Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions

This collection of monumental inscriptions, provided by West Middlesex Family History Society, covers the years from 1485 to 2019 and includes transcripts for each entry. While the amount of available information will vary from transcript to transcript, most will include the following details:

• Full name

• Age

• Birth year

• Death year

• Dedication

• Place

• County

• Monument type

• Inscription – may include the names of others buried in that plot as well as more specific details regarding age and birth and death dates. This can be incredibly helpful as it can provide you with the names and dates of your ancestor’s next of kin, including their relation to one another.

• Description link – links you to a PDF document hosted on an external website that includes histories, images, and burial ground plans for the churches represented in this collection.

• Memorial reference

• Position reference

The records have been provided by Hillingdon Family History Society, West Middlesex Family History Society, and West Drayton & Northwood, Middlesex. Through the use of volunteers and society members, the societies have created copies of monumental inscriptions across Middlesex. A full list of the parishes in this collection are available in the Useful links and resources section.

Many of the transcripts will include a document link. Follow the Document link on your ancestor’s transcript to learn more about the church and graveyard your ancestor was buried in. Included in each will be a brief history and image of the church, as well as burial plot maps.

In the records, you will find two inscriptions from Old Church in Chelsea for Hans Sloane. Sloane was an Irish-born physician from County Down. Throughout his life, he collected items about natural history, books, drawings, manuscripts, coins, seals, and other curiosities. His collection, which he donated to the state, formed the foundation for the British Museum. In the records, you will find two results for Sir Hans Sloane. One refers to his own monumental inscription and the second result is form a monument erected in his memory by the Friends of the British Museum. Sir Sloane’s headstone states, ‘In memory of Sir Hans Sloane, President of the Royal Society and of the College of Physicians who in the year of our Lord 1753, in the 92nd year of his age, without the least pain of body and with a conscious serenity of mind ended a virtuous and beneficent life. This monument was erected by his 2 daughters Eliza Cadogan and Sarah Stanley’. The monument is described as a ‘large urn beneath a canopy resting on 4 pillars and standing on a large square base’. He was buried on 18 January 1753 and is buried with his wife Elizabeth Lady Sloane, buried in 1724.

The second result for Sir Sloane is a monument erected in Old Church, Chelsea, in honour of Sir Hans Sloane and paid for by the Friends of the British Museum. According to the Chelsea Old Church website, at the unveiling ceremony, the vicar said, ‘We have given this great man the best spot we could find. The new plaque is beside the tomb of the family of the squire who picked up the crown at the battle of Bosworth and presented it to the knight who then handed it to the new Tudor King. The tablet is within a few feet of the tomb which Thomas More prepared for himself and his wives and opposite the capitols designed here in Chelsea by Holbein himself. It's near the spot where Henry VIII stood with Jane Seymour, where Lady Jane Gray received communion every Sunday, where the "illegitimate" and endangered Princess Elizabeth said her private prayers and where James 1 stood as godfather. It's a handshake away from the pulpit where Wesley preached when Anglican pulpits were closed to him’.

• Begin your search broadly with just a name.

• If needed, you can narrow your results by including additional search criteria such as a year or place.