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