ARTHINGTON SMITHSON MEMORIALS:

All Saints Church, HAREWOOD

On the south side of All Saints’ Church at Harewood is located the Gascoigne chantry chapel. The area contains the burials of several members of the Gascoigne family, including that of Sir William Gascoigne the elder whose connections to the Smithsons from Weardley have been explored in the Smithson Story: The Smithsons go to Church. The chapel is dominated by alabaster tombs of medieval Gascoignes, including that of Sir William Gascoigne of Gawthorp (d.1419), Lord Chief Justice, and Elizabeth Mowbray, his first wife.

Also located in the chapel area is a monument to the memory of Sir Thomas Denison, Judge in the court of King’s Bench, erected by his wife Dame Anne Denison, the daughter of Roundell Smithson of Stubhouse. The positioning of the monument, close to that of the Lord Chief Justice, was significant, with its inscription drawing a comparison between Denison’s zealous commitment

“… to the Constitution
Of his country,
He steadily adhered to the fundamental Principle
Upon which it is built,
And by which alone it can be maintained,
A religious application of the inflexible Rule of Law
To all questions concerning the Power of the Crown,
And Privileges of the Subject”

and Gascoigne’s legendary independence in applying the law equally to all. On the floor of the chapel are positioned ledger stones commemorating certain Smithsons of Arthington and their Hargreave and Harrison relatives.

The Gascoigne chantry chapel on the south side of All Saints’ Church at Harewood. Here are located memorials (click on reference images below) to various members of the Arthington Smithson family and their relatives.