Back to Tour
Burials have taken place at St.Mary's probably since the 10th century, and certainly from the 13th century.
Judging by 18th century prints of the church, most memorials were then wooden tablets supported by upright wooden posts. This simple head-board type of memorial was once very common in Middlesex. Unfortunately such items have a short "lifetime", and none survive at St.Mary's.
By the mid 1800s the old churchyard was full. Therefore, in 1865 the Willesden Burial Board bought a 4-acre site from John Prout, which extended from Church Path to the Railway. This became known as the "New" Section (i). It opened in 1868. In the short time up to 1884, more than 4000 burials took place in the consecrated part, and about 300 in the unconsecrated part. Although most of the memorials in this new area are 20th century and of the simple standing stone type, a few very fine monuments stand along the central north/south path.
Due to vandalism (both amateur and professional) many stone and marble monuments have recently been destroyed, defaced, damaged, or moved to form paving for paths. For "safety reasons" some vaults were filled in during the 1960s. Few pre-19th century monuments remain.
Despite there still being some believers, highwayman Jack Shepherd's burial is not marked nor recorded.
In the following pages, the letters in brackets following the names (*), indicate the position of the memorial on the plan of the churchyard.
There are a few interesting inscriptions on the church itself. A worn bench mark is cut on south side of the south-west corner buttress of the church. It marks a height of 114 feet above sea level.
U on Churchyard Plan
In the exterior of the south wall, between the South Door and the first eastward window, is a tablet with the date 152* (u) to an unknown man who was betrothed to the daughter of Thomas Roberts Esq. but died before the marriage. The inscription is as follows on the left, and a rough translation is given to the right.
|
[....................IURIS..................] [....] QUI DESPONSATUS FUIT [........THEAE] ROBERTS FILIAE THOMA[S] [.............S] ARMIGERI ET OBIIT ANTE [.........]SALIA [..........O] DIE [.....]EBRIS [........] DOMINI MILLESIMO QUINGEN [........] VICESIMO [.........] ET HIC [........US] EST CUI DEUS SIT PROPICIUS AMEN
|
[.................lawyer?......] [......] who was promised in marriage to [Dorothy] Roberts daughter of Thomas [Roberts] Esquire and died before [the nuptials...................................] [in the year of our Lord?] One Thousand Five Hundred [.....] Twenty [........] [and this?] [........ to whom God be favourable? ] Amen |
The underlined words have been neatly obliterated. Scratching out of doctrinally sensitive words on monuments by friends of the deceased was common just before the Reformation in order to prevent complete destruction of a monument by enraged Protestants. However, why the units digit of the date of death is scribed out is not known.
A 16th century brass in Ewell Church, Surrey, informs us that Dorothy later married "Allen Horde of ye Middle Temple, Esquire; and then Syr Lawrence Taylare of Doddington in the countye of Huntington, Knyght": She died 11th May 1577 aged 70 years.
It is highly unlikely that this tablet is in its original position. There is old tilework packing, particularly at the top and left sides; as if the stone had been used to fill an aperture. Until the 17th century there was a "lepers window" in the south wall somewhere near here. Perhaps the tablet survived merely because it was a convenient piece of packing.
