Stained Glass: Essays

As previously mentioned, the coats of arms in the east window at St Martin's commemorate the family of Cecil. The arms of William Cecil (right) incorporated the families antecedant to him, and is largely that of his father, Sir Richard Cecil (see below). William Cecil was born in Bourne, just a few miles north of Stamford, the son of a minor courtier to Henry VIII, Sir Richard Cecil and Jane Heckington. Richard and Jane's tomb surmounted by Richard's coat of arms can still be seen in St Martins. William was a very able pupil at Stamford School and at the age of 15 went up to Cambridge. In 1541 he was enrolled at Gray's Inn where he married Mary Cheke, the daughter of his tutor there. Mary died in 1543 after bearing a son, Thomas. William remarried Mildred Cooke. The tomb of William Cecil in St Martin's has on the left, the arms of Cecil impaling Cheke, and on the right, Cecil impaling Cope. William’s son, Thomas (5 May 1542 – 8 February 1623), 1st Earl of Exeter, 2nd Baron Burghley, seems to have dispensed with all the quarterings (for what reason I know not) and reverted to a simpler form of the coat of arms; Barry of ten argent and azure over all six escutcheons sable, three, two, and one, each charged with a lion rampant of the first. William’s coat of arms was also adopted by Thomas’s half-brother, Robert (1563-1612) who became the 1st Earl of Salisbury, retained his father's arms, though by around 1789 when James Cecil, 7th Earl of Salisbury was made Marquess of Salisbury, his arms also dropped the complex quarterings of his forebears, with the addition of a crescent for difference.

The arms of Sir Richard Cecil, incorporating; Cecil,
Winston, Walcott, Carlion & Heckington