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Song, Folk Music and Folk Customs
Three Score and Ten
Grave found in Hull - from Geoff Lawes, 29 Apr 2008.
Grave found in Hull
Yesterday I went in to the old Sculcoates graveyard off Beverley Road in Hull which has recently been cleared of some of its overwhelming infestation of Japanese knotweed and I noticed a gravestone with a small carving of a wrecked ship.
When I read the gravestone tribute, the word that jumped out at me was the word ‘smack’ because of course “fishing smacks as well” is a line from the chorus of Three Score and Ten.
The date, 1889 seemed right from my knowledge of the song and so I wrote down the whole inscription and when I brought it home I was greatly enthused to find that all the details fit.
Here is what the inscription said (below the photograph):
(continues below)
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
JAMES
SECOND SON OF
THO'S & ANN STEPHENSON.
WHO WAS LOST AT SEA BY THE
FOUNDERING OF THE SMACK
"OLIVE BRANCH" FEBRUARY 9TH 1889
AGED 45 YEARS.
ALSO
MARIA CATHERINE
HIS BELOVED WIFE WHO DIED APRIL 5TH 1889.
AGED 49 YEARS
COME UNTO ME ALL YE THAT ARE WEARY - AND
I WILL GIVE YOU REST.
HE HAS GONE, HOW HARD NOT A FRIEND TO BE NEAR
TO HEAR HIS LAST SIGH OR WATCH HIS LAST TEAR;
NO PARTING FAREWELL, NO KIND WORDS OF LOVE,
TO CHEER HIS LAST MOMENTS OR POINT HIM ABOVE.
What a story the inscription suggests. Maria Catherine died just two months after James was drowned.
Roy Palmer's notes to the song in Boxing the Compass, formerly published as the Oxford Book of Sea Songs, confirm that The Olive Branch was a Hull vessel and that the date of the dreadful gale was February 8th & 9th.
I have taken a photograph of the headstone which is not, I will confess, very clear because of the dirt, lichen and weathering, but if it is of special interest I will send it to anyone who PMs.
The Mudcat archive shows very extensive interest in the song so I'm hoping that this is an offer that is not going to turn into my own battle with the swell.
Does anyone know the whereabouts of any other Three Score and Ten graves? - Geoff Lawes
Gravestone motif
Does anyone know the whereabouts of any other Three Score and Ten graves? - Geoff Lawes