Mariansleigh / Mary Ansleigh

Listed in Lysons (1806-1822) as one of a group of square baptismal fonts in the county that are "for the most part supported by four pillars and a large pedestal in the centre". Noted and illustrated in Stabb (1908): "There is a very old Norman font [...]. The square bowl, which is larger than usual and remarkably shallow, is supported on a thick central shaft, and four smaller shafts at the corners." [NB: the shallowness noted in Stabb may have resulted from the bottom of the basin being cut]. Clarke (1922) describes it as one nine Devon 'table fonts' (Bondleigh, Hennock, Holbeton, Honiton Clyst, Mariansleigh, North Lew, Petrockstowe, Roseash and Washfield) that belong to the thirteenth century, "though the ornament on the bowls is of that date their heavy construction suggests a Norman origin, so that they have often been wrongly attributed to the twelfth century". [cf. Index entry for Clyst Honiton for the measurements of this type of font]. [We are grateful to Dr. Roger Peters, of www.wissensdrang.com, for his permission to use the transcription of and images from Stabb (1908)]