Bawdeswell – All Saints’ Church (Robert Leeds 1736-1807)

I don’t have much to add to this one, I just liked that at least a few things survived inside the church. This tombstone inside All Saints’ Church in Bawdeswell has survived the church being rebuilt twice and commemorates the life of Robert Leeds. Robert was born in 1736, the elder son of Robert Leeds and Alice Leeds. The older brother of William Leeds (1740-1798) and John Leeds (1743-1763), Robert was buried on 29 January 1807 and the burial record lists him as a yeoman, which is likely a small-scale farmer who owned and cultivated their own land. He must have been doing well enough to be allowed to be buried inside the church, although there are other family members buried near him and perhaps they were the wealthy ones. Referring to a different Robert Leeds, White’s Directory noted in 1845 that “a great part of the soil in the village belongs to Robert Leeds”, so there was some prosperity floating about somewhere in the family. Unfortunately, as I can’t find any mention of him in the newspapers of the time, Robert has rather fallen through the cracks that are historical records.