To the living Memory of his deceased Friend, Captaine John Smith, who departed this mortall life on the 21 day of June, 1631, with his Armes, and this Motto, Accordamus, vincere est vivere. Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd Kings, Subdu'd large Territories, and done things Which to the World impossible would seeme, But that the truth is held in more esteeme, Shall I report His former service done In honour of his God and Christendome: How that he did divide from Pagans three, Their heads and Lives, types of his chivalry: For which great service in that Climate done, Brave Sigismundus (King of Hungarion) Did give him as a Coat of Armes to weare, Those conquer'd heads got by his Sword and Speare? Or shall I tell of his adventures since, Done in Firginia, that large Continence: I-low that he subdu'd Kings unto his yoke, And made those heathen flie, as wind doth smoke: And made their Land, being of so large a Station, A habitation for our Christian Nation: Where God is glorifi'd, their wants suppli'd, Which else for necessaries might have di'd? But what avails his Conquest now he lyes Inter'd in earth a prey for Wormes & Flies? O may his soule in sweet Mizium sleepe, Untill the Keeper that all soules doth keepe, Returne to judgement and that after thence, With Angels he may have his recompence. Captaine John Smith, sometime Governour of Firginia, and Admirall of New England. This remarkable epitaph is such an autobiographical record as Smith might have written himself. That it was engraved upon a tablet and set up in this church rests entirely upon the authority of Stow. The present pilgrim to the old church will find no memorial that Smith was buried there, and will encounter besides incredulity of the tradition that he ever rested there. The old church of St. Sepulcher's, formerly at the confluence of Snow Hill and the Old Bailey, now lifts its head far above the pompous viaduct which spans the valley along which the Fleet Ditch once flowed. All the registers of burial in the church were destroyed by the great fire of 1666, which burnt down the edifice from floor to roof, leaving only the walls and tower standing. Mr. Charles Deane, whose lively interest in Smith led him recently to pay a visit to St. Sepulcher's, speaks of it as the church “under the pavement of which the remains of our hero were buried; but he was not able to see the stone placed over those remains, as the floor of the church at that time was covered with a carpet.... The epitaph to his memory, however, it is understood, cannot now be deciphered upon the tablet,”--which he supposes to be the one in Stow.