Interesting. I'm guessing that depending on the kind of stone a headstone is quarried from, and how well it stands to the elements (and accidental damage) over the years, a stone might support a carving maintained over a considerable length of time, but do you see many stones like this, where there has been damage done to a stone (in this case, the damage was to the area where the date was carved, or has turned out from the aging or quality of the repair job to have been obscured) but not much in the way of maintaining the data involved (as in, say, parish records to support the data that might be lost on a damaged or misrepaired grave marker, or just one that has been worn so badly from sheer age, that not a lot can be drawn from the stone)? Is what little you were able to obtain from the stone (more or less the name of the man or woman buried, and a title-moniker for the carver) all we know about Mehetabel Sheafe?

I hope the above doesn't come across as a complaint; I don't mean it to at all. It's really something that you've not only covered 'really old burials' but lots of 'really interesting burials', and giving quite a breadth to those buried where you find them. As always, thank you for sharing your work and researches with us!

-2Paw.

I tried to look her up on the Interwebz, but she seems to have had a rather common combination of names.