Judith and Justinian Isham

Judith and Elizabeth, twins of Sir Justinian Isham 2nd Baronet of Lamport in Northamptonshire, were both buried in Westminster Abbey. Their mother was the Baronet's first wife Jane, daughter of Sir John Garrard 1st Baronet of Lamer and they were born on 27th August 1636. The burial registers do not give a location but from early guidebooks we know Judith was buried in the south aisle of the nave not far from the Morland monuments. This gravestone had a short Latin inscription with her name and that of her father and date of death, 18th May 1679 but this can no longer be seen.

Her sister Elizabeth, Lady L'Estrange, wife of Sir Nicholas (died 1669), was buried on 6th August 1689, possibly near her sister.

Justinian Isham died aged 17 while a Queen's Scholar at Westminster School and was buried in the middle aisle of the nave on 21st January 1714 (just to the south of where the Unknown Warrior would later be buried). He was a grandson of Thomas Isham (also at the School, died 1676) and son of Revd. Zacheus Isham (died 1705), a cousin of Sir Justinian Isham, 4th Baronet. He was a prebendary at Canterbury and at St Paul's Cathedral and rector of St Botolph, Bishopsgate in London and Solihull. The scholar's mother was Elizabeth daughter of the Reverend Thomas Pittis (also rector at St Botolph's).

Further reading

See Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for Zacheus and Justinian 2nd Baronet