File:Hugo de Arbuthnot - effigy in Arbuthnot parish church.jpg

Effigy of Hugo de Arbuthnot in the parish church of Arbuthnot in Kincardineshire, Scotland. Comment in source:

"The old parish church of Arbuthnot, delightfully situated, overlooking the river Bervie, about midway between Bervie and Fordoun, was founded in the thirteenth century. It still retains a portion of the building of that period; patched up in a rude manner after the Reformation, it remained so, uncared for, till 1890, when, by the efforts of the Rev. Mr Spence, the parish clergyman, it was disencumbered of its unsightly galleries and some other encumbrances, and judiciously restored. The first on record of the family of Arbuthnot was Hugo de Aberbothenoth, who possessed the lands of Arbuthnot about 1160. The effigy (fig. 13) is now lying in a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, which was founded by Robert de Arbuthnot towards the end of the fifteenth century, and commemorates Hugo, the third of that name, and the fourth laird in succession. He was designated Hugo Blundus, or Hugo le Blond, from the flaxen colour of his hair, and was a liberal benefactor to the clergy, especially to the monks of Aberbrothock in 1282. Although now appearing as a detached tomb, it was probably at one time recessed within a wall. The shields bear, on the first a fesse cheque^, the second and third the Arbuthnot arms, and a part of the latter appears on the fourth, which is incomplete. From the spacing of the shields, there have been probably five of them originally, and it is stated by Nisbet in his Heraldry that a shield in the base bore his lady's arms—three chevrons—she being probably a daughter of or nearly related to the de Morvilles, who were for several generations Constables of Scotland. The large shield bears portions of the Arbuthnot arms only. The monument measures 7 feet 5 inches in length, and is of common freestone, the intervals between the stones bearing the shields being filled in with plaster."