Carteret family

Elizabeth Carteret

In the north aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey is a monument to Dame Elizabeth Carteret. The inscription reads:

Near this place lyeth buried DAME ELIZABETH CARTERET daughter of Sr. EDWARD CARTERET, Knt. [Knight], Gent. Usher of ye Black Rod in the reign of K. Charles the Second Relict [widow] of Sr. PHILIP CARTERET Bart. [Baronet] and by him mother of Sr. CHARLES CARTERET Bart. her only son, interred likewise near this place by whose decease June ye 6th A.D. 1715 in ye 34th year of his age, was extinguished the eldest branch of the antient family of the name of Carteret Seigneurs of St. Ouen in ye Island of Jersey. She died March ye 26th A.D. 1717 aged 52 years.

Her monument originally consisted of her figure ascending from a sarcophagus extending a hand to an angel. In an arch a group of cherubs were shown in clouds. There was also a coat of arms. The inscription was on a narrow slab. By 1847 the monument had become dilapidated and was taken down by Lord John Thynne, Sub-Dean of the Abbey and representative of the Carteret family. He took all but the inscription slab to Hawnes (or Haynes) Park in Bedfordshire.

Her Life

Elizabeth was born on 30th December 1663 and baptised at St Martin in the Fields church in London. At age 13 she married her kinsman Sir Philip Carteret (died 1693) 2nd Baronet of St Ouen, Jersey in the Channel Islands. Her son Charles was baptised at St Margaret's Westminster on 4th June 1679 with Charles II as one of his godfathers. He was Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to Queen Anne and High Bailiff of Jersey. In 1693 he succeeded as 3rd Baronet and married Mary, daughter of Amias Carteret. His son James had no surviving issue so the title became extinct.

Edward Carteret

Dame Elizabeth's brother has a monument nearby. He was son of Sir Edward and his wife Elizabeth (Johnson). The inscription on his monument reads:

To the memory of their most beloved son Edward de Carteret Gentleman, Sr Edward Carteret (Knight, Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod and First Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter in Ordinary to the King) his father and Dame Elizabeth his mother, have caused this monument to be erected. His body lieth under the stone beneath. He dyed the thirtieth day of October MDCLXXVII [1677] aged seaven yeares and nine months.

His coat of arms is shown, with others, "gules, four fusils in fess or, a crescent for difference" with the crest of a squirrel.

Grace Carteret

Grace, Countess of Granville and Viscountess Carteret was the youngest daughter of John, 1st Earl of Bath by Jane, daughter of Sir Peter Wyche. She married Sir George Carteret, later Baron Carteret of Haynes (d.1695). She died on 18th October 1744 aged 77 and was buried in the vault of General Monk in the north aisle of Henry VII's chapel in the Abbey.

Philip Carteret

Grace's second son Philip was born on 6th November 1692 at Haynes. He died on 19th March 1711 while attending Westminster School. A monument, by Burgundian sculptor Chevalier Claude David, was set up in the nave, near his grave. It is of black and white marble with a seated figure of Time holding a scroll. Behind is a sarcophagus surmounted by a bust of Philip. The Latin inscription can be translated:

The honourable youth Philip Carteret, second son of the Lord George Carteret, Baron of Hawnes, scholar of this College and ripe for university, died March 19 1710, aged 19.

The lines on the scroll were composed by Robert Freind, then Second Master at Westminster School, and can be translated:

Why do the tuneful chorus join in mournful songs, regret thy fate, The fleeting joys of thee and thine, and pleasures of too short a date? Why my too hasty scyth upbraid, and wail the cruel wound it made?

See what a worthless thing is bloom, behold my boy the poor reward, But I, obsequious at thy tomb, will ever stand a watchful guard; In lettered marble show thy name, and tell the world thy matchless fame.

Thy spotless piety in youth, for learning thy untoiled desire; Thy manners strict, and ancient Truth, shall make the age to come admire. The future wondering youth while I relate, fired at thy worth, shall strive to emulate.

John Carteret

Philip's brother John, 2nd Earl Granville and Viscount Carteret, politician, was born in 1690 and died on 2nd January 1763. He was buried in General Monk's vault. His first wife Frances, daughter of Sir Robert Worsley by Lady Frances Thynne, was born in 1694 and died 20th June 1743 at Hanover. She was buried in the vault on 23rd December. His second wife was Lady Sophia Fermor, daughter of Thomas 1st Earl of Pontefract. She died on 7th October 1745 and was also buried in the Monk vault.

George Carteret

On 21st November 1699 Edward Carteret, 3rd son of Sir Philip (who was killed at the battle of Sole Bay in 1672) and his wife Lady Jemima Montagu daughter of the 1st Earl of Sandwich, married Lady Bridget Sudbury, alias Clutterbuck, daughter of Sir Thomas Exton, in the Abbey. Their eldest son George Carteret was buried in the nave on 14th November 1718. He died aged 17 while attending Westminster School.