Monument To Henry And Hannah Cromwell, South Enclosure

635-1/0/10262 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Henry and Hannah Cromwell, South enclosure

GV II Chest tomb of Henry and Hannah Cromwell, early C18

LOCATION: 532709, 182214.7

MATERIALS: Portland stone with sandstone top

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with corner balusters framing raised and fielded inscription panels. The text of the latter is no longer legible.

HISTORY: Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the fortunes of the Cromwell family declined sharply. Henry Cromwell (1658-1711), the Lord Protector's grandson, was forced to resign his Cambridgeshire estate and seek employment as an army officer; he died whilst on service in Portugal and was buried at Lisbon, his name later being inscribed on the family monuments in Bunhill Fields. His wife Hannah, née Hewling (d.1732), was the daughter of a wealthy London merchant; two of her brothers were officers in the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, and were later executed despite her celebrated attempt to procure a pardon. Hannah and Henry's sons Richard (1695-1759) and William (1693-1772), both lawyers, are buried in the adjacent Cromwell family tomb.

Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: James Anderson, Memorable Women of the Puritan Times, vol.2 (1862). Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915). The Genealogy of Oliver Cromwell, http://www.datadirect.org.uk/cromwellcollection/genealogy/ (accessed on 9 October 2009)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to Henry and Hannah Cromwell is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It commemorates the grandson of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, and also his wife Hannah, famous for her role in the aftermath of the Monmouth Rebellion. * It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the south enclosure, and especially with the adjacent Cromwell family monument (q.v.).