This is the gravestone to the Martin Family and is in Gwennap Churchyard, Cornwall. It is the story of the family on this stone that inspired my Dad to write his best novel, “Jeremy Visick”. You could click on the photo to make it bigger and to make it easier to read. I’ve put the text under the photo too. Do read it through – what a life for that family, for Ann who lost so many children and her husband – and, indeed for many families in Cornwall in the 1800s.
The Martin Gravestone
IN
LOVING MEMORY
OF
JOHN MARTIN
OF TING TANG IN THIS
PARISH WHO WAS KILLED
BY AN ACCIDENT IN WHEAL
PINK MINE 1ST MAY 1848
AGED 51 YEARS
ALSO OF ANN, WIFE OF
THE ABOVE DIED 16 DEC 1866
AGED 65 YEARS.
ALSO OF PETHERICK CROSSMAN
3RD SON OF THE ABOVE
WHO DIED 1ST JULY 1829
AGED 13 MONTHS
ALSO LAVENIA ANDREW 4TH
DAUGHTER OF THE ABOVE
WHO DIED 9TH NOVEMBER, 1843
AGED 14 MONTHS.
ALSO WILLIAM PETHERICK, 2ND
SON OF THE ABOVE WHO WAS
KILLED BY AN ACCIDENT IN
WHEAL JEWEL MINE 19 DEC 1844
AGED 18 YEARS.
CAPTAIN NICHOLAS ANDREW
THE 5TH SON. DIED 14 FEB 1872
FROM INJURIES RECEIVED IN THE
VARZIA MINES PORTUGAL AND
WAS THERE INTERRED. AGED 37 YEARS.
ALSO, JOHN ELDEST SON OF THE ABOVE
WHO DIED 5TH JUNE 1876.
AGED 51 YEARS.
EDWIN THOMAS, YOUNGEST SON,
WHO DIED 22ND JAN 1878
AGED 33 YEARS.
I’ve read the novel at least a dozen times as it was on the reading list for the children I was teaching. (It was studied at schools all over the country, not only at the school I was teaching at!) We used to study this gravestone and the pupils would write a diary from Ann’s point of view. Their empathy was wonderful and the diaries often quite heartbreaking.
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