Catterick / Catrice / Catrick / Catrigg / Cattarick / Catterack / Catteric / Katerycke

There is an entry for Catterick [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [https://opendomesday.org/place/SE2497/catterick/] [accessed 22 November 2019]; the entry is for multiple places, Catterick being one of the four; it reports a church and "0.5 church lands" in it. The entry for "Catteric" in Whitaker (1823) describes the font and gives details of the arms and lettering on it [cf. ImagesArea]. Lewis (1831) mentions a noteworthy baptismal font "of ancient date and curious workmanship" here. Noted and illustrated in Raine & Salvin (1834). In Moule (1837). Noted in Paley (1844) as a baptismal font decorated with heraldic devices and bearing an inscription. Noted in Glynne's 16 April 1869 visit to this church (in Butler, 2007): "The font has an octagonal bowl, plain in character, but painted with heraldic shields and an illegible inscription." The Antiquary (Saturday, May 4, 1872, p. 105) reports a recent restoration at Catterick and notes: "The font has been relieved of coats of paint, and turns out to be of fine marble, bearing the arms of the founders of the church." Described in Cox & Harvey (1907) as one of three similar black marble fonts, all heraldic [the other two are South Kilvington and Richmond] with an inscription around the shaft. The entry for this parish in the Victoria County History (York North Riding, vol. 1, 1914) notes: "According to tradition the earliest church here dated from the conversion of Northumbria by Paulinus, (fn. 297) whose deacon James had his head quarters 'juxta Cataractam.' [...] In 1086 Catterick had a church and a priest with half a carucate of land. [...] The contract for building the present church, dated 1412, is still preserved [...] The font, put in soon after Richard's time [i.e., Richard of Cracall ca. 1412]], is octagonal with concave faces to the stem and base. The upper part of the bowl has shields carved with letters and arms. The first has the Burgh arms with a W and B flanking it, the fourth the arms of Fitz Hugh of Ravensworth, the fifth of Scrope of Masham, the sixth a ragged staff, perhaps for Dacre, the seventh of Darcy, the eighth of Nevill. On the stem and base are some unmeaning letters, and two shields on the base are blank."

Described in Tyrrell-Green (1928): "There is another example of inscribed base at Catterick (Yorks), where the octagonal concave-sided font has a single letter on each hollow panel of its spreading base making the word CLARFONS". Morris (1931) has this font as one of several of the Perpendcular period [the group includes Catterick, Cowton, Richmond and South Kilvington] "that have probably been produced at the same workshop." Morris (ibid.) identifies the "Fitzhugh, Scrope of Masham, Darcy, Neville, or Clervaux, and Burgh" arms on the font, and the inscription "round the shaft: CLARVON = clear fountain." The use of heraldry within the church, and particularly on this church and its baptismal font, as a "manipulation of sacred space", is studied in M. Douglas' very interesting 'Collective Memory and Late Medieval Parish Church Architecture: St. Anne's, Catterick, a Yorkshire Perspectives' [unpublished? draft? undated document -- source: www.dur.ac.uk/neehi/History]. Douglas identifies "the arms of the de Burghs as well as the initials W, B for William de Burgh. Also depicted are the armorial devices of several other families with which the de Burghs associated themselves, the Nevilles, Fitzhughs the Scropes of Masham and the D'Arcys of Colburn." Douglas concludes: "The symbolic appropriation of the font by the de Burghs through donation and the application of familial signifiers was a means of strengthening manorial authority through the ritual burial and rebirth which occurs with baptism." Noted in Pevsner (1985) as "a fine Perp[pendicular] piece of black marble with shields and initials." The entry for this church in Historic England [Listing NGR: SE2401297976] notes: "Church. 1412, with later C15 and C19 alterations. [...] Black marble octagonal font, with monogram of founder, William de Burgh, arms of de Burgh, D'Arcy, Fitzhugh, Scrope and Neville families, and inscription on stem "CLAR FON" (clear fountain)."