Skull & Cross Bones Gravestone in Stallingborough Lincolnshire

November 24, 2009 at 8:47 am · Filed under Historical Interest

After finding a raised tomb with a skull carved in it my curiosity was roused and I decided to search for more in Lincolnshire.
The task proved more difficult than I thought.
Thanks to a tip off from Chris Keyworth I did find this one frm the early 1700s !

I’d already visited Stallingborough Church well before I began looking for interesting gravestones but I returned to photograph it and subsequently it yet again reared its ugly head the other day on another thread so yesterday I was back once again !

Skull - Crossed Bone and Hour Glass

The skull and cross bones are know as a Memento Mori, a reminder of our own mortality if you will, the hour glass also serves as a reminder that the sands of time are running out. I spent some time yesterday trying to make out as much of the text as possible, Neville too was on the case. Independently we both got much the same but Neville got more of the text than I did - particularly the ‘older text’ so we’ll go with his transcript seen below

Reader as thou passes by
Behould thee death’s
Cruelty: yt would not
give this youth a longer time
but blasted his blossom
in his prime: it hid him here
in mold duli: untill ye
resurrection of ye Just
then he shall rise again
etc

One thing that puzzled me initially was the fact that the stone had carving and inscriptions of both sides, also the unusual shape.
Not being flat on both faces but having an apex to rear. I’m not an expert, far from it, but I’ve seen a lot of gravestones in Lincolnshire now and not seen any shaped like this or lettered both sides. I don’t say they don’t exist just that I’ve not spotted any.

I wondered whether it may have been reused at some point ?

Another interesting aspect to this story is the local story or myth told to us by translator extraorindinaire Amiguru that the grave was in fact that of a pirate washed up ashore. If you’ve heard this local tale please do let us know.

The ‘Reverse’ Side

The side I refer to as ‘verso’ has a latin inscription on it and Neville Sisson has been kind enough to translate it for us

HIC JACET IN MORTVAS
ELLIS PENSON (QUI)
OBIIT SEPTIMO
DIE FEBRUARYI
1720
ÆTATIS SUÆ 23

Translates as:

Here lies in death
Ellis Penson who
Died Seventh
Day February
1720
Age His 23

The shot below show the stone viewed from the top side and shows clearly the usual apex ‘back’

The search is now on to find out as much as possible about Ellis Penson and anything about his family.

I should really welcome any comment on this stone and the inscription etc please do leave a comment and let us know what you think.
If you know anything of it or the subject please do share - thank you - any and all opinions or ideas very welcome - any thoughts at all !

I should also love to hear of any more grave stones with skulls on them in Lincolnshire - any tips hugely appreciated

Gravely Yours
Rod

[later edit] From the Penson family - scroll down the comments for the full text:
He was the son of a land owner and carpenter, William Penson and Mary nee Stapp of Killingholme. I am a decendant from William and Mary Penson

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34 Comments »

Amiguru said,

November 24, 2009 @ 12:22 pm

Rod,

Looking good. No silly, I meant the stone.

I have a niggling query over my interpretation of the name. Although you provided excellent large images, I wasn’t 100% certain of the initial H of Henson, particularly as that area is slightly damaged by a crack and scratching. Natural side lighting might have provided a little shadow in the letters and shown the critical subtleties of the this one. I can also see it as a ‘B’, if you see what I mean, making it Benson. My researches shall be conducted on the premise that it could be either name.

Frustrating isn’t it when carved stone lettering erodes. Another case in point is the lettering on the butter cross. I took several shots in August, including macros, with and without flash to try to decipher at least a few letter. I think I have only been convinced of two of them. Mother nature reclaimes all. It reminds me of the couplet from Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy:

In time small wedges cleave the hardest oak,
In time the flint is pierced with softest shower.

