Horizontal grave stones

[pepperdale]

I visited Methlick in 1979 and found 4 ancestral surnames of "gravestones" (Marshall, Barrack, Imlah(y), Forbes). Most headstones were vertical and of high quality -- marble, granite or whatever. Some of mine were horizontal and looked like the info was scratched in fresh cement (not engraved)!! I even found 3 Imlah slabs side by side. (Photos available)

Further, I found 3 groups of text on one slab that read:

Here lieth AAAA ...
Also his wife BBBB ...
Also their son CCCC ... (all with different dates of death)

I don't know if it meant the horizontal slab descendants were for paupers, etc. or what.

Any idea of why or where I contact for an answer?

Thanks for your help

Dale

[Isabel H]

The answer is the same as I see you received on another forum - it's simply to do with the type of stone fashionable at the time, what the family could afford, and the skill (or otherwise) of the mason involved. Early stones are often quite crudely executed, or badly weathered. Inscriptions would have been updated as each burial took place so there is nothing unusual about a series of names with different dates and/or different styles of carving. It's also usual for there to be a number of burials one on top of another in a lair, if there is adequate depth.
Paupers would most likely be in unmarked graves, and for many other families, the need for food and shelter took priority over marking a grave whose whereabouts they knew anyway. Your family could afford headstones.