Robert Stowell

Robert Stowell, mason and architect, was buried in St Margaret's Church Westminster but his grave is not marked and he has no memorial tablet. He died in November 1505 (before any parish register of burials was kept). So the exact date of his burial is not known but a record of his knell (ringing the bell) and "pit" (or grave) in the church was recorded in the Churchwardens' account covering May 1504-May 1506.

He was possibly from the Stowell family of Stowell in Somerset. His father was William (died 1476) and his mother was Joan (died 1488). He was appointed Master of the stone masons at Windsor Castle in 1452 until 1461. From June 1468 he was a mason at Westminster Abbey, where he was paid 3 shillings and 4 pence per week. In 1471 he succeeded John Reading as Master Mason. He was granted a house, first in Tothill Street and then in the Sanctuary area outside the Abbey. By about 1476 he was in private practice and worked at Broxbourne church in Hertfordshire. In 1482-84 he was working on the Lady Chapel at St Margaret's Westminster and he probably designed the rebuilding of the south aisle and nave (completed by 1504). The chancel and tower were rebuilt after his death. He was a Warden of the Guild of St Mary in Westminster. The office of King's Master Mason was granted to him in December 1483. 

His first wife died in 1474-5 and his second wife, Joan, died in 1500-01. In his will he mentions a son William and son in law Thomas Burges.

His will is at the City of Westminster Archives Centre.

Further reading

John Harvey "English Medieval Architects...to 1550", revised edition 1984.