Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/406

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. OCT. 24, im

CAPT. BARTON OF H.M.S. LICHFIELD (10 S. x. 249). The ' D.N.B.,' iii. 346, gives an account of Admiral Matthew Barton, but does not state where he was born, who his parents were, nor whom he married, nor that he died at Hampstead 30 Dec., 1795, in his eightieth year.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

NONCONFORMIST BURIAL-GROUNDS AND GRAVESTONES (10 S. ix. 188, 233, 297, 336, 434 ; x. 31, 150, 237). Under this heading the following quotation may be of interest, taken from an article by Arthur Grant in the October issue of The Atlantic Monthly, entitled ' In England's Pennsylvania.' The region thus designated is " the little table- land of beechen woods in South Buckingham- shire, extending, say, from Penn Village to Jordans and the Chalfonts, and from Amer- sham to Stoke Pogis."

Of the little meeting-house and its con- nected burying-ground where William Penn rests, the author says :

" It is not so long since there was not a single headstone in this primitive burying.ground. From 1671 the Quakers slept in nameless graves. Penn's biographer, Dixon, says that when he visited Jordans in 1851 with Granville Penn, the great- grandson of the state-founder, they had some diffi- culty in identifying the particular spot 'where heaves the turf over his sacred remains. Mr. Dixon adds that Granville Penn 'is disposed to mark the spot by some simple but durable record a plain stone or block of granite ; and if this be not done, the neglect will only hasten the day on which his ancestor's remains will be carried off to America their proper and inevitable home ! ' Twelve years later, at the heads of such graves as had been identified were placed the simple memorial stones, with name and date of burial only, that we see

to-day. Penn still rests at Jordans I lingered

long in the old meeting-room, poring over the old- world names recorded on its walls. These names included a list of some 385 burials between 1671 and 1845.

Just now my copies of ' N. & Q.' with the earlier communications on this subject are out of reach, but I think Jordans burying- ground has not been mentioned.

M. C. L.

New York.

Among the Quakers, the earliest reference to a memorial stone I have traced is that of George Fox, who died at Henry Goldney's in White Hart Court, near Gracechurch Street, on 13th of the llth month, 1690, in the 67th year of his age. He was buried in the Friends' burying-ground near Bunhill Fields.

Between 1690 and 1757 a change had taken place in the practice of Friends relative to headstones in their burial-grounds. In

' The Fells of Swarthmoor Hall,' pp. 369-70, there is a reference to the removal of a wall on part of their burial-ground, Bunhill Fields, c. 1757, when

" it was found expedient to remove the coffin containing the remains of their worthy predecessor, George Fox. Whilst in the act of digging, after removing the headstone, a breastplate was found, on which were engraven the initials of the name, the age, and the birthplace of the interred."

The Society of Friends

" would not allow the headstone to be put up again, on which there was a similar inscription to that on the breastplate, but suffered a small stone about 6 in. square to be built in the wall opposite the head of the grave, with the initials G. F. cut in it."

In the Friends' burying-place at Sunbrick, near Ulverston, upwards of 227 interments have been made, but the graves cannot be distinguished. A modern inscription cut on the face of the limestone rock within the enclosure is as follows :

" Sunbrick Friends' Burial-Place. Between the years 1648 and 1767 the Remains of 223 Friends were interred here, among whom was Margaret Fox, widow of George Fox, who died at Swarthmore Hall, the 27th of 2nd month, 1702, aged 89 years. The Registers are in the Register Office of the Society of Friends, Houndsditch, London."

At the Swarthmore Friends' burial-place, near Ulverston, there are 109 grass-grown mounds, to 22 of which headstones have been placed. These stones are about 2 ft. 6 in. high, with semicircular tops. Most of the stones bear an inscription, with the name, place, age, and date of death. This return to an old custom was first carried out at Swarthmore in the case of " Sarah Goad \ of Baycliff | aged 81 years Died 20th llth month 1835." Only on one stone, dated 1904, is there a quotation : " So he giveth his beloved sleep."

HARPER GAYTHORPE, F.S. A.Scot. Barrow-in-Furness.

In the Misc. Gen. et Her., iv. i. pp. 266-7, is a copy of the ledger stones in the ' 'Friends' Burial-Ground, 1658," at the Dell, Pains- wick, Glos.

In the parish of Wandsworth are a few epitaphs (a) in the Friends' Burial-Ground ; (6) near the Memorial Hall, site of the old French Chapel, 1573 ; and (c) in the former Baptist Chapel, 1820. LIBRARIAN.

Wandsworth.

DOWRY SQUARE, CLIFTON (10 S. x. 188). Probably this commemorates the endow- ment by which the living of Clifton, at some time or other, was enriched, for the " curacy" is described in Sharp's ' Gazetteer,' 1852, as being of the " value, with Dowry, 782?."

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.