photograoh of Appleton Church, Oxfordshire

Transcribing Monumental Inscriptions


Home

Books to Read

Epitaph Text

Memorial Verses

Gravestone Pictures

Graveyard Preparation

Inscription Stories

Links Memorial

Memorial Stone Genealogy

Publishing MIs

Guest Book

Sitemap

Memorial Stories - Stories upon Memorials

Inscription Tales of grief, fact and humour

Many Inscriptions on gravestones tell stories, some sad and some amusing. Here are a few.

Education meant a lot in 1819 Standlake.
In/ Grateful and respectful tribute/ to the Memory of/ Mr WILLIAM TARRANT/Sixty years upwards Schoolmaster/ of this parish/Few could have excelled him as a teacher/None in attention to the improvement to those entrusted to his care/His scholars in gratitude for their/improvements and understanding/have erected this stone/departed this life March 26th 1819//

Burial Register shows that William Tarrant, Schoolmaster died aged 85 years. [Standlake Parish Churchyard]

At Stanton Harcourt Church we found:-
'Near this place lie the bodies of John HEWETT & Sarah DREW/ an industrious young man and/virtuous maiden of this parish/contracted in marriage/who being with many others at harvest/ work, were both in one instant killed/by lightening on the last day of July/1718/ Think not by rigorous judgement seiz'd/A pain so faithful could expire/Victims so pure Heav'n saw well pleas'd/And snatched them in celestial fire/Live well and fear no sudden fate/When God calls virtue to the grave/ A like tis justice soon or late/ Mercy alike to kill or save/Virtue unmov'd can hear thee call/And face the Flash that melts the Ball.'
 [believed to have been written by Alexander Pope who was staying at Harcourt Manor House at the time.]

St Thomas' Oxford
To the memory of/ WILLIAM MASON/ who died/ June 26 1837/ Aged 35 years/ Also of five infant children of the/[this line overwrites previous inscription] above who departed this life/ ROBERT MASON June 17/ 1831 Aged 6 months JOHN MASON/ July 8th 1832/ Aged 6 months/ ANN MASON/ April 15th/ 1834 Aged [?]3 months/ [--] June 30th [-----] ------------following lines eroded

[BRT quotes William MASON buried 1837 Jul 2 aged 35 years and notes: of Wallingford, later of the Canal Companys Wharf, Oxford "died through swallowing a core, or pip of an orange about 20 years ago.  It never passed through him - it was found inbedded in a state of crystalisation".][Spellings as shown]

At Potterne, Devizes, Wilts:
Here lies MARY the wife of JOHN FORD,
We hope her soul is gone to the Lord;
But if for Hell she has chang'd this life,
She had better be there than be John Ford's wife.

Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire:
Here lies one who for medicine would not give
A little gold; and so his life he lost;
I fancy that he'd wish again to live
Did he but know how much his funeral cost.

And a few for fun, origin unknown:
Here lies Ezekiah AIKLE/
Age 102/
The Good Die Young//

In London
Ann MANN/ Here lies Ann MANN/
Who lived an old maid/But died an old Mann.//
Dec 9. 1767//

Ribbesford, England
Anna WALLACE/
The children of Israel wanted bread/
And the Lord sent them Manna/
Old clerk Wallace wanted a wife/
And the Devil sent him Anna.//

Here lies Johnny YEAST/Pardon me/For not rising//

On one tombstone at Boot Hill, Somerset
He called Bill Smith a Liar.

At Bampton, Somerset, is the parish clerk's son who was killed by a falling icicle.

Bless my I.I.I.I.I./
Here he lies/
In a sad Pickle/
Killed by an Icicle/
In the Year 1776//

 


jill@shottle.plus.com | © 2007 | Last updated 24 04 2007 | All Rights Reserved

PlusNet. PlusNet broadband.