Archaeology & History

Five 'lost' archbishops found beneath church

By T.K. Randall
April 16, 2017 ·  6 comments

A watercolor of Lambeth Palace painted in the 18th century. Image Credit: J. M. W. Turner Builders working on renovating the Garden Museum at the site of the church of St Mary-at-Lambeth in London have discovered a hidden crypt containing more than 30 lead coffins.

Dating back to the 1660s, the caskets are believed to contain the remains of five former archbishops - Richard Bancroft, John Moore, Frederick Cornwallis, Matthew Hutton and Thomas Tenison.One of the coffins even has a crown placed on top of it.

"This church had two lives: it was the parish church of Lambeth, this little village by the river…but it was also a kind of annex to Lambeth Palace itself," said museum director Christopher Woodward.

"And over the centuries a significant number of the archbishops' families and archbishops themselves chose to worship here, and chose to be buried here."

Source: BBC News | Comments (6)

Tags: Archbishops