This John Rudde gave to the church of Esh the only medieval service-book belonging to any church in the diocese of Durham which is now known to exist. It is in the library of the Roman Catholic College of Ushaw, near Durham.
The beautiful memorials to the dead which were known as grave-covers were used in England and Ireland from the ninth to the sixteenth century. Though they are abundant in the county, Durham cannot boast of the possession of specimens equal in merit to those found in some other parts of England. At Sedgefield Church there is a fine thirteenth-century grave-cover with a double, eight-rayed cross; it has the rare feature of a double row of dog-tooth ornament at the head; and it is the only stone known in the county which has the whole surface covered with a tracery of foliage. It is, unfortunately, much weathered. Built into the tower of the same church, and only partly visible, is another richly ornamented cover, dating probably from the middle of the fourteenth century, the foliated ornament being more naturally shown, or less conventionalized, than in earlier examples. It bears a sword and a cross moline on a small shield.
The symbolism used on grave-covers is not well understood. A key is said to indicate a woman, a sword a man; shears sometimes represent a woman, sometimes a wool-stapler; a chalice or a book, or both, are placed on the gravestone of a priest or other ecclesiastic. Craftsmen are often indicated by some sign of their business, as a square for a mason, a horseshoe or a hammer for a smith. Sometimes a merchant uses his trade-mark much as an armigerous person uses his coat of arms. Built into the south porch of St. Mary’s Church in Gateshead there are two large grave-covers bearing incised crosses. One of them, a fourteenth-century slab, has at one side of the stem of the cross a key, and at the other side a fish. Most authorities think that the fish is the mystic symbol of our Saviour, which was so dear to the early Christians, and which is frequently found on the gravestones in the catacombs at Rome; but other antiquaries consider that the stone is to be more literally interpreted, and that it covered the remains of a fish-wife.
The earlier grave-covers were stone lids for stone coffins, but after the use of stone coffins was discontinued, and wooden coffins were substituted, the remains of the dead were often covered by these carved stone slabs. The larger part of them are uninscribed, but grave-covers with a few lines cut on them are by no means uncommon. At Gainford there is a perfect grave-cover of the fourteenth century which bears a chalice and three floreated crosses, one large and two small. It has been suggested that these prove this to have been the burial-place of an ecclesiastic and two children, for burial in a monk’s frock or in the grave of a priest was long considered by all classes of people to be desirable. This stone, though it is of early fourteenth-century period, bears an inscription to Laurence Brockett, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, who died in 1768. His executors seem to have thought that an old gravestone was just as good as a new one.
Of quaint sepulchral inscriptions there are many in the county. The one in Monkwearmouth Church to the memory of a Mrs. Lee is on a small marble tablet on the vestry wall. It reads:
HEERE VNDER LYETH Yᴱ BODDYE OF MARY LEE
DAVGHTER TO PETER DELAVALE LATE OF
TINMOVTH GENT SHEE DIED IN CHYLDBED
YE 23 OF MAY 1617
HAPIE IS Yᵀ SOVLE Yᵀ HEERE
ON EARTH DID LIVE A HARMLESS LYFE
& HAPPIE MAYD Yᵀ MADE
SOE CHAST AN HONNEST WIFE.
It is strange that a lawyer "of ability and integrity" should not be able to make himself a sound will. In Greatham Chapel there is an inscription: "In memory of Ralph Bradley, Esq. an eminent Councillor at Law, born in this parish, who bequeathed a large fortune, acquired in a great measure by his abilities and integrity, to the purchasing of books calculated to promote the interests of virtue and religion, and the happiness of mankind. He died the 28th day of December 1788, in the 72d year of his age...." Below, on a copper plate, is: "By a decree of Edward Lord Thurlow, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, on the 2ᵈ day of August 1791, the charitable intention mentioned above was set aside in favour of the next of kin."
In Stockton Church we may read that on "Wednesday the 19th of May 1773 was here interred the body of Mrs. Sarah Baker ... aged 59. Do thou reflect in time; death itself is nothing, but prepare to be you know not what, to go you know not where."
At Houghton-le-Spring stands the massy altar-tomb of the great Bernard Gilpin, "the apostle of the North," that sweet-natured, fearless, and humble-minded man who so narrowly escaped a martyr’s death at the stake. The tomb bears his coat of arms and the following:
| BERNERD | OBIT QVA | |
| GILPIN RE | [A bear with a crescent on its side, | RTV DIE M |
| CTOR HV | leaning against a tree.] | ARTII AN. |
| IVS ECCLIÆ | DOM. 1583. |