One historian has estimated that, on average, an English country church graveyard contains around ten thousand bodies. How many people, then, are buried in and around St Nicholas church, Great Yarmouth? Impossible to say for sure. Here, the living are walking on the dead. However, the dead were once alive - and they had names.
During the late Nineteenth century, this man...
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| Edward Lupson, pictured here with the church silver |
... Edward J. Lupson, a parish clerk, listed names of some of these hitherto 'invisible' folk in his lovely little book, "St Nicholas' Church, Great Yarmouth: Its History, Organ, Pulpit, Library, Extracts from Registers, Unique combination of Names, Etc" ( a typically snappy Late Victorian title!)
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| The book was published in 1897. I am struck by the number of gravestones in the illustration on the left. |
Edward chose names selected across hundreds of years of the parish registers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that he had chosen to theme the names according to some surprisingly playful categories. For instance...
Food...
Abigail Spice
Annie Mustard
James Suett
John Cheese
John Jelly
Alcoholic drinks...
Charity Beer
Thomas Gin
Louisa Ales
Bernard Brandy
Moods...
William Jolly
Sarah Funney
Margaret Laughter
Happy Brown
Jolly Buffum
Larking Thompson
And many more besides...
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| Click image in order to read the full list of names |
Well, Edward's lovely list has made me think again about what kind of man he was. I like him. I am also fascinated by these the people who left their names to us here...
Who were they?
What were their stories?
What did they look like?
Does a name reflect or shape a personality at all?
Was Larking Thompson serious or silly I wonder?
I'm sure you've got your own questions.
~ Colin ~
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