Monumental Inscriptions – Friends Meeting House, Hogsty End (Woburn Sands) 

An original transcript of the monumental inscriptions in the Friends Meeting House Burial Ground at Woburn Sands was made in 1970 by Norman Hyde for the Bedfordshire Family History Society. They have generously permitted me to reproduce that here.  I have filled in some of the information from worn-away parts that he was unable to read with details from newspaper reports and online genealogy indexes.

Grave markers were only permitted by the Friends Society in 1867, therefore many of those here were installed retrospectively after that date, placed where the surviving families thought their ancestors were interred.

There are many more burials recorded in Friends Society Registers as being in this yard than memorial stones.  There is a list of at least 134 burials known.

In 2022, some stones which had been lifted from nearest the building (to create space for a nursery playground) were reused to create a new pathway, which was cut in through the burial ground wall. An engraved slate memorial was added, reading:

“WE LIVED LOVED LAUGHED PRAYED TOGETHER IN OUR CHERISHED QUAKER MEETING, CHOOSING TO REMAIN TOGETHER IN THIS ANCIENT PATCH OF QUAKER EARTH.”

Slate memorial, installed 2022
Grave marker for Benjamin B. Wiffen
Grave marker for Jeremiah Wiffen

GEORGE HENRY BIZZELL / Born 8 IV 1860 / Died 8 VI 1908
WILHELMINA C. E. BIZZELL / Born 21 IV 1899 / Died 5 V 1900

MARY CHANTLER / Born 8 VIII 1810 / Died 27 X 1868
WILLIAM CHANTLER / Born 4 Month 6 1805 / Died 1 Month 4 1892

MARIA CORDER / ?? / 23 VIII 1881 [Laid flat in pathway]

HENRIETTA AMELIA GRACE / Born Feb XXIII 1855 / Died Dec VII 1950
HENRY EDWARD GRACE / Born Feb XXVII 1856 / Died Dec XXX 1940

JOSEPH GRIMES / Born 3 Month 8 1847 / Died 11 Month 21 1909
THOMAS GRIMES / Born 7 VII 1799 / Died 4 V 1869

ARTHUR HALL / Born May XX 1858 / Died Feb.1 1929
HANNAH HALL / Beloved Wife of ARTHUR HALL / Christmas Day 1948 [Incorrect – died Christmas Day 1947]

JANE HAYLLAR / Born 2 XII 1825 / Died 1 V 1902
RICHARD HAYLLAR / Born 10 II 1822 / Died 26 XI 1890

RICHARD HOW / Born 9 VI 1727 / Died 8 VI 1801
RICHARD T. HOW / Born 24 IV 1765 / Died 12 XII 1835

CHARLES INWOOD / Born Oct. 13th 1827 / Died May 1st 1876
MARY ANN INWOOD / Born March 14th 1825 / Died April 8th 1900

LOUISA LUCAS / Born 3 Month 14 1840 / Died 12 Month 31 1908

JOHN MARSHALL / Born 25 VI 1802 / Died 21 VIII 1864

ELLENA SPENCER / Born 3rd of 2nd Mo 1878 / Died 18th of 1st Mo 1954
TYETH A. T. SPENCER / Born 11th of 10th Mo 1866 / Died 2nd of 6th Mo 1951
[The above pair on same stone]

In Memory of / MARIA THORPE / Died 19 XI 1895 / Aged 85 years

JOHN HENRY WALKER / of Aspley Guise / Late of Cockermouth / Died XII 3rd Month 1910 / Aged 39 years.
A. JOSEPHINE WALKER / of Aspley Guise / Late of Cockermouth / Died 7 III 1918 / Aged 44 years

MARY WHITE / Born 14/02/1800 / Died 21st Sept. 1876
MARY WHITE – Born ??00 / [rest illegible, laid flat in pathway]
MARIA WHITE / Born ….  1830 / Died IV 4 1922 [Laid flat in pathway]
MARY FRANCES WHITE / Born ? ? 1843 / Died XVIII 4 1921 [Laid flat in pathway]
RICHARD EDWARD WHITE / Born 6 XI 1799 / Died 17 XII 1879 [Laid flat in pathway]

ABRAHAM WHITEHEAD / Born 10 V 1778 / Died 3 II 1829

WILLIAM CHARLES WHITEMAN / Born March XI 1864 / Died May XVIII 1936

BENJAMIN B. WIFFEN / born 28 X 1794 / Died 18 III 1867
ELIZABETH WIFFEN / Born 1 XIII 1761 / Died 20 VI 1841
JEREMIAH H. WIFFEN / Born 30 XII 1792 / Died 2 V 1836
JOHN WIFFEN / Born 17 IX 1761 / Died 13 VII 1802
JOHN JOICE WIFFEN / Born 3 II 1801 / Died 19 III 1802
MARY WIFFEN / Born 23 II 1791 / Died 21 IX 1849
SOPHIA E. WIFFEN / Born 24 X 1796 / Died 16 I 1864

Markers as they appeared before 2022

 

Page last updated Jan. 2023.