heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

THE SCROPES. 95
Choir windows. The shield on stone is of course in its original place.
It probably marks
And how significant and appropriate is that place
!
the portion of the Choir on the building of which Scrope
concentrated his
efforts during his short tenure of office. Next to it are the arms of Skirlaw,
a cross of six bastions or willow withies, which he adopted in allusion to
his father having been a basket-maker. Walter Skirlawe was prebendary
of Fenton in this Minster, 1370, and archdeacon of the East Riding. In
1385 he became Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and was translated to
Durham 1388. During his tenure of office here he certainly liberally
co-operated with Scrope in benefactions towards, if indeed he were not the
actual architect of, the new Choir. He bequeathed money for the building
of the Lantern Tower, which is commemorated by his arms above the
spandrils. Many of the surrounding shields in glass and stone represent
to do them
relatives or friends of the late Archbishop, either put up
honour, or in acknowledgment of donations which they had given.
In the northern transept of the Choir aisle we find in stone on the
west wall the shields of Scrope and Neville, probably Sir Geoffry, the
Archbishop's brother, killed in Lithuania, and Eleanor, his widow, daughter
of Ralph, Lord Neville, who eventually became abbess of the Minories in
London, or, as seems indicated by the bird on the saltire, Maud, daughter
of Thomas Nevill, Lord Furnival, who, Burke says, "married William,
" Lord Scrope." Facing them, on the east wall, are Scrope and Fitz-Hugh,
probably commemorating Henry, Lord Fitz-Hugh, who married the Archbishop's
sister Joan.
On the south wall, in stone, Clifford, perhaps Sir Lewis Clifford,
younger son of Robert, third Lord Clifford, surnamed "the King's knight,"
I suppose from his close attendance on Henry IV., or perhaps Roger,
Lord Clifford, his cousin ; and a shield bearing a cross patonce, either
Sir Thomas Marshall or a cross patonce gules, or Sir William Melton,
azure a cross
patonce argent.
And then the windows, now so bare, were thick set, according to
Torre, with the armorial devices of Percy, Mowbray, Neville, Clifford,
Fitz-Hugh, Darcy, Hastings, Roos, Thoresby all names recorded as companions
in arms of the great house of Scrope, in the Scrope and
Grosvenor roll.
The third west window in the clerestory above may have been put
up by Sir Henry Scrope, in commemoration of himself and his own
immediate family. In the tracery lights we find Scrope impaling or, a lion
rampant sable, probably the coat of Sir Stephen Scrope, the second baron,
his father, brother to the Archbishop, who married Margaret, daughter
of Lord Welles.* Another shield, probably that of Sir Henry himself.
* See coloured plate.