Obscured No Longer: Four North Devon Monuments

Loveringe Chest Tomb, Tawstock Devon, England

When you visit church graveyards during an English summer, you are almost certain to encounter brambles, ivy, and stinging nettles. These plants make can gravestone photography both challenging and painful.

On a trip to North Devon last summer I made a return visit to Tawstock, one of five parishes that I collect historical and genealogical information about. In the graveyard is a chest tomb surrounded by a wrought iron fence that for many years was completely obscured by ivy. However, on this visit, the ivy was gone, revealing an old slate slab.

The inscription on the slab commemorates several members of the Lovering family – a family that has many gravestones at Tawstock.

The first name mentioned is that of Thomas Loveringe who was buried in 1618. Research suggests that Thomas was the son of John Loveringe who was baptised at Tawstock in 1559. It is possible that Thomas was the son of Thomas Loveringe who had been baptised a year earlier, however, the next name on the slab is that of Thomas’s oldest son, John Loveringe (1600-1682). The first born son was typically named after his paternal grandfather, therefore it is likely that Thomas was the son of John.

Since the lettering of the inscriptions for both Thomas and his son are identical, the tablet likely dates from after John’s death in 1682. This still makes it the oldest gravestone in the churchyard, and older than many of the tablets and monuments inside the church.

The next death recorded on the slab occured over over a century later. William Lovering, son of John Lovering and Sarah Heyman (1696-1767), was baptised at Tawstock in 1734, and was buried there in 1798. He married Mary CROCKER at Fremington, Devon in 1760. Mary was buried at Tawstock on 27 Oct 1821.

The memorial inscription records that there were “14 children to lament their loss.” The parish register records the baptisms of all fourteen children beginning with Hayman Lovering in 1762 and ending with Fanny Lovering in 1781. At least five of the fourteen have gravestones at Tawstock. William and Mary’s fifteenth and youngest child, Anne Lovering, is commemorated on the slab. The inscription states that Anne died in June 1786 at the age of five, however, she was likely just three since her baptism occured in May 1783.

Capt. John Lovering's gravestone
at Earleville, Maryland

Part of the reason why there is a century long gap on the chest tomb slab is the possibility that William’s father, John Lovering, was buried in Maryland. There is no record of John Lovering’s burial in the Tawstock parish registers, but there is a gravestone at St Stephens Episcopal Cemetery in Earleville, Maryland that reads, “Here Lieth the Body of Capt JOHN LOVERING of Tawstock in the County of DEVON Mariner who departed this Life the 29th of Septr 1754 in the 55th Year of his Age. 

Little is known about John Lovering, however, in 1750, he was contracted to transport 12 convicts to Virginia. John Lovering was likely the son of John Lovering and Rebecca Roe who was baptised at Tawstock on 14 Sep 1699. Another son, Thomas, baptised on 29 Jul 1702, may have also been a mariner as the “Will of Thomas Lovering, Mariner of Tawstock, Devon” was probated at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in 1765.

The connection between the John Lovering who married Rebecca Roe at Tawstock in 1689, and the John Loveringe who died in 1682 at the age of 82 is proving elusive. In the Tawstock parish registers there are more than one hundred Lovering(e) burials, and more than 140 baptisms recorded in the 300 years following the first recorded burial in 1559 and baptisms in 1557. While entries in the Tawstock registers continued through the Commonwealth period (1649–1660), the number of entries was sparse suggesting that some Lovering(e) baptisms, marriages and burials were never recorded.

James Essery's gravestone at St Giles in the Wood

I also revisited St Giles in the Wood where various members of the Cooke family lived from 1740 to 1827. Once again, some ivy and brambles had been cleared away, revealing a stack of gravestones leaning against the east wall of the church.

Of particular interest are the early 19th century gravestones of James Essery and his brother John. Essery is a name more commonly associated with Great Torrington to the west of St Giles. John and James, however, were the grandchildren of John and Elizabeth Friendship of St Giles in the Wood.

James Essery, the son of John Essery (1746-1837) and Frances Friendship (1761-1839), was baptised at Great Torrington on 7 Mar 1792, and was buried at St Giles in the Wood on 7 Apr 1817. He received training as a veterinary Surgeon. His brother John Essery was baptised at Great Torrington on 5 Nov 1790, and was buried at St Giles on 18 Sep 1817. Four months earlier John had married Grace Harper (1788-1855), daughter of Richard Harper of Great Torrington. She remarried in 1821.

Anonymous gravestone at St Giles in the Wood

Also found in the stack was an anonymous gravestone. The inscription reads:

Children forbear to grieve for me
I’m gone but where you soon will Be
Therefore improve each moment well
That so your soul with Christ may dwell

Ivy has also been cleared away from the Braginton chest tomb. This Grade II listed monument commemorates the 1842 death of George Vicary Braginton and the 1850 death of Richard Braginton, children of George Braginton and Margaret Grace Vicary. Also memorialized is Fanny Eleanora William Cotton (1832-1859), the daughter of Margaret Grace Vicary by her previous marriage to William Cotton (1804-1832).

Braginton Chest Tomb at St Giles in the Wood

George Braginton was a merchant and banker, and served as both an alderman and as the mayor of Great Torrington on a number of occasions. The Rolle Canal, completed in 1827 was leased to George from 1852 until about 1865 when control of the canal passed to Mark Rolle. George was also a shipowner. George Braginton's bank, Braginton, Rimington & Co., failed and George declared bankruptcy in 1865. He subsequenly faced a number of lawsuits as a result of his "rash and hazardous" dealings, and it wasn't until 1874 that the bankruptcy was discharged. George, and his wife Margaret Grace Vicary are buried in Ford Park Cemetery in Plymouth.