Inquisitively yours,

N le
Rod said,

November 24, 2009 @ 6:58 pm

Neville,
I’m wondering about the last name myself - I fancy the possibility of Ellis Penson
I’m just trying to recover lettering myself and having another go at the gravestone - it’s frustratingwhen you feel you’re close or just missing a word or two . ..
Best
Rod
Amiguru said,

November 24, 2009 @ 8:28 pm

Rod,

I fancy the possibility of Ellis Penson
I quite agree with that possibility. I’ve just been fiddling with the original image in Photoshop thus: Zoom to surname, Quick Edit, Set Midtone Contrast to 75%, set Darken Highlights to 100%, set Hue to orange. Strangely this gives an olive tinted image.
That gets rid of some of the glare particularly on the freshly scratched central bit.
I then loaded the original into Irfanview and fiddled with the Gamma and saturation settings.
Conclusions:
‘H’ can probably be eliminated; ‘R’ comes into the frame. Possibilities are now Penson, Benson or Renson. I’m inclined to Penson however, it is quite an unusual name, as is Renson, (each scoring half a million, give or take in Google), Benson scoring 25.5 million. That doesn’t eliminate any but is interesting nevertheless.
I think the only solution is more shots both ‘normal’ and macros but with natural side lighting to enhance shadows and of course feeling the surface. Please don’t make me feel guilty by your promptly going back yet again with this as your sole errand. When passing would be wonderful Rod
More on the different lettering styles later.

Gratefully yours,

N le
Rod said,

November 24, 2009 @ 8:41 pm

Neville,
there are Penson’s in Lincolnshire - been searching them out (staggeringly I found one who sadly lost his life in the war and his grave has the Death or Glory skull on it )

The ‘back’ is ‘as is’ Neville not cleaned etc, it looks as though it has either been laid down for a very long time or protected from the elements unlike the skull side.
That side uncleaned then and the skull side was just washed with water and rubbed with straw.
I can try for some macro shots with flash and get rid of any bounce etc but I don’t really want to take liberties with cleaning etc.

There are Parish records for burials that cover the 1710 period I’ve found that they are in existence and on film I think - been through a ton of PDFs

Best
Rod
Amiguru said,

November 24, 2009 @ 9:04 pm

Rod,

Good work. I agree about cleaning as it can be detrimental as well as detracting from the aesthetic appearance of the stone. I’ve been looking into 19thC. name distributions in the East Midlands and come up with the following:

Penson…….South Lincs and the Wash area
Benson…….North Lincs and East Riding
Henson……South Lincs, Wash and East Riding

I know that doesn’t prove anything except trends but it contributes to the overall picture. Another aspect is the drowned pirate theory. That may be in part the embroidery of time but he may well be a drowned sailor and therefore could be from anywhere.

As to the different scripts, a possible logic is that the ‘official’ memorial, particularly as it is in Latin, was deemed, or indeed obliged, to be appropriately inscribed in a ‘Roman’ style; whilst the message for the more prosaic reader was more acceptable in a face of the type with which they were familiar; i.e. in newspapers and books of the time. Bear in mind too that in 1720 many were still illiterate.

We move on!

N le
Chris Keyworth said,

November 24, 2009 @ 9:32 pm

i am still thinking German or Danish
Rod said,

November 25, 2009 @ 7:22 am

Neville,
point taken about 1700s - that said it’s completely different to all the other 1700s I’ve seen (most follow the same pattern) am I right in thinking that it is very unusual to see an inscription on both sides ?
Best
Rod
Rod said,

November 25, 2009 @ 7:24 am

Chris,
I’m interested in the German or Danish theory - Danish could perhaps fit nicely with the sailor or fisherman theory of Amiguru ?!?
Cheers
Rod
Rod said,

November 25, 2009 @ 7:51 am

Re CK’s theory:
The name Penson reached English shores for the first time with the ancestors of the Penson family as they migrated following the Norman Conquest of 1066.
Amiguru said,

November 25, 2009 @ 9:01 am

Rod,

I agree that it is unusual to inscribe both sides in that period but is it a coincidence that Ellis was 23 and the other inscription says
…..yt would not
give this youth a longer time
but blasted his blossom
in his prime?

The cross-section is also a factor. Here is another cat among the pigeons: Considering the shape, was the original slab a plain section of a tomb capping from an even earlier grave in say, the original church?

Regards,
N le
Rod said,

November 25, 2009 @ 9:16 am

Neville,
I had wondered whether the stone had been a tomb top hence one of the reasons I thought ‘reused’ not just the different inscriptions.
It seems doubtful, to say the least, that somebody would have reused the stone for somebody else and left the original inscription on - I agree with you it is almost surely the same person - still seems strange and unusual though !
Best
Rod
Rod said,

November 26, 2009 @ 12:46 pm

If people thought I was mad walking all the way to Stallingborough church just to see a gravestone then think again
Today I walked there again . . . this time to look at one letter !

