John Hutton

Beneath is deposited all that is mortal of John Hutton who died 12^th of April 1793 aged 47 years

Go home dear wife and shed no tears

I must lie here til Christ appears

And at his coming hope to have

A joyful rising from the grave

“A Moving Memorial”

John Hutton married Ann at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate in 1782. According to his gravestone, John was born around 1746, so he would have been 36 at the time of marriage. We don’t know for sure what John’s profession was, but he and Ann were together for 11 years.

So, at John’s death, was it the grieving widow who organised such a sentimental verse on his gravestone? Or were these words an instruction from John himself? Perhaps it was simply chosen out of a catalogue – there are lots of examples of the poem being used as memorial – some times in a longer form – from London, to the Isle of Man to the USA:

Go home dear friends and shed no tears

We must be here til Christ appears

And at his coming hope to have

A glorious rising from the grave

Though we lie sleeping in the dust

Our saviour Christ in whom we trust

Will one day rise us up again

With him in heaven to remain

It does seem that perhaps Ann’s tears were short lived, or perhaps her circumstances meant that she quickly needed to remarry. Just 18 months after John Hutton died, Ann returned to Holy Trinity Goodramgate to marry John Bell, a tobacconist and dealer in snuff with a shop in Stonegate.