Sir John Harpedon

Sir John Harpedon, knight, who died in 1438, has a brass in the north ambulatory of Westminster Abbey. He was originally buried in St John the Evangelist's chapel but his tomb was removed to the ambulatory in 1772 when General Wolfe's memorial was erected. It was raised on a low base in 1870. No inscription remains. The brass shows a man in plate armour, his head on a helmet with a crest of a hind's head, and his feet resting on a lion. There are four shields of arms, which apparently were originally coloured with enamels. These show top left: "argent, a mullet of six points, pierced, and charged in the centre with a martlet gules" for Harpedon, impaling "quarterly 1& 4 "barry of six or and azure, on a chief of the first two pallets between two squares, dexter and sinister, of the second, on an inesctucheon argent" for Mortimer, 2&3 "or, a cross gules" for Ulster; top right: Harpedon impaling "gules, on a chevron or three estoiles sable" for Cobham of Starborough, Surrey. The bottom left shield shows Harpedon impaling "gules, on a chevron or three lions rampant sable" for Cobham, of Cobham in Kent. The bottom right shows Harpedon's arms only.

Sir John was the fifth and last husband of Kentish heiress Joan de la Pole, Lady Cobham. Her first husband was Sir Robert de Hemenhale who died in 1391 and is buried in St John the Evangelist's chapel but without any monument or marker. Her fourth husband was Sir John Oldcastle, the Lollard, who was executed in 1417. Lady Cobham died in 1434 and is buried at Cobham church in Kent.