Jane Stoteville

The oldest monument in the nave of Westminster Abbey is that to Mrs Jane Hill (nee Stoteville), who is buried nearby. This is an alabaster and black marble mural monument consisting of a praying effigy of Jane kneeling on a cushion. She wears a hood, ruff and a costume with decorative fastenings over her dress. 

Within the arch of the arcade is a panel with a small skeleton in a winding sheet, representing Death, with the motto 'Mors Mihi Lucrum' [Death is gain to me], and also a panel with a grapevine with the words 'Solus Christus mihi sola salus' [Christ is my only salvation]. The sculptor is not known. The monument was restored in 1969 following some vandalism.

The Latin inscription can be translated:

In hope of a resurrection here lies JANE STOTEVILL daughter of Thomas Stotevill of Brinkley in the county of Cambridge, Esq [Esquire], married first to Edward Ellis of Chesterton in the county of Cambridge, Esq., to whom she bare six sons and three daughters, afterwards married to Othowel Hill, Doctor of Civil Laws and Chancellor of the diocese of Lincoln, whose widow she died 27 April 1631, aged 78. Virtue survives death.

Beneath the two panels are shields of arms, with her arms and those of Hill "a chevron ermine between three garbs" [wheat sheaves], and her arms impaled with Ellis "on a cross five crescents, a mullet for difference". The lozenge above her figure shows "a saltire engrailed ermine", for Stotevill(e).

Her life

Her mother was Cicely (Rudston). Her first husband Edward Ellis died in 1596. Othowel (or Otwell) Hill died on 19th May 1616 aged 56 and is buried in Lincoln cathedral.

Jane's son Edward Ellis, Gentleman waiter to James I and cup bearer to Charles I, died unmarried and was buried in the Abbey on 14th October 1656. He has no marker or monument. It is possible that he may have erected the monument to his mother as he was connected with the royal Court.