First Name:

Edmund

Last Name:

Westby

Memorial Type:

Memorial - no longer extant memorial brass

Does the monument still exist?

No

Installation Date:

Contemporary (pre-1500)

Inscription:

His funerary inscription was recorded by antiquarians who visited the church after 1631. It read, “Here lies Edmund/Edmond [sic] Westby sometime hundreder of St Alban’s”, and it goes on to record that he was also an armiger and died on 18 September 1475. Weever then added a footnote to his description to say, “Henry VI was in [his] house during the time in the first battle in the town”. Shrimpton also added a footnote that read, “Henry VI was in this Edward’s house during the time of the first battle, after he had been wounded in the neck with an arrow”. (This discrepancy may derive from Weever’s comment that the inscriptions in St Peter’s were all but illegible by the seventeenth century).

Allegiance:

Lancastrian

Condition Description:

Recorded as being in poor condition in 1631 and the tombstone was lifted and broken up in 1799.

Memorial Notes:

Westby was an important local dignitary who knew Henry VI on a personal basis. The information recorded by Shrimpton and Weever is a valuable source for what happened at the end of the battle.