UNUSUAL EPITAPHS 4

 

 

The  Huntrodds’  Memorial

 

On the south east side of the parish church at Whitby in North Yorkshire, close to the entrance to the Cholmley Pew, is the  Huntrodd’s  Memorial  1600 – 1680.  The inscription tells us :

‘ Here lie the bodies of Francis Huntrodds and Mary his wife

who were born on the same day of the week, month and year (viz) Septr ye 19^th 1600,

marry’d on the day of their birth and after having had 12 children born to them

died aged 80 years on the same day of the year they were born, Septr ye 19^th 1680

the one not above five hours before ye other.’

‘Husband and wife that did twelve children bear,

 dy’d the same day; alike both aged were.

 

Bout 80 years they liv’d, five hours did part,

(Ev’n on the marriage day) each tender heart, so fit a match,

surely could never be, both, in their lives, and in their deaths agree.’

Fact is indeed stranger than fiction.

 



 

The Lover’s Tragedy

 

A memorial stone which was erected in the churchyard at Bowes, Durham in 1848 reads:

The Lover’s Tragedy

Roger Wrightson jun. & Martha Railton,

both of Bowes, buried in one grave.

He died of a fever & upon Tolling his passing bell she cried out,

‘My heart is broke’ and in a few hours Expired thro love.

March 15  1714-15.

Such is the brief and touching record contained in the parish register of burials.

Tradition is that the grave was at the west end of the church directly beneath the bells.
The sad history of these true and faithful lovers forms the subject of Mallets pathetic Ballad of Edwin and Emma.

 The stone, which can be seen close to the west end of the church has weathered badly and the writing is almost worn away.   A plaque with the wording was attached to the bottom of the stone in 2005 by the Parish Council.

 

 

 

Paper epitaph

 

A whisky bottle found under the floorboards of a house in Dornoch, Scotland, contained a piece of paper on which was written :

                                             ‘ In memory of A Gray and Hugh McKenzie

whitch Drunk this Bottle of Whisky. 1984.’

 

Both the bottle and the epitaph are preserved in Historylinks Museum in Dornoch.

 

 

 

 

Cot gravestone

 

Baby Katherine Booker died at Pitmain  Inn in 1815 and was buried in the parish churchyard at Kingussie. Her stone gravestone, which surrounded the grave, was built to represent a baby’s cot. Unfortunately it is now is poor repair and the former metal railings have been removed.