Catherine Hyde & Elizabeth Cotes

Catherine Hyde was buried in the middle part of the nave of Westminster Abbey on 28th February 1707. Her gravestone was taken up when the nave floor was re-laid in 1834 but the inscription read:

Here lyes the body of Mrs Catherine Hyde who dyed Feb ye 22 1706. E.C. Ob.[died] 10th Feb. 1734

She was unmarried but the title Mrs was often given to older unmarried ladies at this period. The date on the stone was Old Style dating. In 1715 a banner still hung over her grave which had the arms "Azure, a chevron between three lozenges or, a mullet for difference" for Hyde. Only a small lozenge with name and date of death now marks her grave, which is near that of J.L. Pearson. She was the daughter of Robert Hyde and his wife Anne (Rogers). Her mother's brother Henry Rogers was a great benefactor to the church of St Mary Aldermary in London. Elizabeth Cotes was her personal maid who was buried with her. She died at her house in the Abbey cloister in 1734 and the coffin lay in Jerusalem Chamber prior to burial. She left bequests to various cousins including Helen (Shrider), wife of an Abbey choir man Thomas Jennings.