The following lines below his portrait are characteristic of his age:—
You see old Scarlett’s picture stand on hie;
But at your feet here doth his body lye.
His gravestone doth his age and death-time show,
His office by heis token you may know.
Second to none for strength and sturdy lymm,
A scare-babe mighty voice, with visage grim;
He had inter’d two queenes within this place,
And this townes householders in his life’s space
Twice over; but at length his own time came
What he for others did, for him the same
Was done: no doubt his soule doth live for aye,
In heaven, though his body clad in clay.
The first of the queens interred by Scarlett was Catherine, the divorced wife of Henry VIII, who died in 1535, at Kimbolton Castle, in Huntingdonshire. The second was Mary Queen of Scots, who was beheaded at Fotheringay in 1587, and first interred here, though subsequently transported to Westminster Abbey.
Our next example is from Bingley, Yorkshire:—
In memory of Hezekiah Briggs, who died August 5th, 1844, in the
80th year of his age. He was sexton at this church 43 years,
and interred upwards of 7000 corpses.
[Here the names of his wife and several children are given.]
Here lies an old ringer, beneath the cold clay,
Who has rung many peals both for serious and gay;
Through Grandsire and Trebles with ease he could range,
Till death called a Bob, which brought round the last change.
For all the village came to him
When they had need to call;
His counsel free to all was given,
For he was kind to all.
Ring on, ring on, sweet Sabbath bell,
Still kind to me thy matins swell,
And when from earthly things i part,
Sigh o’er my grave, and lull my heart.
An upright stone in the burial ground at Hartwith Chapel, in Nidderdale, Yorkshire, bears the following inscription:—
In memory of William Darnbrough, who for the last forty
years of his life was sexton of this chapel. He died
October 3rd, 1846, in the one hundreth year
of his age.
“Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a
good old age.”—Genesis xv. 15.
The graves around for many a year
Were dug by him who slumbers here,—
Till worn with age, he dropped his spade,
And in the dust his bones were laid.
As he now, mouldering, shares the doom
Of those he buried in the tomb;
So shall he, too, with them arise,
To share the judgment of the skies.
An examination of Pateley Bridge Church registers proves that Darnbrough was 102 years of age.