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BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON
HISTORIC CHURCHES
22
ND ANNUAL EDITION
7
TYPES OF LEDGER STONE
Most ledger stones are quite large,
measuring 76 by 183cm, although as
they were cut in the age of Imperial
measurement this can be translated to
30 by 72 inches. Types of stone vary; the
most common is black marble, although
they were also available in white marble,
Purbeck stone and Portland stone and
there are also examples in cast iron.
Black marble ledger stones sometimes
incorporate other coloured marbles, for
example in the form of an inset roundel of
white marble at the head end of the stone
depicting the armorial bearings of the
deceased. Some ledger stones have infilled
lettering, usually of white mastic, while
others have brass lettering and there are
still a few which bear traces of gilding.
While most ledger stones are marble
some are freestone (usually a local
fine-grained limestone or sandstone),
but in the main these were only used as
temporary sealing stones. Many survive
simply because the family had relocated.
Indeed, the majority of such stones were
laid following the burial of a child during
the early years of a couple’s marriage and
while the grave was intended for further
use this rarely took place if they had
moved to another town. Unfortunately,
freestone does not retain inscriptions well
and many of the legends have now eroded.
INSCRIPTIONS
Ledger stone inscriptions are usually
in English but some, particularly those
commemorating the clergy, are in Latin.
There are also some Huguenot burials in
City of London and Norwich churches
whose ledger stones are inscribed in
French, but these are very rare.
The standard legend begins ‘Beneath
this stone lies…’ or ‘Here lies deposited
the remains of…’. It was standard
practice for the font size of the name of
the deceased to be larger than that of
the rest of the inscription, sometimes
in italics, and the usual initials denoting
academic honours, such as ‘BA’ or ‘MA’,
were frequently used, although the longer
forms ‘Bachelor of Arts’ or ‘Master of
Arts’ were occasionally used.
Some ledger stones begin with ‘HJ’
or the fuller ‘
Hic jacet
’, which means
‘Here lies’, although ‘HLD’, for ‘Here lies
deposited’ is sometimes seen. The use of
initials was, at least in part, a question of
economy: the cost of cutting ‘HLD’ would
have been far less than for the 17 letters of
‘Here Lies Deposited’ when one was being
charged by the letter. Similarly, a Latin
translation of an English inscription could
land the purchaser with a bigger bill if it
made the inscription longer.
Some ledger stones have exceptionally
short inscriptions, but this does not mean
that the lettering is any more crude than
those with a longer legend. Probably
the shortest would be the name of the
deceased and the year of death, such as:
JOHN SMITH
1801
whereas those which were to be read
in association with an adjacent mural
monument had simpler markings, such as:
J S
1801
merely to indicate the place of burial.
Furthermore, if the mural monument
is signed by a sculptor, that may give an
indication of the artist also responsible for
the lettering on the ledger.
LETTER-CUTTERS AND MASONS
The provision of ledger stones, particularly
in the 18th century, was usually limited
to letter-cutters working in the larger
towns. Much of the black marble used was
imported by merchant ships as ballast so
letter-cutters’ yards were often based in
ports. For example, the Stanton family of
letter-cutters had their yard in Holborn,
close to the wharfs along the commercial
stretch of the River Thames. Similarly,
Britain’s extensive system of navigable
rivers and canals was used to transport the
finished items to their destinations. Indeed
the cost of transporting a heavy ledger
stone to a remote rural church was almost
the same as the cost of the stone itself.
The inscriptions usually begin with
the name of the prominent male in the
grave and it is not unusual to discover
from the inscription that he died some
years after the death of his wife, which is
further evidence of the use of a temporary
freestone ledger before the final one was
put into position. However, there are
examples of black marble slabs which have
space left at the top for the primary name,
which is an indicator that the husband
married again and is buried elsewhere
with his second wife. Subsequent
inscriptions were usually cut in situ, which
explains the use of a different ‘chisel’
or letter-cutter’s hand if the original
letter-cutter was no longer in business.
Laying a ledger over a brick grave
was a delicate operation for they were
bulky and unwieldy items, frequently
as much as 15cm (6 inches) thick. Once
the temporary stone had been lifted
and discarded, three or more wooden
bars were placed across the width of the
grave and eight men, holding the ends of
four lengths of canvas webbing passing
beneath the slab, would take the strain as
the wooden bars were removed. The slab
was then manoeuvred into position.
Subsequent re-openings of a brick
grave can often be identified by the chips
around the edge of the ledger stone
where crow-bars were used to lift it onto
wooden rollers for temporary removal.
LOCATION
The location of burial places in the church
depended on the role and status of the
individual being interred. Consequently,
ledger stones over the graves of clergymen
are usually to be found in the sanctuary or
chancel, although some benefactors were
also afforded that position. Prominent
members of the community are usually
found either in the centre alley of the nave
or, if they required a more substantial
vault, at the east end of the nave side
Densely packed ledger stones in the north choir aisle
at Norwich Cathedral (Photo: Roland Harris)
18th-century ledger stones in the Church of St Thomas
and St Edmund, Salisbury: chipped edges often
resulted from the use of crow-bars to reopen a vault
after the original burial. (Photo: Jonathan Taylor)