Anne Gawen

On the wall of the fourth bay of the north cloister of Westminster Abbey (having been moved from the first bay) is a small tablet to Anne Gawen and her parents Isaac and Frances Bush. This formerly also had a coat of arms of Gawen impaling Bush. The inscription reads:

Here lyeth the body of Mrs Ann Gawen wife of Mr William Gawen who dyed 26th Novemb. 1659. Neere her also ly 5 of their children & also Mr Isaac Bush & Frances his wife, father & mother of the sd.[said] Ann

Frances, nee Hane, was buried on 9th September 1641 and had been the first wife of Gabriel Birkhead. She married Isaac Bush in 1623 and he was buried 30th December 1641 and was one of the messengers of the Exchequer. Anne, their only daughter, married William Gawen of Harpenden (his will was proved in 1702). No burials of the five children are mentioned in the register but record keeping at this date was a bit patchy.

Another tablet for this family has now been taken down from this cloister as it was decayed. This was to Anne who married William Gawen the younger (son of the above Ann and William). William was baptised at St Margaret's Westminster on 21st May 1638. Anne was the eldest daughter of John Winchcombe of Berkshire and died in childbed, being buried on 8th November 1669. The child Anne was buried on 14th July 1670. William married secondly Margaret daughter of William Gawen of Hurcot and his wife Katherine (Hacon) and had a son Thomas who was buried in the cloister on 30th November 1674.