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Shields

Beneath the paintings are a series of shields, which, from left to right, represent:

  • Covert, Lord of the Manor in 1535;
  • Cooke, Thomas Cooke, a landowner in 1520 who is buried in the chapel;
  • De Bohun, Savaric de Bohun, granted the Lordship of Midhurst with the outlying Manors of Ford and Rustington in 1220 by the Earl of Arundel;
  • The centre shield bears the Arms of Henry Fitzalan, 22nd Earl of Arundel (1511–1580), the last of his line and the first lay impropriator or Rector after the suppression of the Monasteries;
  • Roger Montgommery, first Earl of Arundel, who led the centre at the Battle of Hastings and was also Earl of Chichester and Shrewsbury;
  • Gratwicke, Thomas Gratwicke of Ham, Lord of the Manor of Rustington in the latter part of the 17th century;
  • Olliver, the last of the long line of lay impropriators dating back to 1354. The vested interest in the Great Tithes belonging to the lay rectors was abolished by the Tithes Act of 1936.