William and Ann Blount

William and Ann Blount

From the graveyard of All Saint's Church at Rempstone, Nottinghamshire, England. 

Beneath

Are deposited the Remains of

William Blount       Ann, the wife of,

           Who departed     William Blount         

    this mortal Life     she departed  

July the 10th 1795;  this mortal Life

               Aged 72 Years            the 4th of August 1791    

                                Aged 70 Years

His Epitaph

Upon the Road I met pale Death,

Who soon deprived me of my Breath;

All in a Moment awful Thought

My Soul eternal Mansions sought;

From accident, no man is free,

The next, Oh reader! may be thee

Then when you view my Grave, my dust

Prepare, be ready, die you must.

Her Epitaph

All her Afflictions she with Patience bore,

Was not surpriz'd when Death was at the Door

For in her Maker was her only trust,

In Hopes to rise in Glory with the Just.

Our clues here suggest that William may have died as the result of an accident, as the epitaph warns us it could happen to anyone, and Ann possibly from an illness, of which it came as no surprise that death was at the door. Still, reaching your 70's was quite an achievement in those days.