Robert Coleborne

Here Lyeth ye Body of

Robert Coleborne

who departed this life the

27th day of April Anno

Dom. 1732 Aged 63 Years

 

After a short but sharpe affliction here

I take my leave of you my wife so Dear

Lo here I lie in this soft bedof dust

Waiting the Ressurection of the Just

A large and beautifully laid out headstone with regular lettering. But it seems the word 'short' was initially spelled without the 't' which was added afterwards in superscript.

All Saints Churchyard, Newtown Linford.

The Riddle of Double Dated Headstones

Why do some early headstones give two years of death for the same person? The headstone of Richard Broadas in Woodhouse is a beautiful example.

 

Here lieth ye Body of

Richard the Son of

Antony Broadas Who

died ye 20th of Feb:1702/3

aged 22 years

 

How could he had died in both 1702 and 1703?

To find the answer we have to look back to the Calendar (New Style) Act, which was adopted by parliament in 1750.

Previously England, Wales, Ireland and the Colonies had used the Julian Calendar and celebrated New Year on March 25th. The Act formally adopted the Gregorian Calendar and set New Year on the now familiar day of January 1st.

One curious byproduct of this change was that the year 1751, was left with only 282 days.

The use of double dates on headstones shows that for a time the two dating systems co-existed. Thus, any day after January 1st and before March 24th might be regarded as being in one of two adjacent years.

This double dated headstone in Newtown Linford is another example. William Poole is said to have died on the 16th of March 1605/6. According to the Old Style calendar he died in 1605 (new year had not yet been reached). But according to the New Style calendar the new year happened in January, so it was already 1606.

The New Style calendar had been adopted in other parts of the world many years before. The changeover took place in Scotland in 1600 and earlier still in Catholic Europe.

From the double dating of headstones and other documents it seems that the change of new year had for some time been seeping into popular usage in England, but that legal documents used the old system until the formal changeover in 1752.

William Poole - Newtown Linford

Here Lyeth ye Body

of William Poole

who Departed this life

the 16th of March:

Anno Do 1695. 6

Aged 47

This is another of the 17th Century headstones of All Saints Churchyard, Newtown Linford. It is simple but beautifully laid out. Unlike so many of the early stones, this one was clearly sketched out in advance, with each line pleasingly centred.

William died 9 days before the new year, which was counted as March 25th in England and Wales up until 1751.

The thing I don't understand about this stone is the meaning of the small superscript '6' following the date.

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.