The
Gravestone of Matilda Jenking.
She was born Matilda Sharrock the
daughter of Matthew and Agnes Sharrock. The Gravestone, at St Just in Roseland,
is close to the church between it and the water.
The Namur was wrecked on 14, April 1749
in a storm near Fort St David. In total, 520 of her crew were drowned
The first part of the inscription is
written around the four edges of the stone and the main text within it.
“Here lyeth the body of Mattilda
the daughter of Matthew Sharrock and Agnes his wife born the First of January
and in the year of our Lord 1698 and this life departed the Thirty First of
July 1750”
To William Jenking almost 32 years I was
a wife
I hope I always lived a virtuous life
Search the register and in it you may
plainly read
I had by him eleven sons besides
daughters three
One son I had among the rest his fancy
for to please
Resolved was to go on board and cross
o'er the salt seas
Unto the East Indies in Fort Davids Road
It happened then his sad fate to be that
time on board
One of his Present Majesty's ships
called Namur
The name I never more could bear to hear
nor could endure
When the stormy winds did rise and
billows they did roar
Several hundreds of dead bodies there
lay dashing on the shore
The news of this made my poor heart and
flesh to pine away
So here my body lyeth now amidst this
cold bed of clay
Yet though my body here doth lie amid
this clod of clay
I hope that it will rise again at the
Great Judgement Day
When Christ shall call for me and all to
come before his throne
And reunite soul and body again together
both in one
There to receive the judgement then as
He shall think most meet
A due reward of all our deeds as Christ
shall judge most fitt