Twyford – St. Nicholas Church (Barbara Savory)

This grave at St. Nicholas Church in Twyford commemorates the life of Barbara Savoury, the daughter of Coulsey and Elizabeth Savory. Coulsey seems an interesting person, he was a small-scale landowner who found himself in a financial situation later in life that was sub-optimal, although like Alan Partridge, he bounced back. He was to die in 1837 and was buried in the church, although his gravestone is no longer extant.

At first, I struggled to read the name on this grave, but the death at a young age was visible and I was intrigued. It was easy to work out by going to do the burial records of the church from that year and this is the only death in 1800. Barbara died on 6 December 1800, aged just two years and three months. Although there’s quite a lot of media attention about her father over the decades, there’s no mention of Barbara other than the birth and funeral record. A few years after her death, her parents had another girl who they also named Barbara, although she also died young and was buried on 4 February 1829 at the age of 20. Her parents also had a son called Edward who was born in 1807 and he grew up and lived in the village, later naming his own child Barbara Savory and I’m pleased that she had a much longer life. So, in some form, the name of young Barbara did live on.