Mary of Buttermere's Grave, Caldbeck

The gravestone of 'Mary of Buttermere' in the churchyard of St. Kentigern's Church at Caldbeck in Cumbria.
Mary Robinson, 'The Beauty of Buttermere' (1778 - 1837) was the daughter of the landlord of the Fish Inn at Buttermere. Mary was a sheperdess, known for her beauty, and in 1802 she met John Hatfield, who called himself "Colonel Hope", the brother of an earl. Their marriage got a lot of attention, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote in the London Morning Post of "The romantic marriage". When Hatfield was exposed as an impostor, bigamist and forger, he was arrested. He escaped, to be captured in South Wales, tried at Carlisle, and hanged in 1803.
In 1807 she married a local farmer and had four children. She is buried at St Kentigern's Church in Caldbeck.
The story of Mary captured the public imagination of the time and William Wordsworth wrote of her in 'The Prelude'. Mary is the subject of Melvyn Bragg's 1987 novel, 'The Maid of Buttermere'.