English: Copy c.1835, original 1566

Painting depicts the Pilkington family of Rivington and is located in Rivington Church, Rivington, Lancashire, England, commissioned by James Pilkington, first Church of England Bishop of Durham and is on public display in the village church, originally painted 1566, reproduced 1834.

The painting was commissioned by the bishop in memory of his father and placed in the church his father, Richard, built at Rivington.

Transcript

Columns in the painting are a stylised representation of Durham Cathedral. On the left column are shown the arms of Pilkington: Argent, a cross patonce gules voided of the field, with the mark of cadency of second son, a crescent azure, in the dexter chief, surmounted by the crest, A mower with his scythe. Arms of Sir Robert Pilkington, second son of Sir Roger Pilkington (died 1347), lord of the manor of Pilkington, Stand.

Arms of the see of Durham impaling Pilkington, with a chief of augmentation granted to Bishop James Pilkington on 10th February 1561, by Sir Gilbert Dethicke, Garter King of Arms. Augmented arms of Bishop Pilkington: Argent, a cross patonce gules voided of the field on a chief vert three suns or, with the mark of cadency of a second son. Above these arms is a figure of the Bishop, wearing his Episcopal robes, and the cap peculiar to those times.

Beneath the shield is a triple carved Elizabethan frame. The centre panel shows the arms of the bishop impaling the canting arms of Kingsmill (Argent, semée of cross-crosslets fitchée sable, a chevron ermines between three millrinds of the second a chief ermine), for his wife, Alice Kingsmill, daughter of Sir John Kingsmill of Sidmanton. The left panel is inscribed, "Thus shall the man be blessed yet fears ye Lord. Be trusting unto death and I will give thee life to come". The right panel," What God hath joined let no man separate. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly."

Grouped round the table at the bottom left of the painting are Richard and his seven sons, and across the table, Alice and her five daughters. Bishop Pilkington is depicted in his rochet, red gurnard and gown.

At the top of the painting is the inscription ,'VTVIT POST FUNERA VIRTUS', "Virtue lives after death". The inscriptions contained in the four cut and scrolled Elizabethan framework panels:

• Richard Pilkinton (sic), who built this church, was buried here, in the year of Our Lord 1551, and the 24th May, then Trinity Sunday, aged 65. A man of good esteem.
• Alice Asshawe, his wife, bore him 12 children, of whom three are preachers and of St. John's College Cambridge, she lived eighty years. Fathers teach your children nurture and learning of the Lord.
• James, their son, became Bishop of Durham on the 2nd March, in the year 1560, and in the 42nd year of his life. He opened this school in the year 1566 and church. Children obey your parents in the Lord.
• Let your lights shine so before men ye they may see ye good works, O father in heaven. Lord Save Us. We perish. Lord increase our faith.

Transcript is from the book The History of the Pilkington Family of Lancashire, 1066 to 1600, by Col John Pilkington, 3rd edition, 1912.

The following is from 'A short history of the township of Rivington in the county of Lancaster with some account of the church and grammar school (1904)' pg 189.

To quote 'A short history of the township of Rivington in the county of Lancaster with some account of the church and grammar school', 1904, pg 189, The original picture, which measures 53 by 35 inches, unluckily was considerably damaged on the ist December, 1834, owing to a pile of wooden benches having been set fire to whilst the church was being cleaned. Fortunately, a careful copy had been made in 1821 for Mr. John Pilkington of Bolton, by his daughter Miss Jane Noble Pilkington, which afterwards became the property of his son-in-law the late Mr. William Ormerod Pilkington of Preston, and from it and what remained of the original, the copy which now hangs in Rivington Church was executed in 1835. In the Rivington accounts for 1835 there is an entry—"Paid for copying the picture of the Pilkington family in Rivington Church, £11, lOs. 66.

'The scorched remains of this ancient family relic are now (1904) in the possession of Colonel John Pilkington of Wavertree (who kindly supplied the foregoing particulars), having been given to him by Mr. Crompton of Rivington Hall.