The memorials in the church

On the chancel floor are two figures and three shields, including the coats of arms of de Wytham and Golafre - all that remains of a brass of Robert de Wytham (died 1406) and his wife Juliana Golafre (died 1408). They had seven daughters and a son, Richard. Richard’s daughter Agnes, the last of the de Wythams, was taken as heir by John Golafre, (her second cousin and the last Golafre). The brass was probably made after her death in 1444, in memory of her grandparents, her father and herself. In 1730 the 2nd Earl of Abingdon put down a stone with an inscription giving an account of the de Wytham family. Some time later, perhaps when the new church was built, the brass was squashed on to the bottom of the 2nd Earl's explanatory stone, where it now remains with only three shields. These, once inlaid with enamel, provided examples for those on the hammerbeams. The figures show a knight (whose legs are lost) wearing Milanese armour, and a lady wearing a houppelande, or long gown, with full sleeves and a jewelled or embroidered belt. She wears a short veil draped over templers, which frame her face. Her skirt is now broken off, but before the new church was built she had a dog at her feet with a ‘collar of roundels’ - perhaps bells. Nearby is a memorial to Colonel Edward Purcell (1656 - 1717), also laid down by the 2nd Earl. The inscription describes his military career, records that he was a brother of Henry Purcell the musician, and that he retired to Wytham ‘decayed with age and broken with misfortune'. In the chancel north wall are three roughly cut tablets to members of the Paynton family; John d. 1617, Thomas d. 1624 and Anne d. 1634. The family still farmed in Wytham in the early 18th century.