Stanton Harcourt No. 1 / Stantone

There is an entry for Stanton [Harcourt] [variant spelling] in the Domesday survey [http://opendomesday.org/place/SP4105/stanton-harcourt/] [accessed 29 November 2017], but it mentions neither priest nor church in it. There is a 1773 ink-wash-on-paper drawing of this font by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1733-1794) in the British Library collections [Shelfmark: Additional MS 15546 - Item number: f.62]. An engraving of this font appears in 'Skelton's engraved illustrations of the principal antiquities of Oxfordshire', in 1823. Tymms (1834) qualifies it simply as "elegant". Description by the Rev. Thomas Simonds, vicar of Stanton Harcourt's St. Martin's circa 1844 : "The Font is octangular; is of the compartments is quatrefoiled, except the front, which bears a cross with the letters K and R on either side of it in Gothic characters. Within two of the large quatrefoils are two smaller and more enriched; within the two other a rose; and the remaining three contain shields with the following arms. Byron--Francis impaling Harcourt--Harcourt. By a strange error to have been committed in an age when the science of heraldry was held in high estimation, the arms of Francis are placed on the dexter instead of the sinister side. Sir Thomas Harcourt, who died in 1460, married Joan, daughter of Sir Robert Francis; --but no female of the former family married into the latter. It is probable, from the style of the ornaments carved upon the Font, and from the arms of Byron being paced upon it, that it was erected by Sir Robert Harcourt, who married Margaret Byron, and was son of Sir Thomas." (Paley, 1844). Paley acknowledges the said vicar for having had the font cleaned of "the numerous coats of whitewash which nearly obliterated its ornaments till 1833." (ibid.). Described in the Guide to the Architectural Antiquities in the Neighbourhood of Oxford (1846: 175): "The Font is good Perpendicular, tal octagon panelled, with buttresses at the angles, with the Tudor ornaments, and the emblems of the Crucifixion on one of the panels, IHC on another, and the arms of Byron on another. This Font was carefully restored in 1833, but the original ornaments with their painting were preserved and placed on a tablet under the west window". In the historical notes of this same source (ibid., p. 178) it adds: "The Font is octagonal; on the front is a cross, with letters in the Gothic character on either side of it. In each of the compartments are spred quatrefoils, except that on which there is a cross: within two of the large quatrefoils are two smaller, and more enriched; within the two others, a rose; and the remaining three contain shields, with the following arms: Byron; Francis impaling Harcourt; Harcourt [...]" Sherwood and Pevsner (1974) state that the font was "made in 1833 and said to be a copy of the original. - Heraldic shields from the C15 font are on the W wall." [NB: the font shows signs of reconstruction which may have led Sherwood & Pevsner to believe it is a copy]. The Victoria County History (Oxford, vol. 12, 1990) Notes: "A church existed by 1135, when the parish included Northmoor and South Leigh; both the size of the parish and scale of the church suggest that Stanton Harcourt was a preConquest ecclesiastical centre [...] The spacious nave [...] is of the 12th century [...] The 15th-century font formerly incorporated heraldic arms, probably of Sir Robert Harcourt (d. 1470); it was restored in 1833, when fragments of damaged carving were transferred to a tablet on the west wall of the nave." [cf. Index entry for Stanton Harcourt No. 2 for a holy-water stoup of the Norman period in this church]