Neville, I’m pretty sure it’s Penson and definite that QU follows the name - I’ve som emore pics I’ll send you.
The drying out of the stone has helped a little
Cheers
Rod
Amiguru said,

November 26, 2009 @ 1:03 pm

You’re a valient warrior m’lad, [correction, m’lord] a man on a mission! We shall, together, crack it. The identity, not the stone.

In appreciation…
N le
Rod said,

November 26, 2009 @ 3:17 pm

Neville,
top right-hand above ‘Penson’ how about
OR (almost definite) Q (possibly) S (probably)
Best
Rod
Amiguru said,

November 26, 2009 @ 5:56 pm

Hi Rod,

OK, I am pretty certain that this is the end of the Latin word MORTVAS, pronounced ‘mortuas’ meaning dead or deceased. The vowels V and A forming a diphthong. I am 95% certain of the last three letters, if you look at the legs of the ‘A’ and compare the angles with an ‘A’ lower down, e.g. in ‘FEBRUARYI’ you will notice that the former has a fairly upright right leg, indicating the diphthong. I will continue the hunt for a probable solution and the next time I’m up at Stallingborough I shall be making a ‘B’ line for this stone.

By the way, not everyone knows that ‘Stallingborough’ is the longest single word place name in England.

Scriptorially yours,
N le
Amiguru said,

November 26, 2009 @ 7:56 pm

Rod,

Thanks to the latest pics you’ve e-mailed I think the top invisible, (well virtually,) line reads: HIC JACET IN MORTVAS which translates as ‘Here lies in death’. The key pic was the first one sent today, for even though the left vertical of ‘H’ is cropped it is a familiar starting word on Latin tombstone inscriptions. We may well tweak the odd letter with further scrutiny but as far as I’m concerned that’s the first line ’set in stone’….(no groaning please).

So provisionally we have:

HIC JACET IN MORTVAS
ELLIS PENSON (QUI)
OBIIT SEPTIMO
DIE FEBRUARYI
1720
ÆTATIS SUÆ 23

Here lies in death Ellis Penson (who) died seventh day of February 1720, his age 23

You’ve done a sterling job today Rod and deserve an engraved award. Ellis Penson may well get his just reward of ressurection if we have anything to do with it!

I have some ideas with the jigsaw pieces of the other side’s last lines and will continue to work on them.

Kind regards and appreciation,
N le
Rod said,

November 26, 2009 @ 9:25 pm

Neville,
that’s outstanding - this could be your finest hour !
What a great journey it’s been - a real joy.
Best
Rod
Chris Keyworth said,

November 26, 2009 @ 9:43 pm

its not finished yet we need to know the exact spot he is buried now….
Alisveris said,

November 27, 2009 @ 7:42 am

thanx you vry vry nice post . bravo
Rod said,

November 27, 2009 @ 7:46 am

Chris,
I did have a good look yesterday to see if I could find a corresponding piece of broken stone still in he ground to match the headstone.
Cheers
Rod
Amiguru said,

December 13, 2009 @ 8:21 pm

Rod,

Have just come across a whole bundle of notes, drawings and maps I did last century Apart from details to do with Ellis there are three sketches of other 18th C. tombstones in Stallingborough churchyard so I’ll add them in here if you don’t mind:

Mary wife of Pye Wattson Died June ye 17th 1745 Aged 46

HERE Lieth the Body of Margaret the Wife of Richard Bowser who died November 12th 1759 Aged 25

Here Lieth ye Body of Sarah Oglesby who Died Nov. 5th 1780

Regards,
N le
chris keyworth said,

December 13, 2009 @ 10:14 pm

Oglesby now that name lives on in our area….

regards
chris
Rod said,

December 14, 2009 @ 8:59 am

Neville, Chris,
I just need to check some deleted pictures . . .
Watch this space (I say that as though a comet is going to do a fly past )
Best
Rod
Rod said,

December 14, 2009 @ 9:14 am

Robert Durham’s Grave
Rod said,

December 14, 2009 @ 9:17 am

Thomas Oats ( Oates ) Died 1789 and Wife Mary Oats who dies 1803

Thomas Oats’ Grave

>
Amiguru said,

December 14, 2009 @ 10:01 am

Nice ones Rod. I was aware that there were others of that era which were of ’standard’ size. The ones I quoted were either quite small or lying loose or both and my concern, at the time, was that they could easily be lost or cast aside just as Ellis’ stone was when you found it. Nice that they are all gathered together here especially as some may well have known each other for parts of their lives. Among the papers I have recovered is a design which was formerly evident on the long early stone by the porch. I will e-mail that to you soon.

