Alexander Denton (1542-8 January 1576) of Hillesden in Buckinghamshire was a landowner and member of the Buckinghamshire gentry. He is best known for his two monuments, one in Hereford Cathedral the other in Hillesden Church.
He was the only child and heir of Thomas Denton (1515-1558) of Hillesden, several times a Member of Parliament, by his wife Margaret Mordaunt, a daughter of John Mordaunt, 1st Baron Mordaunt, of Turvey, Bedfordshire, and widow of Edmund Fettiplace (d.1540) of Besselsleigh, Berkshire.[1]
He married twice:
There is an interesting altar-tomb of Sir Alexander Denton, 1576, of Hillesden, Co. Bucks, Esq., and his lady and a child in swaddling clothes, toward the south-east angle of the transept. The effigies are in alabaster, and retain considerable traces of colour. They are in full proportion, and the knight wears a double chain and holds a cross in his hands. The Dentons were ancestors of the Coke family, now Earls of Leicester. The swaddled body of the child lies to the left of its mother, its head resting on a little double pillow by her knee, and a part of the red cloth on which she lies wraps over the lower part of the babe. To the right of the knight, balancing the child in the composition, lie his two gauntlets or mail gloves, which have been much scratched with names. The head of the knight rests upon his helmet. Round the verge of the tomb is this inscription: "Here lieth Alexander Denton, of Hillesden, in the County of Buckingham, and Anne his wife, Dowghter and Heyr of Richard Willyson of Suggerwesh in the Countie of Hereford; which Anne deceased the 29th of October, A.D. 1566 the 18th yere of her Age, the 23rd of his Age. "But," says Browne Willis, "this was but a cenotaph, for Alexander Denton, the husband, who lived some years after, and marry'd another lady, was bury'd with her at Hillesden, Co. Bucks; where he died January the 18th, 1576."
The monument was repaired shortly before 1898 by Mr Justice Denton, a lineal descendant of Alexander Denton.[7]
He died on 8 January 1576 and was buried in Hillesden Church, where survives his monument, inscribed:
Here lyethe Alexander Denton sone and heyre to Thomas Denton Esquire and Mary his second wfe one of the dawghters of Syr Roger Martyn Knight, which Alexander Denton decesed the 8 Day of Januarye in the yeare of out Lorde God 1576 and Mary the 12th Day of Julie in the year of our Lorde God 1574 to whom our Lorde graunte joyfol resurrection and erectyd at the charge of Margeret Denton.