View of gravestone of Thomas Soutar, 1727-47. Digital image of B 4174/7.

Description View of gravestone of Thomas Soutar, 1727-47. Digital image of B 4174/7.

Date c. 1990

Collection Papers of Betty Willsher, historian, St Andrews, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 795307

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 4174/7

Scope and Content Gravestone of Thomas Souttar, Isabael Smith and family, Kettins Churchyard, Kettins, Angus This monument is framed by pilasters with ball finials, and a scrolled top, which frame a scene of two wingless angels trumpeting on the Day of Judgement to call the dead from their graves. Below is a grinning Death's head and bone, with scrolls on each side, perhaps intended to be wings. The panel at the base of the stone contains two hourglasses and crossed spade and turf-cutter, the tools of a sexton (gravedigger). Scenes depicting believers rising from the dead to the call of angel's trumpets on the Day of Judgement are found on many Scottish gravestones. The imagery is derived from the following text from I Corinthians 15: 51-2: 'Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed'. This shows the gravestone of Thomas Souttar, who died in 1727, his wife Isobel Smith, who died in 1746, and their two daughters Agnes and Isobel. It is inscribed: 'Erected by Thomas Souttar/Portioner in... And his/wife Agnes Petrie in memory/of his father Thomas Souttar/farmer in.../who died January 1727 aged 51/& also Isabael Smith/who died January 1746/aged 67 & their daughters Agnes and Isobel Souttar'. A portioner was a farmer who worked part of (a portion of) an estate. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/795307

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap