The man that rests in this grave has had 8 wives, by whom he had 45 children, and 20 grand- children. He was born rich, lived and died poor, aged 94 years, July 30th, 1774. Born at Bewdley in Worcestershire in 1650.
According to the epitaph of Ann Jennings at Wolstanton:--
Some have children--some have none-- Here lies the mother of twenty-one.
The following quaint epitaph in Dalry Cemetery commemorates John Robertson, a native of the United States, who died 29th September, 1860, aged 22:--
Oh, stranger! pause, and give one sigh For the sake of him who here doth lie Beneath this little mound of earth, Two thousand miles from land of birth.
The Rev. William Mason, the Hull poet, married in 1765 Mary Sherman, of Hull. Two years later she died of consumption at Bristol. In the Cathedral of that city is a monument containing the following lines by her husband:--
Take, holy earth! all that my soul holds dear: Take that best gift which heaven so lately gave: To Bristol's fount I bore with trembling care Her faded form; she bow'd to taste the wave, And died. Does youth, does beauty, read the line? Does sympathetic fear their breasts alarm? Speak, dead Maria! breathe a strain divine; Ev'n from the grave thou shalt have power to charm. Bid them be chaste, be innocent, like thee; Bid them in duty's sphere as meekly move; And if so fair, from vanity as free; As firm in friendship, and as fond in love-- Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die, ('Twas e'en to thee) yet the dread path once trod, Heav'n lifts its everlasting portals high, And bids "the pure in heart behold their God."
How different is the sentiment of the foregoing to the following, said by Pettigrew and other compilers of collections of epitaphs to be inscribed on a monument in a Cumberland church, but as a matter of fact it does not exist on a memorial:--
Here lies the bodies Of THOMAS BOND and MARY his wife. She was temperate, chaste, and charitable; BUT She was proud, peevish, and passionate. She was an affectionate wife, and a tender mother: BUT Her husband and child, whom she loved, Seldom saw her countenance without a disgusting frown, Whilst she received visitors, whom she despised, with an endearing smile. Her behaviour was discreet towards strangers; BUT Independent in her family. Abroad, her conduct was influenced by good breeding; BUT At home, by ill temper. She was a professed enemy to flattery, And was seldom known to praise or commend; BUT The talents in which she principally excelled, Were difference of opinion, and discovering flaws and imperfections. She was an admirable economist, And, without prodigality, Dispensed plenty to every person in her family; BUT Would sacrifice their eyes to a farthing candle. She sometimes made her husband happy with her good qualities; BUT Much more frequently miserable--with her many failings: Insomuch that in thirty years cohabitation he often lamented That maugre of all her virtues, He had not, in the whole, enjoyed two years of matrimonial comfort. AT LENGTH Finding that she had lost the affections of her husband, As well as the regard of her neighbours, Family disputes having been divulged by servants, She died of vexation, July 20, 1768, Aged 48 years.