Stockport : Stockport St. Mary’s Church (Grave of Nathan Percival)

Back on the theme of graves outside St. Mary’s Church, this is the gravestone of Nathan Percival.

Born in 1766, the son of Nathan Percival (same name) and Ellen Taylor. I couldn’t find any record of his birth, although the records of the church from this time note the bastard children who had been born, which for some people might be the only documentary record left of their lives.

Nathan married Elizabeth on 21 March 1791 at this church and the gravestone notes the children they lost and also her own relatively early death.

I can’t tell, but I suspect this is Nathan’s father of the same name, and same occupation, who managed to lose his black bulldog in Wilmslow. Nathan’s father’s will survives and he gave his three children an equal share of his wealth, but his business property which was left to him by his brother William was split between Nathan and John. The will mentions that the older Nathan Percival lived in Churchgate, although I’m unsure if that’s where he traded as a butcher. Unfortunately, the earliest trade directories on-line are a couple of years after the younger Nathan died, so I can’t get a location.

Nathan died on 3 May 1824 at the age of 58 and he was buried three days later. I find this naming the occupation of the person on the gravestone in such a prominent place as a little unusual, but it’s quite handy for giving a little more information. Unfortunately, reading Nathan’s will, he didn’t have any surviving children and his money went to his nephew, his wife’s son. I like that I can see Nathan’s signature on his will, in a life where not much survives in terms of the documentary record, this brings him to life just a little. He doesn’t appear on any family trees, although that’s not entirely surprising if he didn’t have any descendants.