File:Sir William Chamberlayne (died 1462) East Harling Church, Norfolk.png

Stained glass 1463-80, detail from East Window (lower right pane) in East Harling Church in Norfolk showing kneeling effigy of Sir William Chamberlayne (d.1462), Knight of the Garter, of Gedding in Suffolk, the first husband of Anne Harling (c.1426-1498), heiress of the manor of East Harling, the only child and sole heiress of Sir Robert Harling (d.1435) of East Harling, by his wife Jane Gonville, the daughter and heiress of the family who had founded Gonville Hall in Cambridge and Rushworth College near East Harling. Anne Harling was responsible for reglazing the church between 1463-80. From the same workshop as the panes depicting the Life of St Peter in St Peter Mancroft Church in Norfolk. (Source: Stained Glass in England During the Middle Ages, By Richard Marks, p.198 [1]).

On his tabard he displays the arms of Gules, a chevron between three escallops or with a label of three points argent for difference (Chamberlayne) (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.181, but with a fess not a chevron; "Chamberlayne, descended from the Comtes de Tankerville, founded in England by John de Tankerville, Chamberlain to King Henry I, who assumed his surname from his office") quartering Argent, a saltire engrailed azure (Unknown familial connection; stated as "Legat" by Francis Blomefield (An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Volume 1, p.223[2] - who nevertheless on p.224 states them as "Tiptoft", clearly confused as Tiptoft has a saltire engrailed gules, not azure) these arms are borne by Teringham of Huntingdonshire; and Legat of Pond Hall, Hadleigh, Suffolk; also by Abell of Kent (Papwoth, John Woody, Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.II, London, 1874, p.1056)). Sir William Chamberlayne's Garter stall plate, showing these arms, remains intact within the twenty-third stall, on the Sovereign's side of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. (See: HOPE, W. H. St. John, The Stall Plates of the Knights of the Order of the Garter 1348 – 1485: A Series of Ninety Full-Sized Coloured Facsimiles with Descriptive Notes and Historical Introductions, Westminster: Archibald Constable and Company LTD, 1901, “ Plate LXV - Sir William Chamberlain, K.G. 1461-1463). His Easter Sepulchre style monument survives in East Harling Church, showing the same quarterings, but without tinctures. The heraldic badge of a gold basket appears here, and is also sculpted several times on his easter Sepulchre monument, together with another badge of a quiver of arrows. The basket appears to be the badge of his father-in-law Sir Robert Herling (d.1435), as it appears sculpted profusely on his monument in East Harling Church. Inscribed below .... (Chamb)releyne Militis (".... Chamberlayne, Knight"); and above: S(anc)ta Trinitas ..... ("Holy Trinity .....").

Anne Herling (c.1426-1498), the only child and sole heiress of Sir Robert Herling (d.1435) of East Harling, by his wife Jane Gonville, the daughter and heiress of John Gonville by his wife Elizabeth Jernegan. John Gonville's great-grandfather Sir Nicholas Gonville was a brother and the principal heir of w:Edmund Gonville, (died 1351) who founded Gonville Hall in Cambridge and Rushworth College (of priests) near East Harling. (See pedigree of Gonville in Suckling's History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk, Vol.1, 1846, p.314[3]). Following the death of her father killed in France, she became the ward of Sir John Fastolf (her father’s uncle by marriage) who in 1438 married her off, aged 12, to Sir William Chamberlain who was away for much time until 1447 fighting in France. In 1447 Anne received licence to establish a chantry chapel in East Harling Church, thus fulfilling the terms of her father's will. The marriage was without issue and Sir William Chamberlain died in 1462, the year after having been appointed by the king a Knight of the Garter. (Source: Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) of Great Britain[4]). Anne Harling married again twice, secondly in 1467 to Sir Robert Wingfield (d.1480), whose effigy also appears in the East Window, and thirdly in 1491 to John Scrope, 5th Baron Scrope of Bolton (d.1498).

In 1485 Anne Wingfield settled her manors of Rushworth and Larling on the College of Priests at Rushworth (founded in 1341 by Edmund de Gonville), with a further endowment, for the health of the souls of herself and her husbands. Text from 'Colleges: Rushworth', in A History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1906), pp. 458-460 [5]:

Two chantry priests or additional fellows were appointed, to be termed Dame Anne's priests, to sing ' for the wele of her soule, and her husbandes, and anncestres, and kynnesfolkes soules, and for all those for whiche she was mooste specially bounden to pray.' By indenture of 1490 with this benefactress the master and fellows were bound to support five children, called Dame Anne's children, to be nominated in turns by the master and fellows. Their duty was to wait on the fellows, for which they were to be taught the service of God in the church. These five children, who lived in the college, and eight other poor children, were to. be taught by one of the two chantry priests, who was always to be ' well studyd and lernyd in gramer.' As each child came to the age of eighteen he was to be removed and another appointed. An indenture of 1501, by the executors of ' Dame Anne Lady Scrop,' increased the children in the college from five to seven.

The accompanying matching kneeling figure of Anne Harling herself is now missing, just a few pieces of heraldry from her cloak survive. It was however ilustrated by the Norfolk historian w:Francis Blomefield, who described it as follows: A lady whose cloak has on it Wingfield & Bryvel (sic, Bovil) quarterly & on its sinister side Harling and M(orti)mer Q(uarterl)y & escutcheon of G(onville) she kneels on a purple cushion praying at a desk on which a book open it is remarkable that she has round her neck a collar composed of roses Arg(en)t & stars with a lion pendant ex(a)ct like the collar round the neck of her two husbands the field is lozengy of baskets cloaks and quivers of feathers which is her own badge & that of Sir Robert Wingfield & Sir William Chamberlain. This interesting figure is a good deal damaged the face mostly gone round her head is a label 'S(a)nct(a) trinit(at)is d(omi)n(u)s dei Miserere nobis' under her 'Orate pro bono …. (Source: quoted in Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) of Great Britain[6])

Text from: http://www.norfolkheraldry.org.uk/NEWchamberlain_kg.html

Sir William Chamberlain served under the Duke of Bedford, and was appointed Governor of Craill-sur-Oise in France (now Creil, about 30km north of Paris). In 1436 the French had retaken Paris They surged north and besieged the town. Chamberlain sallied forth with just 500 in his force. They took many prisoners, killed two hundred Frenchmen and raised the siege. According to R.A. Griffiths, Sir William sailed for Honfleur at the end of July 1439 with Sir Richard Woodville and Sir William Peyto and 900 men, to support the leaderless Lancastrians. He was in charge of Meaux, and despite the town being one of the strongest places in France and being well-stocked with provisions, he surrendered it on 12 August 1439. It is hardly credible that such a doughty fighter would have given in so rapidly in such circumstances. This suggests that he must have been sent to Meaux with the express orders to cease fighting there. He was thrown into prison in Rouen castle, but he was later set at liberty. Later, in 1446, Sir William was himself captured and had to pay ransom for his release. The king recognised the blow to his finances that paying the ransom caused, so allowed him to amortise a rent for Harling's chapel (endowed by Sir William, and which lies at the east end of the south aisle), without the customary fine or fee. The licence to do so states specifically that this was in recognition of the great and eminent service Sir William rendered in France and Normandy, and also that of Sir Robert Harling who had died in the king's service in France in 1435. Such specific commendation hardly ties up with a craven surrender of Meaux. Sir William was elected the 186th Knight of the Garter in about 1461; his stall in St George's Chapel, Windsor is No. 23 on the south side".