Tombs, John, a learned Baptist divine, was born at Bevvdley, in Worcestershire, in 1603. and graduated at Magdalen Hall. Oxford. There he gained such a dis- tinction for ability and learning that he was ajjpointed, in 1624, catechetical lecturer, which position he held for about seven years. He then, we may presume, took orders and went to Worcester, and after that to Leomin- ster, Hertfordshire, of which he had the living. Being- obliged to leave it in 1641 by the king's soldiers, he went to Bristol, where the parliamentary general, Fiennes, gave him the living of All-Saints'. 'J'he next year he removed to London, when he made known his scruples respecting infant baptism ; and not only made no con- verts among the clergy, but, being apjiointed preacher at Fenchurch, his congregation refused him both hearing and stipend. He accepted a call from Temple Church, where he remained four years, when he was dismissed for publishing a treatise on infant baptism. After this he went to Bewdley, and there formed a Baptist church, ■while he continued minister of the parisli, and had also the parsonage of Ross given to him. This last he re- signed on being made master of Ledbury Hospital; and, his parishioners at Bewdley having forsaken him. he was restored to his Hrst living at Leon)inster, and these two he held till the PJeformation. He diet! at Salisbury iNlay 22, 1676. He published many tracts against infant bap- tism, Romanists, and Socinians. See Chalmers, Biog, Diet. s. \.
Tombstone is a mark of a grave, or a monument, to remind the passer-by that a person is buried be- neath. In the earliest ages a heap of stones, or a sin- gle upright stone, such as the menhir, seems to have marked the resting-place of the dead. Among the ear- ly Britons the cromlech — that is, two or three stones Standing upright, with one or more across them on the top — was a common form of tomb. But contemporary with them was the simplest of all structures, the moimd of earth.
When the Romans came, they brought over with them, among other customs, their modes of burial. Considering the time of their occupation, the remains of their tombs belonging to this period are not so nu- merous as might be expected ; but still there are sev- eral, and in most cases they consisted of a single stone with an inscription commonly addressed to one or more of the heathen gods. A few instances of stone coffins of this period have been found, as at York. To this kind of tomb, or rather stone coffin, the name of sar- copharjus is usually ap|>lied.
The Saxon marks of interment were probably mounds of earth only; and it is only by the nature of the pottery or other implements and articles of dress found in the graves that the burial-places of the Saxons can be dis- tinguished from those of the Britons. Of course among the later Saxons, when Christianity prevailed and they
Komau Coffin, York.
were buried in the church-yard, more lasting memorials were erected, though, with the exception, perhaps, of a few doubtful fragments, we have no examples to re- fer to.
The sepulchral monuments throughout the INIiddle Ages were of great importance from an architectural point of view ; aiul, while we find them following the prevailing style, we frequently find also that on them was lavished the most elaborate work possible. The examples which remain to us are those which were placed within the church. No doubt there were many tombs of no mean design or work placed in the church -yard, but they have, for the most part, perished.
Of the former we have many of the 12th century (some, perhaps, of the 1 1 ih). The covers of these were at first simply coped, afterwards frequently ornamented with crosses of various kinds and other devices, and sometimes had inscriptions on them; subsequently they were scidptured with recumbent figures in high-relief, but still generally diminishing in width from the head to the feet to fit the coffins of which they formed the lids. Many of the figures of this period represent knights in armor with their legs crossed; these are supposed to have been either Templars, or such as had joined, or vowed to join, in a crusade to the Holy Land. The figures usually had canopies, which were often rich- ly carved over the heads, supported on small shafts which ran along each side of the effigy, the whole workeil in the same block of stone. This kind of tomb was sometimes placed beneath a low arch or recess
[t 11^ Tomb, Waiurpciiy, OAlurdshire, cir, 1400.
TOMBSTONE
4G0
TOMBSTONE
FUit Gravestone, Great Milton, Oxfordshire.
forinod within tlic substance of tho chnrt-ii wall, usually about seven feet in leiijith, anil not umre than three feet above the cottin, even in the centre. These arches were at first semicircular or segmental at the top, afterwards obtusely pointed; they often reinaiu when the figure or brass, and i)erh:i|is the colHn itself, has long disa|i|iear(i and been forgotten. On many tombs of the loth century there are plain peil- iment-shaped canopies over the heails
of the recumbent eHigies, the earliest of which contain Sir Guy de Hrian at Tewkesbury; or flat festoons, as a pointed trefoil-arched recess. Towards the end of the the tombs of Edward III and Kichard II at Westniin- ceiitury, these caiKipies became gradually enriched with ster, and Edward the IJlack Prince at Canterbury, crockets, linials, and other architectural details. i Towards the middle of the loth century the custom