Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - Richard Ayearst (Lord of Bothamsall)

Among the monuments in the Markdale Cemetery is one that stands out because it is not what one might expect to find in a small town cemetery.



Is this sculpture a work of Bobbie Carlyle known as the Self Made Man? The self made man is carving himself - his character and his future, out of stone.


Who is Richard Ayearst - Lord of Bathamsall?  [March 4 2011 update. The name of the village is Bothamsall. Information provided by his widow.]

He was born in 1950 and died in 1997.

The first line of the poem is cited on different websites as the words of Alan Ashley-Pitt, but I have not discovered who he is. [Update: October 25, 2020 -- It appears that he worked for a card company but this was his nom de plume of Phil Wernig.]

"The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has." It appears to be from a work called "On Creativity". [Update: -- October 26, 2020 -- can no longer find the poem.]

Update: September 18, 2010, I received an email from a reader with this information on the name:

 I know that the Ayearst's originally came from England into Canada, settling in the Toronto area. My Great Grandfather was William Albert Ayearst, my Grandfather was William Thomas Boyd Ayearst. William T.B. Ayearst had 2 brothers, John A. & Francis. There is a plaque on the west wall of the Nave at Canterbury Cathedral:  William Ayearst D.D., died May 9th, 1765 aged 81.
The family name began as Ayerst (possibly Aherst) in Kent and an "a" was inserted centuries ago. A book was compiled by Morley Ayearst, 1973, East Hampton, New York on the family history. Most of the U.S. Ayearst's are interred at Michigan Memorial Park Cemetery, Flat Rock, Mich.