Here is another entry in our (very occasional!) series of gravestone errata: the memorial stone of Godfrey Washington (1670-1729), who was the great-uncle of the first President of the USA, George Washington. This stone is mounted on the north wall of the parish church of St Mary the Less in Cambridge, where Washington is buried, having been Vicar, and Fellow and Bursar of the neighbouring Peterhouse. The stone attracts a fair number of pilgrims, who note the eagle, stars, and stripes of the Washington coat of arms, from which the emblem and flag of the USA are said to derive. On closer inspection, however, there is apparent confusion over the year in which he died:

What is the story behind this error? Is it really a careless mistake on the part of the stone carver, who perhaps lost concentration as he reached the end of his work? (Compare the story of American author Isaac Bashevis Singer, whose gravestone proclaimed him winner of the 1978 ‘Noble’ Prize for Literature…). There’s something especially surprising about errors and corrections in gravestone inscriptions. As texts, they are literally monumental and often sacred sites, and our expectations of their permanence and finality make any errors and corrections stand out as particularly affronting.

In a graveyard on a hill overlooking the harbour in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, a headstone marks the burial site of Anne, the youngest Bronte sibling, who died while seeking recovery from tuberculosis in the coastal resort. The original stone, now somewhat eroded, claims that ‘She died Aged 28/ May 28th 1849’. In 2011 the Bronte Society placed another stone next to it, pointing out that ‘The text contains one error’ – Anne was in fact 29 when she died (her birthday being 17th January 1820). Anne’s sister Charlotte apparently discovered multiple errors when she visited the grave three years after her death, and the stone was then refaced, but with this mistake remaining, uncorrected until now.