Regards,
N le
chris keyworth said,

December 14, 2009 @ 11:53 am

sadley it was overcast last night but i did manage to see some of the geminids on saturday night however it was not as intense as it would have been on sunday night, in an hour on saturday i managed to see 43 meteors hitting the atmosphere but it would have been nice to see it on Sunday as they were predicting in excess of 100 per hour, oh well there is another big on next month on the 3rd so hope the weather is better for that one, but i am not holding my breath..

regards
chris
Rod said,

December 14, 2009 @ 12:43 pm

Neville,
I never saw those you mentioned at all so it’s great to preserve them for posterity.
I took the above on my last visit and thought they’d bear looking into just to see if they threw up anything of particular interest
Cheers
Rod
Rod said,

December 14, 2009 @ 12:45 pm

Chris,
I thought about trying some pictures after your tip off but as you say it was so overcast they’d have been useless
Cheers
Rod
Penson Family said,

March 23, 2010 @ 8:39 pm

Hello,
I didn’t know Ellis Penson’s tombstone has caused all this interest. (It is Penson)
i must say, when I visited the church many years ago now, the tombstone was reared up in the church tower, so you commenting about the reverse side has intrigued me, I didnt know this existed, which I am delighted to see. When visiting Stallingborough church I met the vicar, he gave me a flower festival leaflet with the pirate information in.
This, I believe is only because of the skull, crossbones and hour glass on the stone. He certainly wasn’t a pirate ( who would have paid for a pirates tombstone) He was the son of a land owner and carpenter, William Penson and Mary nee Stapp of Killingholme. I am a decendant from William and Mary Penson.
Thank you
Kind regards
Freda nee Penson
Rod said,

March 24, 2010 @ 8:54 am

Hi Freda,
thank you so much for leaving a comment and gving us this information - I’m so glad you found the article too.
It is amazing how the ‘pirate myth’ has survived - clearly, as you say, it came about from the skull and cross bones which were a regular feature on stones at the time

The myth was so strong a retired undertaker and grave digger told me people had even tried to find his ‘buried treasure’ in the graveyard !!

Thanks again Freda - comments like your make all this worthwhile
All the best
Rod
History Hunter said,

March 25, 2010 @ 2:03 pm

Yesterday i went round to see my dad (who has just turned 80). The fact that he is long of tooth and for all 80 years has been local i started with my ‘did you know’s.

I started with the Stallingborough Artillery Battery…….he had no idea that there was one there during the war years and even more surprised when i told him that it is still there, fully accessible and in full view, if only you know where to look!!! I sense a little trippette out there one day with him to have a sneeky peeky.

Next ‘did you know’ was about Newsham Lodge and Abbey…..yes yes he had heard about them

Battle of Riby Gap? Yes he knew about that too. I told him that some of the people who died in the battle are either buried and/or remembered at both Riby Church and Stallingborough Church.

It was then that he hit me, not physically, with this little gem, and i shall quote him word for word

“There is a gravestone at Stallingborough Church with a skull and crossbones on, everyone thought he was a pirate”
he said
“Penson?” I interjected
“Yes that’s the name, he worked on the land all his life. Your mum looked into the Family name when we saw it”

Here endeth the lesson! Well to say I was gob-smacked was an understatement. Just a bit of background would come in useful here

My mum (now deceased) and dad were very much into Family History, and as part of the Grimsby Family History Society visited EVERY graveyard within 20 miles of Grimsby over a period of about 12 years and recorded (wrote down) every single legible word or sign of EVERY SINGLE gravestone! They even had a few books locally published with the Memorial Inscriptions in!!!

So the moral of this story is……..some things are not a big mystery, as long as you ask the right people!!!
Penson family said,

March 27, 2010 @ 8:12 pm

In reply to Rod’s letter to Nevill 24 Nov 09, The other Penson head stone with the skull etc. is also a decendant from this family. Quite a weird feeling when I first saw this.History repeating it self!!
History Hunter said,

June 5, 2010 @ 12:49 pm

Well i had a sneaky peeky round the graveyard today. I saw the Oat(e)s, Wattson, Oglesby, Bowser and Durham Gravestones but couldnt find the one i was looking for! Typical! I’ll be getting as reputation like you, Rod, for visiting places and not finding what you are looking for!

Perish the thought