(30) The Standish pew

c. 1600. A.S. commissioned the magnificent oak Standish Pew for Chorley Parish Church , with the Standish of Duxbury arms impaled by the Assheton arms, still there today. It was almost certainly produced before 1604 when A.S.'s wife died.

The most notable monument of the Standishes in the church is their ornate family pew at the entrance to the chancel on the south side of the nave. It is four feet high, and the blocked holes on the top suggest that there was once a metal rail and curtains to raise the height and screen the occupants from those outside. There are two recessed seats for the squire and his lady separated by Ionic columns with a light entablature having a frieze with strapwork panels. At the top of the canopy around and above the seats on the east side is a shield of 12 quarters, Standish impaling Ashton. On either side are figures and a pediment above.

(Porteus, A Short History of Chorley Parish Church , c. 1946, p. 32.)

Since its creation, the pew has been moved around the church, the last time during rather recent renovations, but it is still there in all its glory, as a permanent memorial to A.S. and his wife. The Standish and Assheton arms depicted on it were recorded and described by Jock Scott (deceased), an enthusiastic member of the Lancashire History and Heraldry Society, in an undated pamphlet on heraldic details in Chorley Parish Church .

The Duxbury arms entered the shield of the Standishes of Duxbury after an ancestor had taken over the manor from the Duxburys c. 1380. The Butler , Lawrence and Washington arms all entered when A.S.'s grandfather James married a Butler heiress in 1526. A simplified pedigree chart of this Butler family appears in Honigmann, 1985 (p. 147), who detected that this family was relevant in the 'Shakespeare in Lancashire ' story. His main concern was an attempt to ascertain how the poet John Weever of Preston could have been the nephew of Henry Butler of Rawcliffe, to whom he dedicated an epigram in 1599 as his uncle. Honigmann gives three Butler daughters and heiresses, Elizabeth, Ellen and Isabel. Isabel's daughter Ann married Sir Gilbert Gerard, Queen Elizabeth's Master of the Rolls, who appeared in a document above. Honigmann did not perceive that Isabel's sister Elizabeth Butler married James Standish of Duxbury in 1526, but it seems that this marriage brings A.S. yet again into 'Shakespeare in Lancashire' as one of the (so far) missing links.

Let us note a few more details pertaining to the Standish pew in Chorley . Any visitor today will be impressed by this, but may perhaps be perplexed by the Stars and Stripes above it. (This has moved about over the past half-century, following the movements of the Standish pew.) The reason for the flag is Myles Standish:

(i) During the Second World War many American troops were stationed in the vicinity of Chorley . Many of them visited Duxbury, 'knowing' that one of their founding fathers had come from here. Many also attended a Thanksgiving ceremony in Chorley Parish Church in 1942. As a result of this, a flag arrived in Chorley twenty-five years later, with the accompanying letter:

ARCHITECT OF THE CAPITOL

WASHINGTON , D.C. 20515

December 4, 1967

Honorable James R. Grover, Jr.

House of Representatives

Washington, D. C.

My dear Congressman Grover:

This is to certify that the

accompanying flag has flown over the

United States Capitol.

Sincerely yours,

(signed)

J. George Stewart

Architect of the Capitol

(The original letter is preserved at St Laurence's, Chorley )

(ii) There was apparently an American flag hanging in Chorley before this:

Above the Standish pew there is hung an American flag, the gift of a U.S.A. contingent in acknowledgement of the kindness of the Rector in placing the church at their disposal for a service on thanksgiving Day, 1942.

(Porteus, A Short History of Chorley Parish Church , c. 1946, p. 35)

(iii) The main reason for this reverence by American soldiers lay partly in the elevation of Myles Standish during the latter part of the 19th century to the status of an American National Hero, mainly as a result of Longfellow's poem The Courtship of Myles Standish , and the erection of a huge monument to Myles in Plymouth, plus the establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.

(iv) Another reason for this reverence in Chorley lay in A.S.'s coat of arms on his pew, which included the arms of Washington .

One interesting feature in the coat-of arms is the 5th quarter on the Standish side, the arms of Washington, which may be popularly explained as "three silver bars above and three silver stars below, all on a red ground:" There is a tradition that this coat was the origin of the Stars and Stripes of the U.S.A. flag. There was no direct marriage between members of the Washington and Standish families, but the Standishes were allied to the Butlers .

(Porteus, A Short History of Chorley Parish Church , c. 1946, p. 35.)

Much has been written about the origin of the stars and stripes in the U.S. flag, the Washington family has been researched exhaustively, from its origins in Washington, County Durham, to a later branch near Lancaster (George's, although his own branch moved to the Midlands), which resulted in his older brothers attending Appleby Grammar School, just over the border in Westmorland, and George's regret that he was not able to attend this. He did keep up other Lancashire connections, however. I am left with a sneaking suspicion that the Washington coat of arms, as on the Standish pew in Chorley (and many other places, including Durham Cathedral), might well have provided some inspiration for the lady who produced the first stars and stripes flag for the U.S.. How else might she have dreamt up the idea that stars and stripes would be appropriate? Why not circles or diamonds or squares or various types of crosses, or anything else? My main conclusion is that basically it does not matter, but wouldn't it be interesting to know? We probably never will. Has another 'tradition' bit the dust in the dearth of surviving documentation?

Meanwhile, the U.S. have their flag, with a few more stars than Washington's three; St Laurence's in Chorley has one distinguished by having flown over the Capitol; the main shrine to George Washington in England has been established in Washington, Co. Durham (even though he never lived there, but it is well worth a visit, following in the footsteps of a few U.S. Presidents); and George Washington and Myles Standish have the two highest monuments to an individual in the U.S., with George's in Washington, D.C. (of course). Myles Standish has meanwhile been almost forgotten in England and is commemorated nowhere in Lancashire , but A.S. left us his pew, which includes the Standish coat of arms Myles was entitled to.

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