Clement Newce
and
Mary Davy
Born: 1507 Much Hadham, Hertfordshire or London
Died: 27 Sept 1579, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire
Buried: St Andrew’s Church, Much Hadham
Born: Norfolk, UK
Died: 11 Aug 1582, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire
Buried: St Andrew’s Church, Much Hadham
Married:
Children: Thomas, William, Samuel, Clement, Bartholomew, Joan (Goldsmith), Martha (Washington)1, Sarah (More), Mary (Dymock)2, Susan, Elizabeth (Grimsditch), Dorothy, plus 2 additional sons and 1 daughter
Clement Newce was the son of Thomas Newce, haberdasher, of London and Much Hadham, and his wife, Isabelle Heneage. He became a quite wealthy London and international merchant, dealing in silks and other luxury fabrics. In his 1545 portrait, painted when he was 38, he is posed between the emblems of the Merchant Adventurers and the Mercers Guild, of both of which he was a member.
Like many London merchants, Clement divided his time between London and his home town, and acquired multiple properties, including the Manors of Biggins and Berwick in the vicinity of Much Hadham. Late in his life, he commissioned several wall paintings for his mansion in Much Hadham. The largest portrays
the Judgement of Solomon, with Queen Elizabeth taking the part of Solomon. This painting is flanked by two others, one containing the Newce arms, and the other the royal arms. These may have been painted on the occasion of a visit of the Queen to Much Hadham. (Much Hadham was the location of the Bishop of London’s Palace3, which was the birthplace of Edmund Tudor, father of Henry VII, and therefore is, in some sense, the birthplace of the Tudor dynasty.)
The Judgement of Solomon
The royal arms
The Newce arms
The tomb of Clement and Mary Newce, in St Andrew’s Church in Much Haddam, displays brasses of Clement and Mary, and of their seven sons and nine daughters.
flikr: jmc4
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1 Martha’s husband was Lawrence Washington, brother of George Washington’s ancestor. The Washington ancestral home, Sulgrave Manor, contained (until it was moved to a nearby church) a stained glass window with the Washington and Newce arms
2 Mary Newce Dymock is the subject of a lovely medal from 1562
3 Clement’s granddaughter Mary, the daughter of William and Cicely Newce, married the son of the then Archbishop, John Aylmer
