Monument To Ann Davis, West Enclosure

635-1/0/10236 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Ann Davis, West enclosure

GV II Headstone of Ann Davis, 1803

LOCATION: 532632.6, 182259.5

MATERIALS: Sandstone

DESCRIPTION: The monument is an upright stone slab with a shaped top. The main inscription commemorates Miss Ann Davis, who died in 1803 aged 21. A memorial verse reads:

Go ! spotless Honor and unsullied Truth; Go ! smiling Innocence and blooming Youth; Go! Female softness joined with Manly sense; Go ! winning Wit that never gave Offence; Go ! soft Humanity that blessed the Poor; Go! Saint-eyed Patience from affection's Door; Go ! Modesty that never wore a Frown; Go ! Virtue, and receive thy Heavenly Crown.

Further inscriptions record the burials of Hugh Jones and his son John.

HISTORY: Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Thanks to its location just outside the City boundary, and its independence from any Established place of worship, it became London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, the burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It was closed for burials in 1853, laid out as a public park in 1867, and re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964-5.

SOURCES: Corporation of London, A History of the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (1902). A W Light, Bunhill Fields (London, 1915).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The monument to Ann Davis is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a well-preserved early-C19 headstone with good letter carving, whose fulsome inscription bears witness to contemporary ideals of feminine virtue. * It is located within the Grade I registered Bunhill Fields Burial Ground (q.v.), and has group value with the other listed tombs in the west enclosure.