In the course of researching details of Walter Bagehot’s family for our new website, we have discovered that what’s engraved on the headstones of the family grave in All Saints’ churchyard is not always accurate. The date of George Stuckey Estlin’s death, for example, is given as 1 June 1829, when in fact he died on 10 June. More seriously, perhaps, the death of Walter’s mother Edith is given as 21 January 1870, when in fact she died on 21 February 1870. Contemporary accounts of her funeral bear this out. In George’s case, too, newspaper accounts of his death in a coach accident also agree on the date of his death.
Edith Bagehot’s death certificate proves the date:
