Cheeswright Family Monument, South Enclosure

635-1/0/10279 BUNHILL FIELDS BURIAL GROUND 21-FEB-11 Cheeswright family monument, South enc losure

GV II Headstone of the Cheeswright family, c.1801

LOCATION: 532759, 182235.2

MATERIALS: Sandstone

DESCRIPTION: The monument takes the form of an upright stone slab with a horned and arched top. It is inscribed on both sides. The eastern face, partly repaired in cement, commemorates various members of the Cheeswright family with dates of death between 1801 and 1813. On the western face is an inscription commemorating Elizabeth White (d.1824), daughter of Samuel and Hannah Cheeswright: 'The meekest of Women and the best of Wives and of Mothers, she alleviated the Sorrows and improved the Comforts of that Domestic Circle adorned by her Virtues. Courteous without servility and Pious without ostentation, she conciliated the tenderest affection of her Relatives and Friends, and enjoyed the sincere esteem of all who had the happiness of her acquaintance. So gentle was her Spirit, and so benign her disposition, that it may truly be said, Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.'

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 Cheeswright monument is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a well-preserved early-C19 monument with an inscription epitomising contemporary ideals of pious womanhood; * 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.