The Shepheard Children
The lettering on this headstone has been difficult to decipher as the stone is so badly weathered. The transcription in the 1981 survey done by the W.I. had shown a possible name as Weelh... but this bore no fruit upon research. One can see, however, that it is in memory of "one son and two daughters" and there are some visible dates. The reference to the sons and daughters, together with recent digital photography, has therefore enabled the following conclusion to be drawn:
Richard Shepheard, the brother of
Benjamin Shepheard (A.6) was a farmer at Furzenhill who died in 1800. He and his wife Mary had seven children, two of whom died in 1804 as the inscription on the headstone says.
Samuel, born in 1783 and baptised at Stoneleigh on 21 October that year, died at the age of 21 in September 1804, and it is noted in the Stoneleigh burial register that he was "the first Volunteer that was buried out of the Stoneleigh Corps" - a reference to the militia which was set up by the Hon. Mary Leigh in response to the possibility of Napoleonic invasion. The "Weelh" of the 1981 transcription therefore seems to be a mistaken transcription of "Samuel".
Samuel's younger sister
Mary, born in 1787 and baptised at Stoneleigh on 3 January 1788, also died in 1804, and was buried on 1 December.
As the stone refers to "one son and two daughters", it is probable that the second daughter commemorated is
Jane, who according to the registers died on 17 April 1795. It has not been possible at present to verify this, however, nor to discover when she was born.
It is sad to consider that both Richard (died 1800) and Mary (died 1803) Shepheard predeceased their three children who are commemorated here. Who was responsible for erecting the stone? The probability is that their surviving siblings did so. It seems significant, too, that the stone is next to the other Shepheard headstone in this part of the churchyard.
