After his only child, Walter, died at the age of eleven, Hele decided to bequeath a number of his estates for "some godly purposes and charitable uses".
[22] His elaborate monument with semi-recumbent alabaster effigy survives on the south side of the chancel in Bovey Tracey Church, opposite that of Nicholas Eveleigh, his second wife's first husband.
John Maynard and Elize Stert had also purchased in 1656, on behalf of the Hele Charity trust, an estate at Lower Creeson, Mary Tavy.
Yearly accounts were compiled each November and money was to be used to build a schoolhouse at Plympton St Maurice and to buy lands at Brixton to support the preaching minister.
[21] Legal proceedings resulted in depriving the descendant of Sir J. Maynard, who was the surviving trustee, of all control over the funds, which were thereupon vested in the Crown.
Elize Hele, detail from his alabaster effigy, Bovey Tracey Church
Monument to Elize Hele, Bovey Tracey Church. His semi-recumbent
alabaster
effigy holds a roll of parchment in the left hand, the right hand rests on a skull. Immediately above him are shown the arms of Hele (with a
mullet
for the
difference
of a 3rd son), with the arms of Hender (1st wife) at
dexter
top (
Azure, a lion rampant between an orle of escallops or
), and those of Bray (2nd wife) at
sinister
top (
Argent, a chevron between three eagle's legs erased sable
). Above is a tablet (inscription worn off) surrounded by
strapwork
decoration
Arms of Hele:
Gules, five fusils in bend argent on each an ermine spot
[
1
]
Monument to Elize Hele in Bovey Tracy Church, Devon. Below his effigy are the kneeling effigies of his two wives, facing each other in prayer, behind the left one kneels his young son.
[
4
]
On top at each side is an escutcheon displaying the arms of Hele
impaling
Hender (dexter) and Bray (sinister)
View into the chancel of Bovey Tracey Church, showing on the south (right) the monument to Elize Hele and on the north, place of greatest honour (left), Nicholas Eveleigh, whose widow Alice Bray remarried to Hele. The arms of Bray appear on both monuments
