Wickham, Annabella

In Latin: Sacred to the conjugal virtues of Annabella Wickham, wife of Henry Wickham, Professor of Theology [D.DD] and Archdeacon of York. She was descended from the illustrious family of the Cholmleys, and by her great eminence in all human and divine duties she was a new ornament to that ancient house. Indulgent nature had most liberally bestowed upon her every internal and external ornament: the gentlest temper, the sweetest manners, the most exquisite beauty, and had blest her with many children of the happiest and most hopeful dispositions. In a word, she was such as one as every man, who aspires to conjugal felicity, would wish to make his own. This monument is erected to her memory by a deeply distressed husband, who cherishes the remembrance of her with the tenderest affection, and in whom it is the last conception that will die. Traveller, when you have bewailed the separation of this happy pair, and shed a tear for the survivor as well as the deceased, go tell that you have seen a grave in which every female excellence is entombed. She died 25th July 1625. [Translation courtesy of York Minster records, amended.]