File:St Margaret's church Sotterley Suffolk (3032746451).jpg

St Margaret's Church, Sotterley, Suffolk, monument to Sir Thomas Playters, 1st Baronet (1565-1638) of Sotterley Hall, sculpted by Edward Marshall. He died in 1638 but the monument was not installed until 1658. Thomas is in the middle flanked on the right (under the arms of Swan Azure, a chevron ermine between three swans proper (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.989 "Swan of Southfleet, Kent, baronet")) by his first wife Anne Swan, eldest daughter of Sir William Swan, 1st Baronet (1631–1680), of Southfleet, in Kent, and mother of w:Sir William Playters, 2nd Baronet (1590 – 1668) and of one other son and two daughters; on the left (under the arms of Browne Sable, three lions passant in bend between two double cottises argent (Burke, Sir Bernard, The General Armory, London, 1884, p.135 "Browne of Elsing, Norfolk, as Browne, Viscount Montagu" (p.132)) is his second wife, Anne Browne, only daughter and heiress of Sir Anthony Browne, of Elsing, in Norfolk, who brought him a further eight sons and ten daughters. All 22 children are depicted as weepers on the panel beneath. (Source: Alfred Suckling, 'Sotterley', in The History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk: Volume 1 (Ipswich, 1846), pp. 81-96 [1]). Considered one of the best memorials in Suffolk. Arms of Playters: Argent, three bendlets wavy azure.

Heraldry: Shield at top, quarterly of 4: (Source: Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, Vol.I, London, 1805, pp198-200 [2]; see also (Edmund Farrer, The Church Heraldry of Norfolk, Vol.1, 1887, pp26-7[3]):

• • 1: Bendy wavy of six argent and azure (Playters)
  • 2: Argent, a chevron sable between three estoiles gules; (Dennis, of Tannington, Suffolk) (Thomas Playters (d.1479) of Sotterley, a Yorkist who was granted the manor of Sotterley by King Edward IV shortly after 1460 (Suckling, p.82 and whose kneeling effigy appears in a stained glass window in Sotterley Church), married Anne Dennys, sister and heiress of Roger Dennys of Tannington, Suffolk) (Suckling, Alfred Inigo, History and antiquities of the county of Suffolk: with genealogical and architectural notices of its several towns and villages, Vol.I, 1846-48 pp.81-, pedigree of Playters, p.86[4])
  • 3: Vert, a lion rampant argent; ("Brysworth of Tannington", an heiress of Dennis, per REV.H. L. L. DENNY, SOME PEDIGREES OF DENNY, LE DENNEYS, ETC., Proceedings of Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, Volume XIX, Part 3, 1927, p.325 [5])
  • 4: Sable, a chevron ermine between three Catherine-wheels argent; (Aslack); Christopher Playter (d.1547) of Sotterley, married Dorothy Aslack, daughter (and heiress) of William Aslack (per Suckling's pedigree) of Carow in Norfolk (see pedigree of Aslack[6])