Person:Nicholas Cutler (1)

Servant in household of the Duke of Suffolk, Charles Brandon until the Duke's death in 1545. From 1545 he worked for Thomas Wriothesley, his wife's cousin. Elected MP for Liverpool in 1545. After the death of Edward VI, he rallied to the cause of Mary, and was awarded an annuity for this services at Framlingham.

From 1553 until his death in 1568 Nicholas served as the country squire in north Suffolk – rather like his son in law William HONNYNG, he was a commissioner for the sewers, a Justice of the Peace, and served on the local court of augmentations. He ventured into land deals with William, and it is said that Nicholas was responsible for the construction of the windmill in Eye, on the mound left behind by the castle.

In 1568 Nicholas died, and was burried alongside his first wife. His son Charles built a splendid ‘alter tomb’ in the parish church of St Peter and St Paul in Eye. The tomb remains – almost identical in form to the tomb of William and Frances HONNYNG further up the church. The inscription reads:

Hic Nicholaus inest fama Cutlerus avita

hic etiam coniu’x Elionora iacet

Mimmeæ stirpis fuit hæc postrema propago

iile fuit patriæ gloria summa suæ

iamq senex binos gnatos gnatasq reliquit

vnde socer clarus clarus avusq fuit

equib, en Charolus patrii studiosus ho’oris

ad patris erexit hæc monumenta decus

Homo humana humo: virtus: post: funera.

... the translation of which is "Here lies Nicholas Cutler of ancestral fame here also lies his wife Eleanor, offspring of the Mimme dynasty. He lived to the great glory of his homeland, and as an old man he left both sons and daughters,an illustrious father-in-law and a brilliant grandfather. In paternal honour, a devoted Charles erected this glorious monument to his father. Man goes to the earth; human virtue lasts after the funeral".

Nicholas' Alter Tomb