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Hi SC

Thanks for responding. I am afraid that I have no more information about George Rule or the Farish family. In fact, finding out about the Cummertrees inscription was the first indication that I had that they were connected with Alexander Shepherd at all. There seems little doubt that this is the same Alexander Shepherd as my direct ancestor. His gravestone is, or was, in Brigham cemetery. Fortunately the inscriptions were trancribed in 1878 and published originally by Henry Thomas Wake. The complete collection is available from parishchest.com in PDF format. Alexander's gravestone is inscribed:

"In Memory of Alexander Shepherd who died  the 19th of January 1809, Aged 38 Years. Also of Mary his Wife who died the 28th day of January, 1850 Aged 84 Years. Also of George his Son, who died April 11th 1809; Aged 15 Years. Also Alexander their Son who died June 6th, 1862, Aged 57 Years. Isabella, Wife of Alexander
Shepherd died May 2nd 1835, aged 32 Years"

This leaves little doubt that this is the same Alexander Shepherd who is commemorated in Cummertrees. Tracing the descent from Alexander to me is fairly straightforward. Alexander's grandson John Shepherd moved to Warrington in Lancashire in the 1840's and I am his gg grandson.

The connection with George Rule and Alexander Farish is unclear to me. Given that my theory about a worn gravestone is wrong the only possibility which would explain the inscription seems to be that George Rule was Mary Charters's stepson. That is that Alexander's father and George's mother both died and that Mary Charters/Shepherd re-married George's father William Rule. This is pure speculation. I can find no evidence to support it at all. It is not easy for me to search original records since I now live in Australia but I can find nothing in the internet sources that I know about

Best Regards

John Shepherd

I came acros this thread by chance when searching for my direct  ancestor (GGGG grandfather) Alexander Shepherd. His gravestone is (or was) in Brigham cemetery near Cockermouth and from the inscription I know that he died in Brigham in 1809. From his age at death  he was born in about 1771. I have been unable to trace Alexander's ancestry until now. From this thread I see that his mother was Mary Charters and that Alexander probably came from Scotland. Using this information I have found from the LDS site that Alexander was born in 1769 in Dalton, Dumfries. His mother was born Mary Charters but was married to John Shepherd at the time that Alexander was born. Presumably Alexander moved across the Solway as a young man because he married Mary Vickers in Cockermouth in 1794. The main remaining mystery is why George Rule is described as her son. Could there have beeen a mistake in transcribing the original inscription?  A George Rule was born in Annan in 1775 which would make him the same age as this George. His mother was Agnes Welch. The inscription would then be explained if Agnes's name was originally on the monument preceding George's but had worn away by the time it was transcribed. Is this possible? Any help from contributors would be gratefully received.