File:WelshePollardBrass StPeter'sChurch Barnstaple.xcf

English: Monumental brass in St Peter's Church, Barnstaple, Devon, to Anne Pollard (fl.1604), 2nd wife of James Walshe, lord of the manor of Alverdiscott in Devon.

The manor of Alverdiscott was sold by the Bellew family to James Welshe,^[1] (alias Walshe), who according to the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (d. 1640), was a "counsellor of law".^[2] James Welshe married four times,^[3] firstly to a daughter of the Ridgeway family;^[4] secondly at Ashton in 1604 to Anne Pollard, a daughter of Sir Hugh II Pollard, knight, lord of the manor of King's Nympton by his wife Dorothy Chichester (4th daughter of Sir John Chichester (d.1569)^[5] of Raleigh, Pilton, Sheriff of Devon and a Member of Parliament) and a sister of Sir Lewis Pollard, 1st Baronet.^[6] A small mutilated monumental brass survives in St Peter's Church, Barnstaple, in memory of Anne Pollard, second wife of James Welsh, showing within a strapwork surround an escutcheon displaying the arms of Welsh (Azure, six mullets or 3, 2, 1) with a crescent in chief for difference impaling Pollard (the usual four-quarters Quarterly 1st & 4th, a chevron between three escallops; 2nd & 3rd: a chevron between three mullets, with a crescent for difference, much worn); the text is as follows: "Here lyeth the body of Anne late the wife of James Welshe Esqr. and daughter of Sr. Hugh Pollard, knight. She depart(ed)... this world to the Kingdome of Heaven ... seaventeenth day of March A(nn)o MD... Blessed are the dead w.ch dye in the...".^[7] Anne Pollard's sister was Susanna Pollard, the second wife of John Northcote (1570–1632), of Hayne, Newton St Cyres, Sheriff of Devon, whose splendid standing effigy exists in Newton St Cyres Church. He was the grandfather of Sir Arthur Northcote, 2nd Baronet, the subject of the present article. James Welsh married thirdly at Barnstaple in 1623 to Lucy Reynell, 4th daughter of Sir Thomas Reynell (d. 1621) of East Ogwell.^[8] Fourthly he married Jane Windham (d.1650)^[9], a daughter of Sir Thomas Windham^[10] whose monument was said by Lysons in 1822 to have existed in Alverdiscott Church.^[11] By Jane Windham he had a son^[12] and heir apparent Thomas Welsh (1629–1639), who died aged 10,^[13] whose chest tomb with alabaster effigy survives in Alverdiscott Church. James Welshe's heir thus became his daughter (from which marriage is unknown), Elizabeth Welsh, the wife of Sir Arthur Northcote, 2nd Baronet. The marriage produced two sons and one daughter, described on Sir Arthur's ledger stone of 1707 in King's Nympton Church as "deceased".

The chest-tomb of Thomas Welshe (1628-1639) in Alverdiscott Church, Devon, is inscribed on a tablet on the base as follows:

"Here lyeth the body of Thomas Welshe, Gent, the sonne of James Welshe Esq., and Jane his wife the daughter of S(i)r Thomas Windham, Knight, who departed this life to the life everlasting in the Kingdome of Glory the 22 (?) daye of Aprill 1639 in the eleaventh yeare of his age".

On top of the chest tomb is an alabaster recumbent effigy of Thomas Welshe described by PevsnerPevsner as: "touching, life-size effigy in Van Dyck dress".^[14] The side of the chest tomb displays the felief-sculpted arms of Walsh: Azure, six mullets or (tinctures worn away). These arms are visible on the monument to Lord Edward Seymour (c.1528–1593), son of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector, in Berry Pomeroy Church, Devon, who married Margaret Walsh, a daughter and co-heir of John Welsh (alias Walshe etc.) of Cathanger, Fivehead, Somerset, Justice of the Common Pleas in 1563.