Memorial Type:

Funerary monument - other

Does the monument still exist?

No

Installation Date:

Contemporary (pre-1500)

Inscription:

“Behold where two Ralph Babthorpes, both the son and father, lie under a stone of marble hard, interred in this mould dry: to Henry VI the father a squire, the son the server was, both true to [their] prince, and for his sake they both their lives did pass” (John Shrimpton’s 1631 translation from a Latin verse inscription).

Memorial Notes:

This is an unusual memorial for a father and son killed at the same time and in the same place. They were a squire and a "second server" to Henry VI so part of his household at the first battle of St Albans in 1455 and would have been standing near the king in the cattle market (outside what is now Boots the Chemists) when they were killed, probably by arrows.