Simon Benet - Church of the Assumption, Beachampton, Buckinghamshire, UK - Death Mask Gravestones on Waymarking.com

Simon Benet was a High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire and owned property in the village of Beachampton and at nearby Calverton. Calverton Manor House bears his initials with the date he lived there and made alterations (1659).

But it is here in the church of Beachampton that we see this memorial stone marking his burial inside the church. There is a Latin inscription which we detail below. The death mask stone is very apparent with the eyes and features most prominent. The wig and lace jabot have been added around the face. The Benet coat of arms appears above the stone with its heraldic description as 'Gules a bezant between three demi-lions argent.'

Research into this stone was recently described on 'Restoration Homes' Episode 5, which detailed the restoration of Calverton Manor House. This reported the stone as being from a death mask as does Nikolaus Pevsner.

Over Sir Simon Benet's Grave is a helmet hung on the wall, he was buried close to the Chancel Wall.

Simon Benet (also spelt Bennett) made a will which came into effect on his death on 30th August 1682. This is detailed by Luttrell as:

'The great Mr. Bennet of Buckinghamshire is . . . dead, and is said to have left a most prodigious estate behind him.'

Simon left his widow Grace Bennett his estate and she preserved his policy of 'inclosing arable land in the common fields and converting it into pasture ground, and was defendant in lawsuits to recover tithes therefrom in 1686 and 1692.'

There are some notes on the Benet family detailed here, we have amended some dates and spelling: visit link

'16. — Benet Family of Beachampton, Bucks; and of Handley Park, Towcester. — In the pedigree of this family given in Baker's History of Northamptonshire, (ii. 342,) it is stated that Sir Simon Bennet, Bart., died s. p. on 30 August, 1682, leaving by his will, the reversion of the Handley Park Estate, after the death of Dame Elizabeth his wife, to the Master and Fellows of University College, Oxford, for enlarging and completing the buildings and founding four new fellowships and four new scholarships.

The pedigree then goes on to state that Simon Bennet, Esq., of Beach- ampton and Calverton, co. Bucks, the nephew and heir of Sir Simon, also died on 30 August, 1682, and was buried on the day following. The coincidence of the uncle's and the nephew's deaths on the same day would be very remarkable, but it is immediately shown to be a mistake by the following statement in the pedigree that Simon Bennet the nephew had two sons and five daughters, all born long after 1682. In Lipscombe's Bucks, the death of Simon Bennet the nephew is stated to have taken place on 6 August, 1682, which is probably the true date. Baker goes on to say that the Master and Fellows of University College were compelled to engage in a legal contest with the heir-at-law and representative of Sir Simon Bennet, in order to obtain possession of the estate. This heir and representative could not have been Simon Bennet, as from some old letters and papers in my possession, it appears that Handley Park was, as late as 1672, in the possession of Ambrose Bennet, Esq., of Bulstrode, Bucks, who got into difficulties in consequence of the unfavourable termination of some lawsuit with a College about that time, and went to Jamaica, where he died soon afterwards. His name does not appear in Baker's pedigree. Was he the elder brother of Simon Bennet? His wife was Rebecca, the fourth daughter of Sir Thomas Hampson, of Taplow; she died in May, 1695, and was buried at Taplow, as appears by her monument in the church there.'

Name of Cemetery: St Mary the Virgin Church Condition of Death Mask: Good Gravestone Inscription: The memorial inscription reads: 'M. S. Symonis Benet Armigeri Filii et hæredis Ricardi Benet Armigeri, Nepotis Avi sui Thomæ Benet, Eq. Aurati, necnon Urbis London. dignissimi quondam Prætoris. In unicam duxit Uxorem, Graciam, filiam Cohæredem Gilberti Moorwood, ex antiquiss. Moorwoodorum Prosapia, de Shireoaks, Agro Eborancensi, Arm. Per quam vii Liberorum Pater evasit; Mariæ, natæ 10 Julii, 1652, et 20 Julii, 1663, denatæ; Thomæ, nati 28 Aprilis, et 2° die Maii, 1653, denati; Elizabethæ, natæ 27 Februarii 1659, Nuptæ Honoratiss. Edwardo Vice-comiti Latimer, Fil hæredi Nobilissimi Thomae Comitis de Danby, quæ primo die Maii, 1680, denata est; Graciæ, natæ 27 Sept. 1664, præsentis Uxoris ornatissimi Johannis Benet, de Abington in Agro Cantabr. Arm. descendentis ab Honorabili Thomæ Benet de Lond. Eq Aurati; Mariæ, natæ 28 Aprilis, 1666. Nov. 26, 1674, denatæ; Simonis, nati 27 Junii 1668. Augusti 23, 1674, denatæ; Franciscæ, natæ 20 Octob. 1670, præsentis Uxoris Nobilissimi Domini Jacobi, Comitis Sarisburiensis. Vir erat probus, prudens, et frugi; Christiane providus, temporaie liberalis; Ecclesiæ, Regi, Republicæ, cordate devotus; Maritus Charus, Indulgens Pater, Herus misericors, qui postquam se Deo resignasset, 20 Augusti, Æræ, Christianæ 1682, Ætatis Anno circiter Sexagesimo Vivis excessit, Et heic in Fide Christiana sui Servatoris expectat adventum.'

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