Grave memorial to Susannah Darby and William Darby (also known as Pablo Fanque)

The grave memorial is dedicated to Susannah Darby, who died in 1848, and her husband William Darby, known professionally as Pablo Fanque, who passed away in 1871.

It is made of fine-grained sandstone and consists of two parts: a standing grave slab on a moulded plinth and a horizontal grave cover shaped like a pitched roof that projects east from the plinth, ending in a hipped east side.

The standing grave slab features a bas-relief carving of an ornamented funerary urn draped with cloth, above a cornice adorned with carved leaves and acorns. The inscription on the slab reads:

‘SACRED / TO THE MEMORY OF/ SUSANNAH DARBY, / AGED 47 YEARS. / THE BELOVED WIFE OF/ WILLIAM DARBY, EQUESTRIAN MANAGER, / PROFESSIONALLY KNOWN AS/ PABLO FANQUE / HER DEATH WAS OCCASIONED BY THE FALLING / OF A PORTION OF THE CIRCUS ERECTED IN / KING CHARLES CROFT / LEEDS / ON SATURDAY THE 18TH DAY OF MARCH 1848.

TO THE GODS DECREE WE MORTALS ALL MUST BEND, THY WILL BE DONE OUR BEST AND ONLY FRIEND, MY SOUL BY THY COMMAND, IS BORNE AWAY, TO REALMS OF LIGHT AND NEVER ENDING DAY, TORN FROM THE WORLD, AND FROM MY HUSBAND DEAR, PITY MY FATE, AND DROP A SILENT TEAR.

HER BEREAVED AND AFFLICTED HUSBAND / HAS CAUSED THIS MONUMENT TO BE ERECTED.’

Beneath this, in a different typeface, is an additional inscription:

‘ALSO CAROLINE SUSANNAH, THE INFANT DAUGHTER OF WILLIAM / AND ELIZABETH DARBY, WHO DIED JANUARY 1ST 1859, / AGED 1 YEAR AND 4 MONTHS. Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.’

The horizontal grave cover carries the inscription:

‘ALSO THE ABOVE NAMED / WILLIAM DARBY PABLO FANQUE / WHO DIED MAY 4TH 1871 AGED 75 YEARS.’