By the end of the 19th century the Lydiard Park estate was mired in debt and mortgaged up to the hilt, but this hadn’t always been the case.

Sir John St John was born in 1585 and orphaned as a young child when his father, also named Sir John, died in 1594 and his mother Lucy Hungerford died in 1598. Following the death of his elder brother Walter, the young heir was made a ward of his future father in law Thomas Leighton, the Governor of Guernsey, whose wife had expressed an intention to marry him to their daughter Anne.

Perhaps it was this early experience of loss that inspired Sir John to immortalise his family in a collection of magnificent monuments in the 13th century church of St Mary’s.

In the 17th century Sir John St John had a firm grasp on the purse strings. When he dipped into the not insignificant family coffers it was not to fritter away a fortune on wine, women and gambling as did subsequent generations. Sir John was inordinately proud of his antecedents and he spent his money on showing off.

In 1615 he commissioned the St John polyptych, a memorial to his parents. The painted panels depict Sir John and Lucy Hungerford and their six daughters with Sir John with his wife Anne Leighton looking on. The outer panels include heraldic emblems and an extensive family tree.

Next he engaged Abraham van Linge, a Flemish master window painter, to produce a stained glass window in the chancel tracing the descent of the manor of Lydiard.

By 1633 Sir John had set about remodelling the south chapel, creating a burial vault beneath the new aisle. And, 14 years before his death, he commissioned the magnificent marble memorial to himself, his first wife Anne, their 13 children and his second wife, Margaret.

But Sir John’s commission of what is today known as the Golden Cavalier says less about ancestral glory and more about familial love. Edward S. John, Sir John’s favourite son was injured fighting in the Royalist cause in the second battle of Newbury in 1644.

The men of his company managed to convey their injured captain home to Lydiard House where he died from his wounds five and a half months later. The figure of Edward St John emerging from his tent was originally painted in natural colours, the gilding and the name were added at a later date.

This month saw the launch of the St Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze Conservation Appeal, an ambitious project to raise £1m and halt the increasing deterioration of the fabric of the church. If you would like to consider making a donation or pledge to the project to help preserve this historic church contact the project co-ordinator, Hilary Gardner, on 01793 874325 or email her at h.gardner291@btinternet.com.