Detail of gravestone. Digital image of B 4307/20.

Description Detail of gravestone. Digital image of B 4307/20.

Date 1991

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

Catalogue Number SC 801145

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of B 4307/20

Scope and Content Gravestone commemorating John Forest, St Ninian's Church, Lamington, South Lanarkshire The miller's headstone has an unusual curving shape, formed by using decorative scrolls. The pair of emblems carved on the upper part of the stone, the skull and crossbones and crossed spade and turf-cutter, speak of death and mortality. The spade and turf-cutter were the tools of the Sexton or grave-digger. Although the inscription states John Forest was the Lamington miller, at the foot of the gravestone is an object known as a miller's rind, a piece of ironwork used to hold a millstone in place. As a miller, John Forest and his family likely enjoyed a good living since most local farmers would have had their corn or oatmeal milled at his premises. Such an arrangement would have been mandatory if the local farms and the mill were owned by the same landlord. For each bushel he ground, the miller took a proportion of the newly milled flour or oatmeal, a fee traditionally known as multure. If he had any assistants or mill-servants working with him, the miller could further increase his fee. This gravestone commemorates John Forest, a miller, who died in 1680. The inscription reads: 'HERE LYES JOHN/FOREST MILLER IN/LAMINGTON WHO/DEPARTED THIS LIFE/ANNO 1680 WITH HIS/SPOUSE ELISABETH CAROEL'. On the reverse a second inscription commemorates John Forest's daughter Isobell, and reads 'HERE LYES IS[OB]ELL FOREST LAUFULL DAUGHTER TO [JOHN] FOREST WHO...'. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/801145

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap