Mary Barosus. St. Giles, Oxford.

[julie7239]

This isn't one of my own ancestors, it is just a photograph of a headstone that I took in St. Giles churchyard in Oxford city.  It was a very worn headstone with just the name visible, which I think is Mary Barosus.

It may be useful to somebody on this board.  I thought it an incredibly rare surname, and wondered a lot about her and where her name came from.  Strange for a woman to be buried on her own, not with her husband or family.  I wondered how old this gravestone is and why it is so worn?  I am posting it out of curiosity, and if anybody knows anything about gravestones in general or how to tell how old they are, I would be very grateful.  My guess is that this headstone is very old, hence being so worn.


http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmcid=48905387&GRid=156132650&

[rosie17]

She might not have been buried on her own quite possible other names have never been added to the stone ..Hard to give a date would say maybe early 1800 I heard if you dust with talcum powder it makes it easier to read the names ...
Rosie

[CarolA3]

The Oxfordshire Family History Society PR transcripts for St Giles have the following entry:

10 August 1847    BARCHUS  Mary      67    St Thomas

St Thomas is another Oxford parish.  FreeBMD has a death for Mary BAREHUS in Sep qtr 1847 (vol 16 p 57) in Oxford registration district, which includes St Thomas.

St Giles at that time was in Headington registration district, so if this is the right Mary she could have died in St Thomas parish but been buried at St Giles.

There is a local name, BARGUS, which has several variant spellings.  I'll keep looking.

Carol

[julie7239]

The Oxfordshire Family History Society PR transcripts for St Giles have the following entry:

10 August 1847    BARCHUS  Mary      67    St Thomas

St Thomas is another Oxford parish.  FreeBMD has a death for Mary BAREHUS in Sep qtr 1847 (vol 16 p 57) in Oxford registration district, which includes St Thomas.

St Giles at that time was in Headington registration district, so if this is the right Mary she could have died in St Thomas parish but been buried at St Giles.

There is a local name, BARGUS, which has several variant spellings.  I'll keep looking.

Carol

Thanks, that is fascinating.

[julie7239]

She might not have been buried on her own quite possible other names have never been added to the stone
Rosie

St Giles seems to have a mixture of well-maintained, easily read Victorian tombs and gravestones, along with other gravestones whose inscriptions have been completely worn away.  Mary's was just about legible.  I read that in London during the population explosion of the nineteenth century, there was a lot of pressure on graveyards due to high numbers, don't know if the situation was similar in Oxford, so maybe she wasn't buried on her own.