Monument To Alexander And Mary Waugh, North Section

Monument to Alexander and Mary Waugh, North Section

This monument comprises two parts: Mary Waugh's sarcophagus tomb of 1840 and Alexander Waugh's headstone added in 1869, both located in Bunhill Fields Burial Ground.

Mary Waugh's monument is a small Portland stone sarcophagus with a coped lid and two moulded feet. The principal inscription describes her life and virtues, while a second inscription on the opposite side records the setting-up of the monument in 1840.

Alexander Waugh's headstone is a thick granite slab with an arched top and a moulded base. Its long inscription names Waugh as a founder and "one of the most laborious and persistent advocates" of the London Missionary Society. Mary's name appears on the headstone along with those of their children Alexander and Jeane, Mary's sister Jeane, and Alexander's ministerial predecessor Archibald Hall and his wife Elizabeth. A coda describes the setting-up of the present monument, "replacing previous records", by the Waughs' surviving children in 1869.

Alexander Waugh (1754–1827) was a leading minister of the Scottish United Secession group and a co-founder of what became the London Missionary Society. Born in Berwickshire and educated at Edinburgh University and Marischal College, Aberdeen, he served as minister at the Wells Street chapel in London for forty-five years, succeeding Archibald Hall. In 1786 he married Mary Neill (d.1840) of Edincrow, Berwickshire. Waugh was among evangelical clergymen of various denominations who came together in the 1790s to found the Missionary Society, which played a leading role in spreading Christianity to Africa and the South Pacific. He also supported the British and Foreign Bible Society and Mill Hill Academy, and was made a Doctor of Divinity by Marischal College in 1815.

Bunhill Fields was first enclosed as a burial ground in 1665. Its location just outside the City boundary and independence from any Established place of worship made it London's principal Nonconformist cemetery, burial place of John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, William Blake and other leading religious and intellectual figures. It closed for burials in 1853, was laid out as a public park in 1867, and was re-landscaped following war damage by Bridgewater and Shepheard in 1964–65. This scheme involved clearing tombs in the cemetery's northern enclosure; the Waugh tombs were among those selected for retention.