General Chat

The lettering on the top would be legible if you were facing the east.

Supercrutch I think there are CWGs in that churchyard because I heard a young couple ask one of the volunteers about them and she led them to another part of the churchyard.

:-D still have hundreds to finish here :-( :-(

sent you a link Sis :-)

I remember being very puzzled many years at inscriptions on graves in a graveyard in northern Scotland .............

many of them had skull and crossbones carved into them. Most of those dated from the 16th to 18th centuries


It turned out that skull and crossbones back then denoted a mariner who had drowned.

The village was right on the coast, and many drowned bodies washed up on the nearby shore.



Of course, the skull and crossbones later came to denote pirates.

Commissioned Headstone

Could it be the initials of 2 children / family members, who died after the stone was erected?
Little money to get the stone removed and their names added, but they were buried in the same plot, and their initials are an acknowledgement of this.

I've had a quick look on the internet and it is possible it could mean Carved by Hand - Monumental Masons.

GP

.....but in 1711, surely all memorial stones were carved by hand?

I've not come across a mason's mark on a gravestone of that age. My gut instinct is still leading me to think of Christos and Helios.

The two Latin teachers in my family both teach Classical (Silver) Latin but both are going to keep a lookout so I hope to get somewhere.

It could be a Freemason's inscription they go in for that sort of thing. Any other symbols? Freemasonry was up and running around 1700.

"C + H" - Captain of the Hosts

Didn't know that Rollo. I'll take a look at his will more closely now.

I was joking before about it being a reused sink, but looking at the photo the H is in a different font (the centre bar is curved on the inscription and wider on the top.
Also the C+H is upside down viewed from the front.
The engraving looks a bit DIY it might well have been a reclaimed bit of stone after all.

Looked at his will and there's no clue there.

It was written in English and from my transcription of it a couple of years ago I can see that some of it is difficult to make out.

I can not see any unusual markings on it.

I have written on the reverse side of the transcription that he is my 7 x gt. grandfather and just checked that it's right.

What kind of people became Freemasons in those days?

same as now ... You scratch my back Toby and I'll scratch yours.

Landowners then? (Among others of course.)

So my thinking that it could be a Masonic sign may be right.

Now I'll have to look at Masonic signs.

This is taking longer than I expected as I thought I'd be able to find the significance of the letters pretty quickly.

Then again, Mayfield, hot and cold?

Still searching.

Just spoke with a clergyman friend who has not come across this inscription before. Also spoke with an archaeologist who knew the stone and the churchyard in his travels round looking at inscriptions but he is flummoxed too. He has often come across the IHS symbol and sometimes with ES underneath so I'm going to see what (if anything) preceded the IHS inscription.

Joy very interesting.
Don't know about you but these things drive me mad
till its solved :-D