Matters of Grave Concern - part 12
It cannot be said that the graveyards of the Isle of Axholme offer much in the way of what this series is about - mainly amusing epitaphs. The cemeteries of Axholme have the one time common, sober inscriptions of the times. This example from the village of Amcotts is quite typical. It is over the grave of one Jane Smith who died at the age of 65.
'When I was living as you are
I had my share of worldly care
But now I'm numbered in the dust
But hope to rise among the just'
Another very similar memorial seen in several areas reads:
'Afflictions sore long time she bore
Physicians were in vain
Till God did please death should me seize
And ease me of my pain'
And here's another one of those double meaning send offs:
'Erected to the memory of John McFarline
Drowned in the Waters of Leith
By a few affactionate friends'
There's an epitaph to a man called Knott at Bromsgrove in Worcestershire which goes:
'Here lies a man who was not born
His father was Knott before him
He lived Knott and did Knott die
Yet underneath this stone doth lie
Knott christened
Knott begot
And here he lies
And yet was Knott'
A famous grave featured on TV recently when a presenter was doing the cross Britain walk and had reached the village of Bolton-on-Swale.
A grave here is usually recorded as been the grave of Henry Jenkins - the oldest man in the country. A long inscription tells us that he died at the age of 169. He was born in 1501 and carried arrows to the Battle of Flodden Field in 1513. He visited the last Abbot of Fountains Abbey and gave evidence in a York Court that certain tithes had not been paid 120 years earlier. The long epitaph was put in the church 73 years after his death.
Many other gravestones also record great ages and there is a bit of a mystery about one for Thomas Newman seen at St Luke's, Brislington, Bristol. He died in 1542 at the age of 153. It says in addition - 'This stone was new faced in 1771 to perpetuate the great age of the deceased. Now whether or not the spelling of Bridlington - so close to Brislington has anything to do with the fact that the same epitaph was onceseen there I cannot say, but it did indeed have the same inscription in the South Isle of Bridlington Priory where new faced had been altered to refaced and went on to say that this was done to preserve the recollection ofthis remarkable prolongation of human age. However, now the stone at Bridlington has gone and likely the one at Brislington is the genuine one to Newman.
In the way of other long livers Thomas Parr of Great Willaston in Cheshire was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1635, aged 152. Isaac Ingall, a butler at Battle Abbey in Kent reached the age of 120. Henry and Sybil Clarke both died in 1684, aged112 and were buried at Stoke-on-Trent. Matthew Peat of Rirksworth in Derbyshire also reached 112. I like this inscription for Sarah Jarvis of Corsham in Wiltshire who died in 1753, aged 107 and the words go on:
'and had, some time before her death a third set of teeth.
A Luton epitaph goes:
'Here lies the body of Thomas Proctor
Who lived and died without a doctor'
And now back to Norfolk, that county so rich in strange memorials, and this one to John Racket of Woodton is no exception:
'Here lies John Racket in his wooden jacket
He kept neither horses nor mules
He lived like a hog and died like a dog
And left all his money to fools'
Perhaps John Racket was a bit like the fellow who had this memorial:
'Here lies a man who did no good
And if he lived he never would
Where he's gone and how he fares
Nobody knows and nobody cares'
Next Week in Part 13 - Eccentric Tombs
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Weather for Epworth
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -0 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: West
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: -0 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
