curious gravestone

[mrs_tease]

I thought this a very unusual inscription

[Borley Manor]

I saw one of these some years back, it was said to be paupers of the parish..

[genealogynetwork]

I've noticed that in Europe, there is the habit of using initials ONLY in documentation as shown in this headstone.

Is there a history behind WHY ONLY the initials are given instead of full names?

Or is brevity affording the stonecutter no luxury? (i.e. it was the least expensive for the issuer?)

[Borley Manor]

Exactly so, when the parish have to pay for the gravestone and the burial as well, it stands to reason that everything is covered as this stone shows, but with minimal outlay. Probably, no coffin, just a calico winding, starts deep in the ground and upward, probably only a foot or so below the ground level for the last incumbent.
I was told all this by the grave digger at the churchyard I visited in Norfolk years ago.....

[mrs_tease]

it certainly caught my attention. I thought paupers would have been buried in an unmarked grave? The stone is in the middle of some rather wealthy burials, hence it stood out more.

[Borley Manor]

Any information forthcoming in the parish registry at all, especially as the dates are well readable, any ages extant either, they could be of an accidental death through some mishap or other, maybe.....

[mrs_tease]

the next time I go into the archives I'm going to have a look and see what I can find out

[Bilge]

The famous 1795 epitaph to the grave-digger of Kingsbridge, Devon gives some of the English social aspect:

Here lie I at the chapel door,
Here lie I because I'm poor,
The farther in the more you pay,
Here lie I as warm as they.