The Montagu Monuments at Warkton Church

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Saint Edmund's church in the village of Warkton, just south of Boughton House, is distinguished by it's chancel, which was built shortly after 1749 to contain four large monuments to members of the Montagu family.

Monument to John, Duke of Montagu, 1752, by Roubiliac.

John, 2nd. Duke of Montagu died in 1749. He had married Mary Churchill, the daughter of the 1st. Duke of Marlborough, the 'afflicted widow' who erected this monument and who appears upon it.

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The figure of the boy on the ledge is hanging up the oval medallion displaying the profile of the Duke. On the right stands Charity with two children, her arm stretched up to help him. The standing child is weeping and holding in his right hand the symbol of an extinguished torch. On the left is the figure of the Duchess with his coronet and shield of arms. To the left of her are military symbols - a gun barrel, cannonballs, a flag, and a trumpet representing Fame.

Louis François Roubiliac (c.1705-62) was born in Lyon and trained as a sculptor in France. He settled in England before 1735. Roubiliac produced many monuments in Westminster Abbey, including Lady Elizabeth Nightingale (1761) being struck by the Spear of Death emerging from his prison, and Handel (1761) conducting a celestial orchestra.

Monument to Mary, Duchess of Montagu, 1753 by Louis François Roubiliac (c.1705-62).

The Duchess died aged 61, and this monument 'in pious remembrance of the best of mothers' was erected by her daughter Mary, Countess of Cardigan, later to become Duchess of Montagu.

The three figures are those of the three Fates.

Monument to Mary, Duchess of Montagu, 1775.

Designed by Robert Adam (1728-92), the Scottish architect, with sculpture by P. M. van Gelder (active in London in the 1770s, with work in Westminster Abbey).

The Duchess is expiring on the right, whilst an angel on the left gestures towards heaven. The grieving child points to her coronet.

Monument to Elizabeth Montagu, Duchess of Buccleuch, 1827
by Thomas Campbell (born Edinburgh 1790, died London 1858)

The angel on the right is holding in his hand the symbol of an extinguished torch.

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