File:LedgerStone MaryCutcliffe Died1700 MortehoeChurch.png

English: Ledger stone of Mary Cutcliffe (1663-1700), Mortehoe Church, Devon. Inscribed:

To ye memory (of) Mary wife of Thomas Newell of Easewell, Gent., & daughter of John Cutcliff Esqr., of Damage who dyed May 9 1700 being Ascension Day in ye 38 year of her age.

(Thou?) who dost perhaps with tears survey,

(These?) tombs with justice here thy sorrow pay,

(None?) of her sex perform'd there duty more,

(Towards?) their husbands children or ye poor.

Whether to hasten to the joys above,

Or stay with dear objects of her love,

Doubtful she seem'd but when ye sacred day,

Of Christ's Ascension came without delay,

Joyful she (took?) the happy omen given,

That to her (honour?) she should mount to Heaven.

In the centre are shown the arms of Newell of Easewell in the parish of Woollacombe (A bend with a chief) impaling Cutcliffe of Damage in the parish of Mortehoe (Gules, three pruning hooks argent). She was baptised at Ilfracombe on 21 April 1663 and married in 1684. She was a daughter of John Cutcliffe (1632-1696) of Damage by his wife Eleanor Chichester (1629-31 March 1681) (whose large mural monument survives in Ilfracombe Church ), daughter of Tristram I Chichester of Hearsdon in the parish of Swimbridge, Devon, and a co-heiress of her brother Tristram II Chichester (1624-1654), whose monument is in Swimbridge Church. Also surviving in Ilfracombe Church is the monument to John Cutcliffe's parents, namely Charles Cutcliffe (1577-Oct 1637) of Damage and Grace Chichester (d.Nov.1637), a daughter of John Chichester of Hall in the parish of Bishop's Tawton, Devon.

Monuments of two of Eleanor's children survive in Swimbridge Church: Charles Cutcliffe (d.1670), an important monument with oil portrait by James Gandy; Christiana Cutcliffe (d.1721), wife of Henry Chichester of Stowford in the parish of Swimbridge. (Source: Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pp.184, pedigree of "Chichester of Hearsdon"; p.265, pedigree of "Cutcliffe of Damage").