Mural monument to Charles Cutcliffe (d.1670), Swimbridge Church, Devon. East wall of St Bridget's Chapel (North Aisle Chapel). The monument is high up on a wall in a space much narrowed by the placement of a large organ, making viewing difficult. Inscribed:<br><dl><dd><i>Carolus filius Johannis Cutcliffe ar(migeri) e Dammage et Elianorae Chichester e Dinnyton huius parochiae. Caelestis anima nunquam habitavit pulchriore domicilio Narc et Ganymed fictiunculae solus hic noster flos et deliciae juventutis. Ostendit vis divina quid potuit et volvit tace.</i> (Added later at bottom:) <i>Christian his sister wife of Henry Chichester of Stowford, Gent., was buried ye 14 of June 1721 aged 51</i>.</dd></dl><p>Which may be translated thus:<br>
"Charles, son of John Cutcliffe, Esquire, of Damage, and of Elianor Chichester of Dennington of this parish. Never a heavenly soul inhabited a more beautiful home, this our flower and pleasure of youth, only Narcissus and Ganymede of the trifling tales. Divine power showed what it was able and rolled. Be silent."
</p><p>Charles Cutcliffe was buried at Swimbridge on 17 November 1670 (Vivian, p.265). He was the eldest son of John Cutcliffe (1632-1696), buried at Ilfracombe, by his wife Eleanor Chichester (1629-1681), daughter of Tristram Chichester of Hearsdon and co-heiress of her brother Tristram Chichester. Her monument is in Ilfracombe Church. (Vivian, p.265)
</p><p>Hoskins (1954) remarked <i>"Notice the monument to Charles son of John Cutcliffe of Damage (1670), surmounted by a beautiful oval portrait in oils which has been attributed to Lely but is more probably the work of James Gandy (1619-89) , a pupil of Vandyke"</i> (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_George_Hoskins&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="William George Hoskins (page does not exist)">Hoskins, W.G.</a>, A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.483)
</p><p>The heraldic escutcheons have been re-affixed upside down. The left one shows the arms of Cutcliffe: <i>Gules, three pruning hooks argent</i>. That on the right shows quarterly of four: 1: Cutcliffe; 2: Chichester; 3: <i>Gules, a bend argent between six crosses pattée or</i> (Gernoune?) ?; 4: <i>Argent, a fess between three cinqufoils gules</i> (de Stodden?)?;
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The Gernoune family married the heiress of de Stodden and Thomas Cutcliffe (fl.1507) of Hartland married the heiress of Gernoune. (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Lambrick_Vivian&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="John Lambrick Vivian (page does not exist)">Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L.</a>, (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the  <a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heraldic_visitation&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1" class="new" title="Heraldic visitation (page does not exist)">Heralds' Visitations</a> of 1531, 1564 &amp; 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.264, pedigree of "Cutcliffe of Damage"). Damage is in the parish of Morteho, near Ilfracombe, in North Devon. Further Cutcliffe monuments survive in Ilfracombe Church. Stowford is the traditional birthplace of St Urith, martyred at nearby Chittlehampton in the 8th century. (Hoskins, p.483)
<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Lobsterthermidor" title="User:Lobsterthermidor">Lobsterthermidor</a> (<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Lobsterthermidor" title="User talk:Lobsterthermidor"><span class="signature-talk">talk</span></a>) 18:15, 17 October 2018 (UTC)
<span class="int-own-work">Self-photographed</span>