Richard Frost - Newtown Linford

[Here] Lyeth ye Body of

[Ri]chard Frost who dy

[e]d April ye 26 Anno 1686

Aged 53 Years;

Another member of the Frost family. Another headstone ending with a semi-colon.

Margaret Frost - Newtown Linford

Here Lyeth ye Body of

Margaret Frost who dy

ed July ye 23rd An, Do, 1693

Aged 50 Years;

All Saints Churchyard, Newtown Linford. This small but beautifully inscribed headstone ends with a semi-colon rather than a full stop and leaves space below. Sometimes punctuation can tell a story.

Richard Hudson - Newtown Linford

A large and impressive stone in All Saints Churchyard, Newtown Linford, distinctive for the crack from top to bottom along which it has slipped.

Here lyeth the Body of Richard Hudson

who departed this life November the 8th

Anno. Dom. 1689 Aged 69 years

Here also lyeth the Body of Elizabeth

the Daughter of Richard Hudson by

Elizabeth his wife, she departed this life

March the 6th Anno. Dom. 1701 Aged 21 yer

Here also lyeth the Body of Elizabeth

the wife of Richard Hudson she

Departed this life July ye 10th Anno. Dom.

1716 Aged 79 Years

 

The size of stone and quality of engraving mark this out as an expensive piece of work compared to others here of similar date. The spelling, layout and capitalisation of letters are all more regular than on the smaller stones.

 

Susan Burbidge - Newtown Linford

Here lyeth ye body

of Susan Burbidge

who departed this

life Feb ye 26th day

Anno Dom 1700

Aged 62 Yrs

 

Both old & young ye passeth by

Strive to live well for ye must die

 

Another of the cluster of leaning gravestones in All Saints Churchyard, Newtown Linford. I was struck by how regular and well laid out these words are on the stone. It is a beautiful work of art, or craft, if you prefer. This was surely not inscribed by the same hand that produced George Burbidge's headstone just under 2 years later.

 

Given the ages and dates, we might be tempted to think that George and Susan were husband and wife, though perhaps they were brother and sister, or cousins. Whoever she was, she is named here in her own right, and not as "Susan wife to..." or "Daughter of..." as was more common.

 

I'd like to think that George had this headstone made and that the choice of words came from the way he saw Susan. We will never know. 

 

George Burbidge - Newtown Linford

Here lieth the

Body of George

Burbidge who de

parted this liFe

Novembr ye 18:

Anno:1701: aged 61y

 

The mason ruled a neat margin on the left, but apparently ran out of space on the right. It also seems as if two letters were originally left out and have been added in superscript. This leads me to a question: how literate was the craftsperson?

 



This is one of a cluster of leaning headstones, the group looking rather drunken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cast Iron Grave Markers - Newtown Linford

This one is way off my stated period of interest. But I hadn't seen anything like it before, so I thought I'd share it. A pair of cast iron grave markers in All Saints Churchyard, Newtown Linford.

IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF

MARY ANN BUTHAWAY

DIED DECEMBER 25th 1901

ERECTED BY THE MEMBERS

OF THE NEWTOWN LINFORD

MOTHERS UNION

 

 

IN AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE OF

SAMUEL BUTHAWAY

WHO DIED

OCTOBER 18TH 1911

AGED 69 YEARS

REST AFTER WEIRINESS

PEACE AFTER PAIN

Thomas Bony - Newtown Linford

This is one of my favourite headstones. It has writing on both sides and seems to have been added to on at least two occasions. As yet, I can't decipher all of it.

First inscription:

Hear : Lyeth : The Body

of : Thomas : Boney : Son

To : John : Boney : Who

Departed This Life

July 1683  

The second inscription follows on below with a slightly different letter spacing, indicating it was added some time afterwards:

And Ione (Jone?)

Bony His Wife

Who Dyed March 1696

The third inscription in a different lettering again occupies the very top of the stone, above a crudely cut horizontal line:

HICKIA set

Then squeezed in on the right hand side at the top:

JOHN : BONY

AND : HIS : 5 : WIES

A lower case letter 'e' sits just below the enigmatic word 'WIES'. Is this really John Bony and his five wives? Did someone called Hickia bury (set) John and his extended family there under the ground? I would love to know.

