Hackney Family Tree

Roesia de Verdun's effigy and elaborate tomb inside St. John the Baptist Church in Belton, Leicestershire, near to Grace-Dieu Priory. Roesia had founded the Priory sometime between 1235 and 1241. She endowed it with the manor and advowson of Belton and three parts of a knight's fee from the manor of Kirkby-la-Thorpe in Lincolnshire. The nuns called themselves 'The White Nuns of St. Augustine' and Grace-Dieu is believed to have been the only house of their order in England. Thankfully, Roesia's tomb was saved when Grace-Dieu was dissolved in 1538 during Henry VIII's break-up of England's monastic heritage, and moved to Belton Church. On one side of her head is a shield featuring the de Verdun coat of arms, and to the right, appropriately, there is a rose:-