth (now w:Great Cornard), in Suffolk, and adopted by their heirs the de Grey family of Merton Hall, as related by Blomefield.

Robert FitzWalter's immense English landholdings included the manor of Merton in Norfolk, which was sub-infeudated to the Baynard family. Merton eventually descended to Sir Thomas de Grey, who married the heiress Isabell Baynard, which family had held it from FitzWalter. He was of the family of Grey of Cavendish, Suffolk (a branch of Grey of Grays Thurrock, Essex, later Marquess of Dorset, etc.,) which had previously married the heiress of de Cornard/Cornherd/Conerth of Great Cornerth (now w:Great Cornard), in Suffolk, which family was a feudal tenant of Baynard, and had itself adopted a difference of the arms of Baynard, themselves a difference of FitzWalter. Arms of "Cornard of Suffolk": Azure, a fess between two chevrons or (Burke, p.230).

Text per Francis Blomefield, 'Hundred of Wayland: Merton', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 2 (London, 1805), pp. 298-312 [1]:

At the Norman Conquest (Merton) fell to the Conqueror, who gave it Ralph Bainard, Baignar, or Baynard, one of his principal Normans, who came over with him, (along with Hatestuna, or Bunwell manor, which always passed as this did, till it was sold by the De Greys to the Buxtons) he left it to Juga Baynard, his widow, who was succeeded by Jeffry Baynard, her son and heir, who was succeeded by Will. Baynard, who taking part with Helias Earl of Mayne, Philip de Braose, William Malet, and other conspirators, against Henry I. lost his barony of Baynard's Castle, which, upon his forfeiture, was given by the King to Robert, a younger son of Richard Fitz-Gilbert, progenitor to the ancient Earls of Clare, from which Robert, the noble family of the Fitz-Walters descended, of which family the manors of Merton, and Hadeston or Bunwell were always held, as of Baynard's castle, the head of the barony, by a younger branch of the Baynard family, to which these manors were given before the forfeiture, so that they were never forfeited, but continued in that branch, till Isabell, a coheiress of it, carried them to Sir Thomas de Grey, her husband.

Sir Tho. de Grey of Conerth in Suffolk, Knt. son and heir of John de Grey, Esq. of Cavendish, afterwards of Greyshall in Cavendish, was married before 1306, to Alice de Cornherd, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Rich. de Cornherd, or Cornerth, Knt. after which match, perc(eiving)? the paternal arms of Grey to be born by so many families, he (abandoned) ? them, and assumed those of Cornherd, which he and his descendants to this day have born as their paternal arms, viz. Azure, a fess between two chevrons or, which arms the Cornherd, or Cornerth family took in imitation of the Baynards, their superiour lord, of whom they held a great part of their estate, whose arms are the same exactly as Cornherd's, only the field and chevrons differ in colour. In 1321, Tho. de Grey, and Alice de Cornherd his wife, held divers lands in Great Cornerth, of Rich. Cornerd, their father, value 5l. 3s. per annum, and of the Abbess of Malling, lands worth 10s. per annum; of the said Richard a messuage and one carncate of land there, worth 4l. 3s. 2d. and also Cavendish manor, worth 10l. 13s. 4d, at one fee, and also of William de Buteveyln, one messuage, one carucate, and 60 acres of land, one acre of meadow, and 10s. rent in Little-Conerd, Bures, Newton, Waldingfield, Illeigh, Preston, Torp, and Lillesey, worth 3l. 11s. per annum, at the 4th part of a fee; and also they held more of the inheritance of the said Alice, a messuage and one carucate of land in Bernardeston, of Arnold de Mounteney, by the service of one halfpenny to the scutage when laid, which house and carucate were worth 6l. 13s. 4d. per annum. Thomas died in 1321, Alice his wife surviving him; in 1322, she settled lands on her sons, Roger and John. Sir Thomas de Grey, Knt. their son and heir, succeeded, and married Isabell Baynard, eldest daughter and coheir of Fulk Baynard of Merton, Esq. and had Merton, Bunwell, &c. for her share; he came and settled at Merton, in the ancient seat of the Baynard's, whose arms he always bore, quartered with his own (or Cornerth's) in her right, and their posterity have always done the same.

