Monument To Mary Boyle, South Enclosure

635-1/0/10258 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Monument to Mary Boyle, South enclosure

GV II* Chest tomb of Mary Boyle, c1816

LOCATION: 532664.8, 182219.4

MATERIALS: Portland stone with sandstone plinth and top, the latter probably Pennant stone.

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of a stone chest with bowed ends and a flat lid, on a stepped plinth. The railings that formerly ran around the plinth are missing. The long sides have rectangular inscription panels, the text framed by incised lines, and fluted corner pilasters. The curved ends each have three panels of incised lines, the central ones with a Greek-revival key pattern. The inscriptions reveal that the tomb commemorates Mary Boyle (d.1816) but gives no clue as to her biography.

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 Mary Boyle is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a well-preserved tomb of c1816, in an elegant neo-classical design * 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 south enclosure.