She came from nowhere to marry Samuel GOFTON on 25 March 1794 at St Oswald’s Church. She gave birth to two known children, Robert in 1794 and Elizabeth in 1796, and died in 1803 aged just 32.
The verse that might have given us an insight into her character has been mostly erased by time and weather. Just the first word or two of each line remain. Make of them what you will.
‘Here lies…
One who…
Death…
Physician…
Grieve…
We hope…
And O…
Take her…
Her birth family name is SWALES but I can’t find a record that identifies her parents or her village of origin. A “Rachiel” Swales was born to “Robart” in Whenby in 1769. This is close in time – a two-year discrepancy if the monumental inscription is correct – and in space. Whenby, population about 130 at the beginning of the 19th century, is 40 miles west of Filey, a few miles beyond Malton.
Her marriage and the baptisms of her children generated places on the FamilySearch Tree for the family she created – but disconnected from Samuel’s second wife and the eight known children he had with Sarah GLAVES. I have brought them together.
I don’t know if Rachel’s children made it out of childhood. I suspect neither did because Samuel and Sarah named their fifth child Robert and their last Elizabeth.
