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In 1425 Walter Culpeper married Agnes Roper, widow of John Bedgebury, and the Bedgebury estate came into the Culpeper family. Walter died in 1462 and has a monumental brass in the church.
Their son Sir John Culpeper, d 1480 and his wife were interred in the arched tomb in the church. A brass shows him in armour, but the brass of his wife and children is missing. It is thought this may have been used as an Easter sepulchre.
Their son Sir Alexander, d 1541 "The Olde Sir Alexander" used his iron foundries in Bedgebury to cast guns for the fleet that fought the Spanish Armada.
He and his wife, Constance are commemorated in a wooden painted effigy in the church. It was carved and painted in 1537 during the Reformation, and is one of only eighty or so of its kind in the country.
The chief monument in the chapel is of the Tudor period - an alabaster memorial to four generations of Culpepers, carved in 1599 and erected in 1608.
In a niche at the top is the demi-figure of Sir Thomas Culpeper, d 1558, son of Olde Sir Alexander.
His son, Sir Alexander Culpeper, d 1599, is portrayed kneeling beneath with his eldest son and his wife Mary. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, whom he entertained at Bedgebury.
The third generation of the family is represented by their son Sir Anthony Culpeper, d 1618, and his wife, Ann, daughter of Sir Roger Martin, Mayor of London.
Most of their sixteen children kneel below with their parents. The baptism of twelve sons and four daughters is recorded in the parish register.
Thomas Culpeper, lover of Catherine Howard is also related to this family.



See other images of Culpeper Memorials, Goudhurst Church