John Lane (clothier)

Due to a misreading of the inscription on the exterior of his Chapel he was said by Polwhele (1793) to have occupied the office of Wapentake Custos,[1] Lanarius,[2][3] (translated as "Constable of the Hundred, wool merchant").

The exterior walls are embellished with relief sculptures (now severely worn away by the elements) of biblical scenes and of items related to Lane and his trade,[7] such as ships, cloth shears, teasel frames, merchant's marks, monograms, etc.

A lengthy relief-sculpted inscription in English in black-letter Gothic script runs around the three exterior walls of the building, low-down beneath the windows (see below).

Lane's widow had a dispute with this family concerning their trespassing into the Lane Chapel, which resulted in a law suit heard by the Star Chamber, the record of which is held at the National Archives at Kew, summarised as follows:[9] He was buried at the east end of his Chapel, where survives his ledgerstone, in the middle of the aisle and now mostly covered by box-pews and missing the monumental brasses of which only the matrices remain, in the shapes of a man and a woman, wearing a headdress, facing each other, the man on the left and his wife on the right, with two lozenge-shaped heraldic shields above, also missing their brasses.

The ledger line is inscribed in Latin as follows:[10] The following inscription, in parts much worn-away by the elements, is sculpted low-down on the outside wall of the aisle, running round all three sides of the building, with each word cut on detached stones:[13]