Laurence Womack (Womock)

In St Margaret's church Westminster is a cartouche, attributed to sculptor Grinling Gibbons, to Laurence Womack (or Womock) bishop of St David's in Wales who was buried in the church with his daughter Anne. The memorial is on a pillar in the south west section of the church. The Latin inscription can be translated: 

Near this place is buried that which was mortal of the Reverend Father in Christ, Laurence Womack, Bishop of St Davids; who exchanged his labours, outstandlngly performed and bestowed upon the Church of England over many years, for a crown of immortality on 12th March 1685 in his 73rd year. Also of his daughter Anne, a maid of 19 years who, on the 3rd Oct. preceding, was summoned hence to the company of virgin souls (a state) more excellent than any marriage could be

The date of death is given in Old Style dating on the monument, now called 1686. Above the inscription are two cherub heads with a coat of arms showing the See of St David's impaling a "argent a lion rampant gules". He was a son of Laurence (d.1656) rector of Lopham. After education at Cambridge he was chaplain to Lord Paget and a noted preacher. Later he was prebendary at Hereford and Archdeacon of Suffolk with a stall at Ely cathedral. In 1683 he was made Bishop of St David's but died at his house in Westminster. He married firstly widow Anne Aylmer and had one child, Anne, and secondly in 1670 Katherine Corbett. He left books to his nephew's son Laurence.

Further reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004