Edward Herbert

On a pillar of a window in the north nave aisle of Westminster Abbey is a white marble cartouche to Edward Herbert. This shows a winged cherub head at the base and an achievement of the arm of Herbert at the top. The inscription reads:

Near this place lyeth ye body of Edward Herbert of Swanzey [Swansea] in ye county of Glamorgan Esqr. who was lineally descended from Sr.George Herbert of Swanzey aforesaid, knight, first Sheriffe of that county since the union of the Principality of Wales, viz. in the year 1542. The said Edward married Elizabeth the eldest daughter of Philip Herbert Esqr. and died the 18th day of September Anno.Dni. 1715 in the 23rd year of his age, leaving issue by the said Elizabeth one son Thomas Herbert Esq. aged two years at the time of his decease

Thomas was baptised in St Margaret's Westminster in 1713. Edward died at Clapham in south London and was buried on 24th September. His wife Elizabeth was a daughter of Colonel Philip Herbert (son of the Hon. James Herbert, son of the 4th Earl of Pembroke) and his wife Marianne. They were buried in the west cloister of the Abbey in 1716 and 1718 respectively. Elizabeth married secondly James Jefferyes, Resident at the court of the Czar of Muscovy and she was buried in the west cloister on 9th November 1718. Her sister Marianne, wife of Robert Garrard, was buried in January 1723. There is no gravestone for the Herbert family in the cloister.

Location

Nave

Memorial Type

Tablet

Edward Herbert
Edward Herbert monument

This image can be purchased from Westminster Abbey Library

Image © 2024 Dean and Chapter of Westminster