General Chat

Landowners then? (Among others of course.)

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

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?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

GP

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.

Commissioned Headstone

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.

sent you a link Sis :-)

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

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.

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

I think it is C + H.

Also been looking online and could it be Christos and Helios? It means Christ and .... Rising sun/sun?

So it reads C (+) denoting a cross H

Is that right?

Could the "H" actually be a stylised "R"??

In which case AnnC's suggestion of Chi Rho could be correct

I have a feeling that it means.......here lies buried.

As in the first section in my link.