Ledger stone

File:GertrudeCourtenay 1592-1666 CheritonFitzpaineChurch Devon.PNG

Ledger stone to Gertrude Courtenay (1592-1666) of Upcott, Cheriton Fitzpaine, Devon, in the Upcott Chapel forming the east end of the north aisle of St Matthew's Church, Cheriton Fitzpaine

A ledger stone or ledgerstone is an inscribed stone slab usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. Ledger stones may also be found as slabs forming the tops of chest tombs.

Etymology

The term "ledger stone" derives from the German word legen, meaning to lie.

Form

Ledger stones take the form of an inscribed stone slab, usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. Ledger stones may also be found as slabs forming the tops of chest tombs. An inscription is usually incised into the stone within a ledger line running around the edge of the stone. Such inscription may continue within the central area of the stone, which may be decorated with relief-sculpted or incised coats of arms, or other appropriate decorative items such as skulls, hour-glasses, etc. Stones with inset brasses first appeared in the 13th century.

Use in England

Many English parish churches contain ledger stones. Over 250,000 stones survive, mostly from the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth centuries, after which period they are rarer. Since the modern era when burials within church buildings have been discontinued for reasons of health and hygiene, the ledger stone is no longer commonly used, and its function has been taken by the upright inscribed grave stone erected in the church-yard or purpose-made cemetery.

Ledger stones were favoured by the English middle classes as they were cheaper than a more elaborate monument. They were frequently laid down by the family of the lord of the manor or holder of the advowson of the parish in question, and such family often had its own private chapel within the parish church, often at the east end of the north aisle, where the manorial pew was situated and where members of the family were buried.

Entitlement to use

It is not clear what criteria were needed to qualify a deceased person to be buried within a church (rather than in the churchyard outside) or to merit a ledger stone. A ledger stone in St Nectan's Church, Hartland, Devon, to Thomas Docton (d.1618) of Docton, bore originally a "quaint" epitaph which is oft-quoted, for example in Epitaphs for Country Churchyards by Augustus John Cuthbert Hare. It begins "Rejoice not over me, oh my enemie" but was originally surrounded by a brass ledger line inscribed with the following verse:

"Here l lie outside the chancel door;

Here I lie because I'm poor:

The further in, the more they pay;

But here I lie as warm as they".

Use in continental Europe

Ledger stones with engraved or relief figures of the deceased are not very common in the UK, but are more widely used in Germanic and Scandinavian countries. In German the word "Grabplatte" (literally 'grave panel') is used for flat slabs but can also refer to slabs vertically attached on walls of churches and graveyards, and often to plain stone panels covering graves in cemeteries as well. The French term is dalle funéraire.

Preservation

Because they are floor coverings, ledger stones are vulnerable to wear from foot traffic and damage from structural alterations to churches. The Ledgerstones Survey of England & Wales exists to record the information on the stones before it is lost.

Gallery

• WilliamWadham Died1452 Brass StMary'sChurch Ilminster Somerset.PNG

  Ledger stone to William Wadham (died 1452) in the Wadham Chapel in St Mary's Church, Ilminster, Somerset. Situated on a chest tomb with inlaid brass fillet ledger line and monumental brasses.

External links

• http://www.churchmonumentssociety.org/
• https://www.churchofengland.org/media/1470817/an1%20ledger%20stones%20(1997)%2005.12.pdf
• The Restoration of Wittgenstein's Ledger Stone.

• Recorders’ Handbook. Ledgerstone Survey of England and Wales, 2015. p. 1.
• Collins Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1986: "Ledger, a flat horizontal slab of stone...probably from leggen to lay".
• Ledgerstones. Ledgerstones Survey of England & Wales. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
• Chope, R.Pearse, The Book of Hartland, Torquay, 1940, p.142
• Epitaphs for Country Churchyards by Augustus John Cuthbert Hare, Appendix
• See also Chope, R.Pearse, The Book of Hartland, Torquay, 1940, p.142
• Home. Ledgerstones Survey of England & Wales. Retrieved 3 November 2015.