Peebles, Old Town, Old St. Andrew's Church, cemetery. General view of the headstone of Alexander Horsburgh, died 1737. Twisted pilasters with incised block capitals and pointed pediment enclosing wing ...

Description Peebles, Old Town, Old St. Andrew's Church, cemetery. General view of the headstone of Alexander Horsburgh, died 1737. Twisted pilasters with incised block capitals and pointed pediment enclosing winged soul, skull, hourglass and crossed bones. Insc: 'Fugit Hora' and 'Memento Mori'.

Date 1986

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

Catalogue Number SC 801891

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of A 34908 PO

Scope and Content Gravestone commemorating Thomas Gibsone, St Andrew's Church, Neidpath Road, Peebles, Scottish Borders Here, the winged figure at the top of the memorial represents the soul and its ascent to Heaven after death. The soul is shown wearing what appears to be a large wig. Beneath, the emblems represent death and mortality: the skull and cross bones symbolise death while the hourglass signifies the passage of time. These melancholy motifs are flanked by a pair of Classically-inspired pilasters (a flattened pillar), featuring a spiral decoration along their shafts. The gravestone commemorating the Gibson family appears to belong to a group of several memorials sharing a similar style of carving, which may be the work of the same mason. These features include pilasters with spiral decoration along their shafts and a distinctive portrayal of winged souls which often have unusual hairstyles and small, kite-shaped chest feathers. Some also feature small flowers emblazoned upon their chests. This gravestone commemorates the family of Thomas Gibsone, a tenant farmer, who died in 1727 aged 73. Also interred here are his wife Isobelle, who died in 1728 aged 78, and their daughter, Janet who died in 1714 aged 18. A transcription made in the 1980s records the inscription as: 'Here lyes Thomas Gibsone/Tenant in Kirkburn/who died the 4 of February/1727 his age 73 and/Isobelle Gibson his spouse/who died 8th November 1728/aged 78 and their daughter/Janet who died 26th July 1714/aged 18 years'. In 1971 genealogists noted the inscription as commemorating several other members of Thomas Gibsone's family. These were: Thomas Gibson, a tenant farmer in Cardrona, who died in 1765 aged 81 and his wife Janet Horsbrugh, who died in 1769 aged 75; Robert Gibson, a tenant farmer in Whitehaugh, who died in 1747 aged 57, and his wife Jean Brunton, who died in 1769 aged 74. Inscribed along the top of the stone were the names of John Gibson, a tailor, who died in 1756 aged 68, and his wife Helen Henderson, who died in 1756 aged 64. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/801891

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap