Tomb of the Month

  Here lies in the horizontal position/ The outside case of/ George Routleigh, Watchmaker,/ Whose abilities in that line were an honour/ To his profession:/ Integrity was the main-spring,/ And prudence the regulator/ Of all the actions of his life:/ Humane, generous and liberal,/ His hand never stopped/ Till he had relieved distress;/ So nicely regulated were all his movements/ That he never went wrong/ Except when set-a-going/ By people/ Who did not know/ his key;/ Even then, he was easily/ Set right again:/ He had the art of disposing of his time/ So well/ That his hours glided away/ In one continual round/ Of pleasure and delight,/ Till an unlucky moment put a period to/ His existence;/ He departed this life/ November 14, 1802/ Aged 57,/ Wound up,/ in hopes of being taken in hand/ By his Maker,/ And of being Thoroughly cleaned, repaired/ And set-a-going/ In the World to come.

Church: St. Petroc's - Lydford (in Lydford, Devon).

Virtue(s): Ability*, Generosity*, Hope*, Humanity*, Integrity, Liberality, Prudence.

Afterlife: Looked for*.

Literature: Play on profession.

Full entry: Routleigh, George.

This epitaph for George Routleigh, watchmaker, is one of the main attractions of the little Dartmoor church of St. Petrock’s. The stone is eroded (it has only recently been moved inside the church, to preserve it) so here is the text in full:

 
 Here lies in the horizontal position
 The outside case of
 George Routleigh, Watchmaker,
 Whose abilities in that line were an honour
 To his profession:
 Integrity was the main-spring,
 And prudence the regulator
 Of all the actions of his life:
 Humane, generous and liberal,
 His hand never stopped
 Till he had relieved distress;
 So nicely regulated were all his movements
 That he never went wrong
 Except when set-a-going
 By people
 Who did not know his key;
 Even then, he was easily
 Set right again:
 He had the art of disposing of his time
 So well
 That his hours glided away
 In one continual round
 Of pleasure and delight,
 Till an unlucky moment put a period to
 His existence;
 He departed this life
 November 14, 1802
 Wound up,
 in hopes of being taken in hand
 By his Maker,
 And of being
 Thoroughly cleaned, repaired and set-a-going
 In the World to come. 

It seems that George Routleigh was not the first watchmaker to be memorialised in this way. The same epitaph was printed in the Derby Mercury in 1786, and then again in the 1797 almanac of a black American astronomer from Maryland called Benjamin Banneker. So the joke had been “going the rounds”. I have one other example in my collection of the same kind of humour, this one concerning a shorthand clerk called William Laurence, who died in 1621:

Short hand he wrot, his flowre in prime did fade,
And hasty death short hand of him hath made.
Well couth he numbers, and well mesur'd land,
Thus doth he now that ground wheron you stand
Wherin he lyes so geometricall.
Art maketh some but thus will nature all. 

Perhaps there are other examples, but I haven’t found them. To us, these elaborate conceits upon the deceased’s trade seem in rather dubious taste, but they clearly didn’t strike people that way at the time. Death – or at least the death of clerks and artisans – was once a suitable occasion for wit.

Church: Malmesbury Abbey (in Malmesbury, Wiltshire).

Afterlife: Known.

Full entry: Twynnoy, Hannah.

Hannah Twynnoy, a barmaid at the White Lion Inn, Malmesbury, has the curious distinction of being the first person in England to be killed by a tiger. A local historian later recorded the incident as follows:

To the memory of Hannah Twynnoy. She was a servant of the White Lion Inn where there was an exhibition of wild beasts, and amongst the rest a very fierce tiger which she imprudently took pleasure in teasing, not withstanding the repeated remonstrance of its keeper. One day whilst amusing herself with this dangerous diversion the enraged animal by an extraordinary effort drew out the staple, sprang towards the unhappy girl, caught hold of her gown and tore her to pieces.

Hannah’s tombstone stands in the cemetery of Malmesbury Abbey. The poem on it reads:

In bloom of life
She’s snatch’d from hence
She had not room 
To make defence;
For Tyger fierce
took life away.
And here she lies 
In a bed of Clay
Until the Resurrection Day.

The doctrine set forth so artlessly here is that of the “resurrection of the body” mentioned in the Creed, according to which the soul will be reunited with the body on the last day. The same doctrine features on a few other early tombstones too.  “Her soul resteth with God till the general resurrection when she shall rise again” runs the epitaph of Elihonor Sadler (d. 1622). “Here lyeth deposited his mortal part untill it shall bee raised up unto immortal life and glory”, proclaims the inscription on the tomb of Sir Nicholas Martyn (d. 1653). This ancient belief seems to have faded away during the Age of Reason. On  late eighteenth-century tombstones, bodies  no longer “rise up” out of “beds of clay”; rather souls are  “translated” or “wafted” to their divine abode, to be received by the “angelic quire”.  Heaven has become a matter of poetry, not fact.

Church: St. Cyr and St. Julitta - Newton St Cyres (in Newton St. Cyres, Devon).

Virtue(s): Charity*, Christianity/religion, Esteemed*, Gentility*, Good to the poor, Goodness, Politeness*, Preparedness for death, Sincerity, Universal benevolence*.

Exemplar: Exemplar of the Virtues.

Full entry: Quicke, John.

The Quickes have farmed an estate in Newton St Cyres, Devon, since the 16^th century. The current incumbent, Mary Quicke, still makes cheddar there today. John Quicke lies buried alongside many of his relatives in the local parish church. His plaque is simple and classical, topped with a relief of an obelisk and urn in the Adams’ manner. Its inscription is written in those balanced Ciceronian periods which seem to convey an ethical as well as an aesthetic ideal:

In his Character were united the politeness of a Gentleman and the Sincerity of a Christian.

Religion, in other words, is but one aspect of life, to be held in harmony with others. It is not all-embracing ideal which it had been in the 17^th century.

Notice, too, that John Quicke’s “benevolence to mankind” is said to have been “universal”. “Universal benevolence” is a virtue that begins to crop up on tombstones at around this time. To date, I have collected six examples ranging from 1776 to 1825; run a search for details. Perhaps we can see in this fashion for universal benevolence a remote echo of the republican spirit abroad in America and France. Edmund Burke clearly saw it that way, condemning the “new-invented virtue” of “universal benevolence” for weakening all particular affections. But we may doubt that John Quicke’s benevolence had any such radical tendencies!

Church: Salisbury Cathedral (in Salisbury, Wiltshire).

Virtue(s): Approved*, Duty in singular, Faith*, Generosity*, Good works*, Helpfulness*, Public service/spirit*, Rank*, Service of God*, Zealousness*.

Literature: Biblical citation.

Full entry: Nelson, Horatio.

This memorial to Horatio the third Earl Nelson, grandson of his illustrious namesake, is typical of its period in many ways. “Good works” start to be commended in the late-nineteenth century; so far I have found two examples apart from this, from 1877 and 1879. Notice also the Earl’s “unwearied … service of God and man” and his “whole-hearted devotion to duty”. This arduous and self-abnegating ideal is typically late-imperial. “Duty” – in the singular, and unqualified – appears seven times between 1857 and 1913, five times in connection with death in the course of military or public service. Clearly, the word had something of a sacrificial flavour.

If we go back to the century running from 1750 – 1850, we find many mention of “duties”, but far fewer of “duty”. And these duties tend to be attached to some concrete social role – father, mother, husband, wife, vicar, etc.  “Having discharged the more important duties of husband, father, brother, friend, with the greatest integrity, he died” runs the epitaph of James Nares, obit. 1783. Similarly, Robert and Susanna Welland, who died in 1841 and 1811, are remembered with gratitude by their children for “the tender and assiduous care with which they fulfilled towards them all the duties of a parent”. Epitaphs such as this reflect the old Anglican principle of “my station and its duties”, and behind it, the Ciceronian notion of the officii – the forms of conduct proper to a particular situation. It was only later in the nineteenth century that the term “duty” started to function as a synonym for moral obligation in general, and to carry connotations of strenuousness and sacrifice.