Richard & Anne Cust Memorial
Memorial in St. George’s Church, Stamford, Lincs, to Sir Richard Cust and his wife Lady Anne Cust
Janet Roworth, Belton Research Group
The memorial provides a weath of detail on the Cust family. Janet's transcription of the memorial text is below. It is followed by notes on the life of Sir Richard and Lady Anne Cust taken from Records of the Cust Family. This link offers more information on the church.
Banner: St George's Stamford
Nearby is an earlier mention of Sir Richard Cust on a memorial to the Woodcock & Pury Custs.
Photo: Peter ExleyThe memorial is by John Bacon, 1797, of an allegorical female figure by a tall pedestal with bust. It was erected by Sir Richard and Lady Anne Cust’s grandson Brownlow Cust, 1st Lord Brownlow.
The inscription:
Sacred to the Memory of Sir RICHARD CUST Baronet and Dame ANNE his Wife. He was the eldest SON of Sir PURY CUST of the Black-Friars in this Town. She was the Daughter of Sir WILLIAM BROWNLOW Bart. of Belton, in this County. They were married in the Year 1717 and had a numerous Issue.
Sir RICHARD CUST residing entirely in the Country, discharged the Offices of HIGH SHERIFF and JUSTICE of the PEACE for this County, with perfect Integrity and Knowledge. In private Life He and his excellent Wife were distinguish’d for the truest Conjugal Affection and Harmony : and for the utmost Solicitude for the Welfare of their many Children.
Sir RICHARD gave the last and strongest Proof of his Parental Care and impartial Affection by his Will, the execution of which he entrusted in every Respect to his Widow. She, to mitigate to her Children that Loss, which was the severest of Afflictions to herself ! exerted with the most lively Hope of GOD’s Assistance, the Fortitude of her Mind : and in her steady unceasing Care to qualify them for the Duties of Life, she was bless’d in witnessing their Prosperity, and experiencing their Gratitude.
Sir RICHARD departed this Life on the 25th of July 1734 ; Aged 53.
Dame ANNE continued his Widow, & died on the 29th of December 1779 ; Aged 85.
Their eldest Son Sir JOHN CUST became SPEAKER of the HOUSE of COMMONS, and to his Memory a Monument is erected in the Church of Belton, in this County.
Their second Son WILLIAM CUST was a CAPTAIN in the NAVY, lost his Life in Service of his Country : and to his Memory there is a Monument in the Church of Grantham.
Their third son FRANCIS CUST pursued the Profession of the Law, was one of HIS MAJESTY’s Counsel, and Counsel to the BOARD of ADMIRALTY. He succeeded his Uncle Mr. SAVILE COCKAYNE CUST in the Name & Estate of the Family of Cockayne in Bedfordshire ; served in PARLIAMENT twenty Years ; died unmarried, aged 70 ; & was buried here in the Month of Decr. 1791. To the Acquirements of Learning he added the greatest Benevolence of Disposition, and Attachment to his Family & his Friends.
Their fourth Son PEREGRINE CUST was a MERCHANT of the City of London : and having serv’d in PARLIAMENT twenty-four Years, died unmarried, aged 61 ; and was buried here in the Month January 1785. He was esteem’d for Honour and Integrity, and greatly loved for his Active & Constant Endeavours to do Good.
Their fifth Son RICHARD CUST in the Service of the Church became DEAN of LINCOLN, and Rector of Fulbeck, and of Belton in this County, in which Church there is a Monument to his Memory.
Their eldest Daughter ELIZABETH CUST died unmarried, and was buried here in the Month of November 1769.
Their second Daughter JANE was married first to FRANCIS FANE of Fulbeck in this County : and secondly to JAMES EVELYN of Felbridge in the County of Surrey : and having survived her only Child ANNE EVELYN, died Novr. 1791.
Their third Daughter DOROTHY died unmarried, and was buried here in the Month of September 1770.
Their fourth Daughter LUCY was the youngest, and is the Survivor of all this Family : Her melancholy Reflections upon the repeated Losses of such dear Relations, receive their best Alleviation from her Hope in CHRIST, that they shall meet again where Brotherly – Love shall be the Portion of the BLESSED for Evermore. She died Feby. 15th 1804, Aged 71.
Notes on the life of Sir Richard and Lady Anne Cust taken from Records of the Cust Family, Series II, The Brownlows of Belton, 1550-1779, compiled by Lady Elizabeth Cust and published in 1909
Richard Cust was baptised at St George’s Church on 30 October 1680. He was the only son of Sir Pury Cust by his first wife Ursula Woodcock. Ursula died when Richard was three years old, and his father later married for a second time.
Richard went to school at Eton when he was 14, and then on to Cambridge, and finally to London to study law.
However, Sir Pury Cust died in 1699 ‘hopelessly in debt’. Although aged just 18, Richard ‘declared his intention of taking all his father’s debts on himself, a resolution which he afterwards scrupulously carried out’.
Described as ‘a young man of most amiable and charming disposition’, Richard seems to have been well-liked within his family and circle of friends and acquaintances.
When nearly 20 his grandfather, old Sir Richard Cust, died and Richard succeeded to the baronetcy and the family estate. Through the sale of some property Richard was able to maintain the legacies paid to his stepmother and grandmother until their respective deaths, and by the age of 35 he was eventually free from debt and ‘able to turn his thoughts to matrimony’.
On 30 September 1717 Sir Richard Cust married Anne Brownlow, the daughter of Sir William Brownlow and sister to Sir John Brownlow, Viscount Tyrconnel. ‘The marriage proved a very happy one, the only cloud which ever disturbed their happiness being Sir Richard’s bad health’. The couple lived first in London where their sons John and William were born; then they took a house in Leasingham, Lincs, where, between 1722 and 1732, their eight other children were born – Francis, Peregrine, Elizabeth, Jane, Anne, Richard, Dorothy and Lucy. All, except Anne who died aged three, survived to adulthood and are named on the memorial in St. George’s Church.
In 1734 Sir Richard died at Leasingham, just days after he had arranged the purchase of a house in Grantham which was to be a home for his family. Lady Anne, now a widow, with nine children aged between 16 and two years old, moved to Grantham House. Sir Richard had appointed Lady Anne as sole executor of his estate and she thereafter ‘devoted herself to the care and education’ of her children, ‘assisted by the advice and kindly interest in their nephews and nieces’ of her brother-in-law Savile Cust and her brother Viscount Tyrconnel. All five Cust boys attended the grammar school at Grantham; John, Francis and Richard then going on to Eton and Cambridge, while William entered the Royal Navy and Peregrine began an apprenticeship in London.
Lady Anne had two Brownlow brothers so there was no expectation that she would become the heiress of Belton. However, her brother William died in 1726, and when Viscount Tyrconnel died without issue in 1754, Lady Anne inherited Belton House and Estate. This passed to her eldest son Sir John Cust who became Speaker of the House of Commons from 1761 to 1770, and then to John’s son Sir Brownlow Cust who was created Baron Brownlow in 1776 and commissioned the above memorial in 1797. Belton House remained in the possession of the Cust family until 1984 when, through gift and purchase, the National Trust acquired the house, gardens and parkland.
Janet Roworth, Belton Research Group 2024.