Sarah Foster Butterton, died 1866

The grave of Sarah Foster Butterton (1813-1866), the wife of Reverend George Ash Butterton. According to the inscription on her tombstone, her parents were Abraham and Sarah Chamberlain of Rilston [sic] in Yorkshire and she died at Rhyl on 23 September 1866, aged 53. The monument was erected by her sister, Ann Starkie of Huntroyde Hall at Padiham in Lancashire. Ann was the wife of Le Gendre Nicholas Starkie (1799-1765), a wealthy landowner who had served as MP for Pontefract from 1826 to 1830.

Sarah and her husband appear on the 1861 census, living at the Parsonage in Cleobury North, a village in southeast Shropshire. According to the census, Reverend Butterton was the Rector of Cleobury North.

Reverend Butterton married again less than a year later, which possibly explains why it was left to the first Mrs Betterton's sister to raise this handsome monument to her memory. On 17 May 1867 at Stone in Staffordshire Reverend Betterton married Elizabeth Woodcock, daughter of Enoch Woodcock.

Photographed by John Brown of Rhyl in Wales.