Details of Sculptor

Surname

Broxup

Alternative Surname

First Name

John

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1686-1704

Year of Death

Biographical Details

The design for Sir John Knatchbull’s monument at Mersham, Kent survives among the Knatchbull Papers (1).The tablet itself has a gadrooned base, flanked by pilasters and floral volutes. Above is a pyramid, in front of which is a tented canopy, opened to disclose two nude boys, kneeling and holding a cartouche. On either side are flaming torches, while at the summit are balanced a large shield, helmet and mantling. Below the gadrooning is an apron with a winged cherub’s head, swags of fruit, drapery and trumpets. On either side is a winged skull and 2 cherubs heads are at the base. The design, dated 8 May 1700, is endorsed ‘I Acknowledge I have agreed with Mr. John Broxup for fourscore guineas for ye erecting such a marble monument exactly as this drauight [sic] expresses...’ and is signed ‘Edw: Knatchbull’. Broxup was responsible for a very similar monument to Lee Warner at Rochester Cathedral (2). A document, dated September 1702, in the Cathedral Archives, records ‘Rec’d from Mr Warner Lee’s exec. By hand of Mr Broxup, stonecutter, for setting in Merton Chapel a monument to Mr Warner Lee £10’ (Rochester Cathedral Treasurer’s Books, 1700-01, Medway Archives DRC/FTb 35, p 1). Yet another monument to the same design commemorates Christopher Milles (†1700) at Herne, also in Kent. It seems likely that it was executed by the same sculptor but is unsigned and no documentary evidence has surfaced to confirm authorship. A note in the Masons’ Company Court Book for 1686 reads ‘John Broxup to appeare next Cort’ (Masons’ Co, Court Book, 1677-94, f 98v). He does not appear to have complied with that request. John Friend was apprenticed to him in 1704.
Literary References: Physick 2004, 16-17
Archival References: RG/JP, 2, 200; RG/JP, suppl 2