Sarah Smith's Grave Slab

Found via a search of Historic England's own listings for the word 'murdered'. Sarah Smith, born 1742 to Samuel and Martha Smith of Bradwell Park near Wolstanton, died on 29 November 1763 aged 21 and was buried four days later. The parish baptismal register for the same day records the baptism of 'Sarah Dtr. Of Sarah Smith' with no father named, suggesting Sarah had an illegitimate daughter shortly before her own death; the baby died two weeks after her mother. The gravestone's verse directly names her alleged killer in blanked-out letters ('C-----s B----w') and gives the method (poison), and explicitly states its own purpose - a public accusation, 'that all that read it may see.' Documentary research by local historian J. Crick (2013, commissioned by St Margaret's Church itself, and used as Historic England's own source for the listing) identifies the accused as most likely Charles Barlow, about six years older than Sarah and from a neighbouring tenant family, with speculation that he may have fathered her child and been responsible for her death. No trial or conviction is recorded. The grave slab was only Grade II listed in 2018, as part of a wider public call-out for overlooked memorials.