Ancestors of Cley

In a previous post, I discussed the differing forms of Susanna Jary's name in the parish register, Archdeacon's transcript, and on her tombstone. I finished up the post with "I think I'd be inclined to trust the tombstone in this case."

Now I'm beginning to wonder about that. I'd been planning to write about William, Susanna, and their children, so when I realised that today was Tombstone Tuesday, I figured this would be a good time to do so.

Susanna's tombstone lies directly behind, and very close to, those of William Jary (senior) and his wife, Elizabeth, and of their son, Andew Jary, and his wife, Catherine (Warnes) Jary.

Tombstones of William, Elizabeth, Andrew, Catherine, and Susanna Jary

Here is a closeup of Susanna's tombstone:

Tombstone of Susanna Jary, Stiffkey St John.

It's a little hard to read, so here is a cross-processed image that may be easier to make out (click either image for a larger version.)

Crossprocessed image of Susanna Jary's tombstone

The wording looks like this:

"In memory of Susanna the Wife of William Jary Jun'r who died May 12 1774 Aged 36 Years"

Hang on ... 1774?

I noticed this as I was preparing the picture of Susanna's tombstone for this post. That's the reason for the cross-processing above. I was trying to bring out the last digit in the year as clearly as possible. It certainly looks like a four to me, not a five.

The year struck me, because in my previous post, I talked about how the parish register and AT have her burial as having occurred in 1775. Could I have been wrong when I wrote that post?

I went back and checked the notes we made at the NRO when we looked at the hand-written index to the parish register transcript, and at the microfiche of the PR itself and the AT. All the notes say she was buried on 14 May 1775. Not only that, we have a copy of the AT on microfiche, and I just rechecked it.  The previous page shows baptisms, burials, and marriages from Easter 1774 to Easter 1775; it contains burials up to 19 March 1775 (the year is clear). The entries on the page containing Susanna's burial record start from Easter 1775.

George son of William & Susan Jeary baptis'd May 4th
The same Infant buried May 9th
Susan Wife of William Jeary buried May 14.

There are four more entries for 1775, then the next entry is clearly dated Jan'y 5th, 1776. At the bottom of the page is written: "Taken from the Register May 22, 1776."

So the parish register & Archdeacon's transcript recorded her burial in 1775, yet her tombstone shows, or at least appears to show, the year 1774.

I am going to have to revise my earlier statement about trusting the tombstone. We know the parish register was contemporary to her burial, and the Archdeacon's transcript was a made the following year. We don't, however, know when or by whom her tombstone was commissioned, or who dictated what should be carved upon it. We also don't know if the stonemason may not have made a mistake in the year, putting a 4 instead of a 5.

As a source, the register is most contemporary, followed by the AT, then (presumably, since we can't date it) the tombstone.

So a lesson learned and I take it back. Even though I'm still not sure about the name variant (and she probably went by each of them at some point in her life), I'll go with the parish register and Archdeacon's transcript on the year.

(And another lesson learned and note to self: pay closer attention & don't make assumptions. If I'd actually looked at the tombstone more closely, instead of just assuming it had the same year as the records, my previous post would have been very different.)

Related Posts

1. Susanna (Parish Register) or Susan (Archdeacon’s Transcript)?
2. Tombstone Tuesday: Bartholomew Jary (ca 1772 – 1836)
3. Stiffkey St John churchyard in the snow
4. The family of William Jary & Elizabeth his wife, of Stiffkey
5. What was Jemima Dew’s occupation? (Updated)