v., pp. 511. 571.; Vol. vi., p. 441.).--Sir
Gilbert Gerard, Master of the Rolls temp. Queen Elizabeth, died on the 4th
of February, and was interred on the 6th of March, 1592 (Old Style), in
Ashley Church, in Staffordshire. The style most probably led Dugdale into
the error noticed by your learned correspondent MR. FOSS, in his last
communication to "N. & Q.," relative to the probate of Sir Gilbert Gerard's
will. I beg to forward you an extract taken from the Parish Register of
Ashley, which, {609} it will be seen, not only records the burial, but
likewise, rather unusually, the precise day of his death, a little more
than a month intervening between the two events, which possibly might be
accounted for. On a careful examination of Sir Gilbert's tomb, I did not
find (which agrees with Dugdale) any epitaph thereon,--a somewhat
remarkable circumstance, inasmuch as Sir Thomas Gerard (Sir Gilbert
Gerard's eldest son and heir, who was created Baron Gerard, of Gerard's
Bromley, where his father had built a splendid mansion, a view of which is
in Plot's _History of Staffordshire_, page 103., not a vestige of which
beyond the gateway is now standing) is said by the Staffordshire historians
to have erected a monument to the memory of his father at great expense; a
drawing of which is given by Garner in his _Natural History of
Staffordshire_, p. 120., with a copious description of the tomb.

_Extract. Annus 1592._

"4 Die Februarii mortuus est Gilbert Gerard, Miles, et Custos
Rotulorium Serenissimae Reginae Elizabethae; et sepultus 6 die Martii
sequentis."

T. W. JONES.

Nantwich.

_Tombstone in Churchyard._--_Arms: Battle-axe_ (Vol. vii., pp. 331. 390.
407. 560.).--It appears that I may conclude that 1600 is the oldest
_legible_ date on a tombstone inscription. That of 1601 is cut in relief
round the edge of a long free-stone slab, raised on a course of two or
three bricks, and is in Henllan, near Denbigh.

The battle-axes (three in fesse) are on the wall over it. I am obliged to
J. D. S.; but in both my cases the arms appear as connected with Welsh
families; but it is the above that I want to identify.

A. C.

A correspondent asks for instances of dates on tombstones earlier than
1601. I know of one, at Moore Church in the county of Meath, within five
miles of Drogheda. It is as early as 1597; the letters, instead of being
sunk, are in relief. I subjoin a copy of the inscription:

"HERE VNDER LIETH