In memory of joseph
Willcockson Esqr
Who Departed this
life March 10th 1760
in ye 59th year of his
Age.
felix Vivens moriens, __ us
mo[r]tuus fuit beatus.
My Latin is too rusty for anything but infelicitous stabs at translation here. The first line may be roughly “happy are the living who die” and the second something like “dead, he was blessed.” The last word of the first line is missing; if the missing word is “Dominus” the whole could be something like “Happy are the living who die in the Lord, dead, they were blessed.” This sounds to me like a version of Revelation 14:13, a popular Scripture verse in these early graveyards, which reads: “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”
