On the north chancel wall of St Mary's church, Kempsey, is a monument to Sir Edmund Wylde, 1620, consisting of an armed effigy on an altar tomb with arch and cornice above, and two kneeling figures of his sons Edmund and Walter.
"This is dated 1620, as he was made Sheriff of Worcestershire in that year, and died in his first year in office. Although the principal home of the Wylde family was in Shropshire, he was renting the Rectory Manor House in Lane's End at the time. His widow, Dorothy Clark of Houghton Conquest, Bedfordshire, erected the tomb over his grave. The two kneeling figures are his sons, Edward and Walter.
The Plaque above Wylde's Tomb -
It reads (in modern English): "Here lies the body of Sir Edmund Wylde, late of Kempsey, Knight, who married Dorothy, heir of Francis Clerke, of Haughton Conquest in the county of Bedford, Esquire, by whom he had issue two sons, Edmund, his eldest still living and Walter who lies here beside him. He lived in (high) estimation for his eminent qualities and deserts (and) was thought worthy (of) the honour to be High Sheriff of this county. In which place, having served a good part of the year with honour and reputation he was visited with a most painful and grievous sickness of which he died, being in the strength of his age and of great hopes. He died on the 3rd of April 1620 and atatis sua(?) 32 and was solemly here interred with great lamentation."
The Latin inscription reads:
Quif talia fando
Temperet a lachrimif? Milef Juvenif, Vice comef,
Vir Juftuf claruf, Dignuf honore eadit
O duram Lachefim! fi nolif pareere vitæ
Nec prece nee pretio, parce tamen lachrimif
Meaning:
Who, hearing this news
Could refrain from tears? A young soldier, viscount,
A just and famous man, worthy of honour, falls.
O Harsh Lachesis*! If you will not spare his life
either for prayer or for price, at least pardon our tears.
*Lachesis: the Fate responsible for cutting the thread of life."
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"The Chestnut Tree on Wylde's Tomb -
A choirboy's confiscated chestnut was thrown behind the stone body of Sir Edmund by the sexton. It germinated in 1830, grew over 10 feet tall, and died in the summer of 1895.
'On the north side of the chancel is the half-canopied tomb of Sir Edmund Wylde, a High Sherriff of Worcestershire who died in 1620, which is linked with the remarkable story of a chestnut tree. Here is an extract from "The Rambler in Worcestershire" by John Noake, dated 1848, which is an eye witness report of Wylde's tomb.'
"From the top issues a fine branch of a horse chestnut tree, which has been growing for some years and now seems in flourishing condition. The appearance of a tree growing out of a solid mass of masonry in the interior of a church was so singular that I was led to enquire the cause, and found that some years ago the then sexton of the church, who was known among the younger fry as a pertinacious stickler for propriety, observing a lad playing with a horse-chestnut when he ought to have been digesting the sermon, gave him a fillip on the ear with one hand and threw the chestnut away with the other. The chestnut alighted on the top of the monument where in the course of time it formed mould to itself and gradually shot out, till now it hangs most gracefully over the recumbent figure of the worthy knight, whose representatives, I understand, will not allow it to be removed." "
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