It wasn't until I walked away from this fascinating headstone that I noticed yet another inscription on the other side. Once again, this is in two different hands, presumably added at two different times:

First part:

As i Am so shallt Thou Bee

Pre Pare Thy self To follow mee

 

Second part:

 

Blessed . are . the . Dead . Wich . die . in . the

LorD . that . they . mae . rest . from . their

labers And Their . works . follo . Them

 

rev 14 verr 13

This is a quotation from the Revelation of St John the Divine, chapter 14 verse 13. I can't find this exact wording but the passage is clear enough. It would be interesting to know what translation they would have had access to at that time.

And finally, there is an illustration: a face and an arrow pointing to the ground.

Blank Headstones - Newtown Linford

All Saints in Newtown Linford has many 17th and 18th Century headstones, some of them quite unusual. The church is easy to find, being right next to the Bradgate Park car park.

I was particularly interested to see two headstones topped with skull and crossbones design, but with no inscription below. I'm sure someone must know the meaning of this. If so, please write in and let me know.

No inscription means no date. However, the size, shape and type of stone look closer to the Eighteenth Century graves than those from the Nineteenth Century.

Thomas Page - Scraptoft

Here Lyeth the body of

Thomas Page who depart

ed this life January the 25th

Anno Dom.1714

Aged 47 years.

Here I lye sleeping in the dust

until the rising of the just

Till ye time that Christ shall say

arise my saints & come away

The sun was hiding around the side of the church when I visited Scraptoft, leaving this beautiful headstone in shadow. Not ideal lighting for photography. I've done my best to increase the contrast, but the image is still rather flat. Click on the picture for a larger view to see the detail of the squeezed-in lettering.

Ann Webster - Scraptoft

Ann the

Daughter of Tho

Webster she departed

this life the 15th of

May in ye 22 Year of

her age 1699

Though this stone dates from the 17th Century, the angel design appealed to me, so I have included it here. I also like the way the letters have been squeezed in. I'm assuming that Tho is short for Thomas.

This is one of the stones tucked away on the edge of Scraptoft Churchyard. You may need to clear away vegetation to find it. Watch out for the stinging nettles.

Elizabeth Windsor - Scraptoft

Here Lyeth

the Body of

Elizabeth the wife of

Robert Windsor

She died Dec:r 8th 1727

Aged 51.

 

Another simple 18th Century headstone in Scraptoft churchyard. Curiously, every letter 's' on the stone is in the modern form despite the early date. Once again, the woman's name is given only in relation to her husband's.

Alice and James Frostnill / Frostnil - Scraptoft

Scraptoft Church has several 18th Century headstones, the most impressive of which occupy prominent positions near the path. A few smaller, less perfectly engraved stones are crowded together along the edge of the churchyard, somewhat overgrown with nettles and ivy. 

 

Among these are the headstones presumably belonging to husband and wife James and Alice. The surname is spelt Frostnill on James's stone and Frostnil on Alice's. 

 



Here lyeth the body

of James Frostnill who

departed this life February

the 6th Anno Dond. 1716

in the 68 yeare of his age

Alice the wife of James

Frostnil departed this life

the 28 of sep 1721 aged 77

The husband's memorial names him without reference to any other. But the wife's memorial only gives her name in relation to her husband, already more than five years dead.

Moses Miler - Scraptoft

Here Lies

the body of

Moses Miler

Who died Oct 26 1735

Aged 41 Years

All you that come my grave to see

As I am now so must you be

 

The skull and crossbones design seems to be a reference to the belief of the Knights Templar that if the skull and at least two large bones remained then the body would be resurrected at the Day of Judgement. The winged hourglass is presumably a reminder of mortality.

Underneath the crossed long bones and ribs are a crossed scythe and arrow, symbolically bringers of death. And to either side are a spade and pick, symbolic of grave digging.

This stone is easy to find in the pleasant churchyard at Scraptoft, just outside Leicester. It stands alongside a line of other 18th Century stones next to the path that runs between the road and the church itself.