bronze plaque · England

Mausoleum of Mrs Perkins

According to 'The Smugglers of Christchurch' by E.R. Oakley this structure was a mausoleum of a certain Mrs. Perkins who died in 1783. This lady had a horror of being buried alive and requested that her body should not be interred, but that a fabric should be erected to receive it near the entrance to the free school then in St. Michael's Loft of the Priory. So that the boys should hear if she revived, she also requested that the lid of the coffin should not be screwed down, and the lock of the mausoleum constructed so as to enable her to open it in the spring. These wishes were carried out, but when her husband died in 1803 her body was removed. The structure sold and re-erected on this present site.

Inscription drawn from imported open data, awaiting original TributeLegacy editorial.

Source: Open Plaques. Geographic data via OpenStreetMap.

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Open Plaques, dedicated to the public domain (CC0). See openplaques.org.
Wikidata, available under the CC0 1.0 Universal dedication.
Historic England, National Heritage List for England, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. War memorial records are drawn from open community datasets (OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, NHLE) — never from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which is excluded.

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