The Terrible Tale Of Tommy Meaykin - By Stephen Harvey

The grave of Thomas Meaykin

In a village called Rushton
right alongside the lake
There's a tombstone of sorry
with a tale of heart break
'Mermento Mori, in latin it says
which when roughly translated
says 'be mindful of death'
'bia thantos' most wicked
at the bottom most line
hints at 'death by violence'
for this most awful of crime
He was an ostler by trade
The most lowly of class
Who fell head over heels
for a local gents lass
and when Tommy met illness
they buried in haste
In the church of St Michaels
the most holy of place
When suspicions grew quickly
on this untimely loss
and his grave was uncovered
by his most loyal of hoss
and when they opened his coffin
he had turned upside down
to claw at the coffin
from this tomb underground
he'd been buried alive
in a grave not his own
to end his poor life
in the darkness alone
a young man had fallen
to the most wicked of men
so falleth do I
when this tale I do tell


The history

This is the tale of a young man named Thomas Meaykin, who worked as an ostler (looks after horses) in Stone.

Thomas fell in love with the Pharmacists daughter, but he was from a lower class than her.

He became ill one day and was pronounced dead shortly after. He was buried very quickly after the being seen by the Pharmacists own doctor.

Thomas's favourite pony kept returning to his grave and pawing the ground and this alerted the locals that there was something not quite right. His friends exhumed the body and found him lying face down, and there were scratch marks and blood as if he had tried to escape. Had he been poisoned and buried alive?

After his family brought his remains back to Rushton they were reburied at St Lawrence's,which is also known as The Chappel in the wilderness. Notice that the grave doesn't say when he died, only when he was buried and is the opposite direction to the other headstones. It is believed that this would help to put his soul to rest.

The gravestone reads :

Memento Mori
Thomas son of Thomas and Mary Meaykin
Interred on July 16th 1781
Aged 21 years

As a man falleth before wicked men
So fall I

Bia Thanatas (death by violence)

Some believe the ending  Bia Thanatas was an hint at a work by the English writer and clergyman John Donne. Written in 1608 and published after his death, it contains a heterodox defense of self-homicide (suicide), listing prominent Biblical examples including Samson, Saul, and Judas Iscariot.

Maybe there was a possiblity that Thomas attempted suicide by poisening himself only to awaken from a coma like state after been buried?

The line 'Falleth before wicked men seems to suggests otherwise, and points at him being murdered, but we will never really know for sure. No person was ever tried for his murder.

The Chappel in the wilderness

This story was featured in the superb book 'Ow ter toke raight' by Fred Leigh
ISBN 0 952418823

BUY HERE

http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/content/articles/2008/06/12/stone_history_feature.shtml

It is not the antention of the writer to upset anyone living or dead, but to inform readers of tales of local and historical interest. The poem is a fictional account of a well known legend that has been well documented on numerous sites and in many books.