ABSTRACT
In 1597 or thereabouts, Edward Fitton allegedly entered the parish church of St Mary at Nether Alderley, Cheshire and went to the tomb of Thomas Stanley (d. 1591). He took his dagger and stabbed the effigy in the face, defaced the coat of arms on the monument representing the Cowsell family, and departed from the church.1 To make matters worse, one night in February 1598 he returned with his father’s servant Hugh Hollinshead, Hugh’s brother Edward (the parson of Alderley) and about 35 men. The group tore down the wainscotting, arms and seating recently erected in a side chapel by the Stanley family. The Stanleys had used the chapel, in the east end of the church’s south aisle, for several decades, and in 1592 had made an instrument with the churchwardens of Alderley and the Bishop of Chester guaranteeing their rights to sit there, above their place of burial.
