Here Lieth the Body of
Nicholas Andrew Who
Died March the 18th.(?) 1736/7
Aged 64. Also Ann his
Wife departed this
life Sepr 7th.(?) 1758. Aged74.
[There is an entry in the Registers for NICHOL ANDREW whose date of death is given there as March the 8th. The way in which the year of his death is recorded on this headstone appears to reflect confusion related to the replacement of the Justinian calendar by the Gregorian calendar.]
This monumental inscription is taken from one of our local (north west Durham) churchyards and is transcribed - as nearly as I could - as shown on the headstone. The Gregorian calendar was in use quite early on in Europe but wasn't accepted in England until the latter part of the eighteenth century.
It usually caused confusion at the time in both Church records and monumental inscriptions during January, February and March since these three months comprised the final quarter of the year under the old calendar and the first quarter under the Gregorian calendar. We still have a hang-over of the old calendar in the present day as shown in the financial (tax) year which ends at the end of March.
If you Google 'Gregorian Calendar' there is some very detailed information on the internet as to how it came about and how to allocate the 'correct' year to these dates.
In support of Finbar the Latin word 'sic' means 'thus' as in 'Sic transit gloria mundi' and it is standard practice to use it to indicate a possible error, or spelling variant, in the original record rather than an error made by the transcriber.
PatB.