Blomefield further clarifies the heraldry in his text on the manor of Bunwell, Norfolk (Francis Blomefield, 'Hundred of Depwade: Bunwell', in An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 5 (London, 1806), pp. 131-141 [2]):

The ancient Baynards upon losing their barony of Baynard's castle, for rebellion against Henry I. had (Bunwell) given from them to the ancestors of the Fitz-Walters, as at vol. ii. p. 299 (re Merton, Norfolk). But this manor being granted to a younger branch before the forfeiture, it was never forfeited, though these Baynards bare their arms differing only in colour from the Fitz-Walters, their chief lords; as the Fitz-Walters did from the Clare family, whence they descended, from whose arms they only varied by a fess between two chevrons, instead of three chevrons born by the Earls of Clare, and in like manner the Cornherds or Cornerths, in imitation of the Baynards, their capital and chief lords, bare the same arms, only varied in colour, and often quartered them with the Baynards; but when Sir Thomas de Grey, Knt. married the heiress of Sir Richard de Cornherd, Knt. he laid aside the paternal coat of Grey, and he and all his descendants always used Cornherd's as their own, except Tho. de Grey, clerk, who always bare the ancient family arms of Grey, with a mullet; and when their son Tho. de Grey, Knt. married Isabel, daughter and coheiress of Fulk Baynard of Merton, the Greys ever since bare Bainard quartered with Cornerth,

The arms of Baynard are similar to FitzWalter, their feudal overlord. Arms of Baynard, given in Burke, p.60 as Sable, a fess between two chevrons or ("Baynard of Blagdon, Somerset")

For a 17th c. depiction of these chevron arms of de Grey of Merton see the wall mounted memorial to the memory of William Rant and his wife Elizabeth de Grey inside the Parish church of Saint Margaret in the village of Thorpe Market, Norfolk. Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of James de Grey (died 1665) of Merton Hall, Norfolk, (called here "Martin, Norfolk") by his wife Elizabeth Stutevile, a daughter of Sir Martin Stutevile of Dalham in Suffolk. Elizabeth's brother was w:William de Grey (1652-1687) of Merton Hall, MP, the grandfather of William de Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham. Arms: Ermine, on a fess sable three lions rampant or (Rant) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.839) impaling Azure, a fess between two chevrons or (de Grey of Merton, Norfolk) (Burke, p.428 "Grey of Ilchester, Norfolk", with "Grey of Merton, Norfolk" Azure, a fess or between two chevrons ermine). The arms used by William de Grey, 1st Baron Walsingham and his successors were entirely different, namely a difference of the arms of the ancient noble family of Grey of Grays Thurrock, Essex, Marquess of Dorset, etc. (Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p.1129). Possibly by that time the Grey family in all its many noble branches was considered more prestigious than the obscure mediaeval arms of FitzWalter/Baynard and Cornerth, thus he reverted to the ancient paternal arms of Grey.

Other information

St Peter's church > 696764 - 907090 - 907110 is situated in the grounds of Merton Park, which forms part of the estate of the de Grey family; the south porch once used to serve as the private entrance into the church for members of the de Grey family and the southern section of the churchyard offers a fine view towards Merton Hall > 906010 where the present Lord of Walsingham still lives. Opinions are divided whether the round tower of the church is Saxon or early Norman but all are agreed on the original church being older. The church was extensively restored in the 19th century and most of the stained glass windows date from that time. The east window > 907093 depicts 12 scenes from the life of Christ. The three-sided communion rails > 907098 - dating from about 1690 - are a rare survival of this Puritan arrangement which gave the laity access right up to the east wall of the chancel. The two-decker pulpit > 907100 with a reading desk is early C17 and the opening seen behind it is the entrance to the former rood loft. The exquisitely carved rood screen is original and dates from the 14th century. Its panels have a stencilled floral motif > 907104. On the wall nearby there is a brass > 907115 to William de Grey (d. 1495) with his two wives facing him. The de Grey family's large Jacobean box pew > 907107 is located at the east end of the south aisle; on the floor is a brass > 907112 to Thomas de Grey (d. 1562). The hexagonal font > 907116 - unusual because East Anglian fonts are commonly octagonal - dates from the 15th century. (This information was taken from an information leaflet compiled by Simon Cotton and Richard Butler-Stoney.) The church is kept locked and access is possible by appointment only. See also: http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/merton/merton.htm