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Laurence Sterne 1713-1768

Born in Clonmel, County Tipperary. After an education in Cambridge he was ordained and became Vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest from 1739-1760. His wife went insane, allegedly because of his philandering. It was after this period that he began to write full-time. His works include A Sentimental Journey, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and The Sermons of Yorick.

            He was originally buried in St George’s Burial Ground in Bayswater Road, London but his grave was not marked. The cemetery was mostly for the poor of the parish and the funeral was attended by only two gentlemen. According to McDonagh, Irish Graves in England, a stone was erected the following year although the exact location of the grave was unclear. The stone was placed about half a metre from the western boundary wall of the grounds.

        The monument was still in good condition when McDonagh, visited it 20 years later, the letters clear and distinct. In 1893 the Sterne estate erected another stone. When the burial ground was built over, his remains were removed by the Laurence Sterne Trust in 1969, to the churchyard of St Michael’s, Coxwold, North Yorkshire, where he had been vicar from 1760 until his death. He was reburied outside the south wall of the nave.

        It was rumoured that his body was disinterred shortly after his death by resurrectionists and that it ended up on a dissecting table in Cambridge University and was recognised by a student. The professor is supposed to have hidden the mutilated remains, although the head was returned to the grave in St George’s. When the site was being redeveloped a skull was dug up and it had been expertly sawn in half. The dimensions measured those of a bust made while Sterne was still alive. The original headstones are also in St Michael’s.  Photos by Donal Bateson