THOMAS EARL OF EFFINGHAM BARON HOWARD, CAPTAIN GENERAL AND CHIEF GOVERNOR OF THIS ISLAND IN THE YEARS 1790 AND 1791, AND OF CATHERINE HIS WIFE. THE LATTER DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON THE THIRTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER, 1791, IN A VOYAGE UNDERTAKEN FOR THE BENEFIT OF HER HEALTH, IN HIS MAJESTY’S SHIP DIANA: THE FORMER ON THE 19TH OF THE FOLLOWING MONTH, THE THIRD WEEK AFTER THE MELANCHOLY RETURN OF THE DIANA WITH THE REMAINS OF HIS BELOVED CONSORT, WHOM HE SEEMED UNWILLING TO SURVIVE, AND WITH WHOM HE WAS DEPOSITED IN THE SAME GRAVE, THUS, UNITED IN THEIR LIVES BY THE MOST TENDER AND EXALTED TIES, HE—THE FOND AND INDULGENT HUSBAND, SHE—THE CHEERFUL AND OBEDIENT WIFE— IN THEIR DEATHS THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED. TO PERPETUATE THE REMEMBRANCE OF SO ILLUSTRIOUS A PATTERN OF CONJUGAL AFFECTION, TO MANIFEST THE PUBLIC SENSE OF THE MANY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE VIRTUES OF THEIR RESPECTED GOVERNOR, AND TO RECORD FOR THE BENEFIT OF POSTERITY THE CLEARNESS OF THAT SAGACITY, THE EXTENT OF THAT KNOWLEDGE, AND THE PURITY AND FIRMNESS OF THAT INTEGRITY, WHICH RENDERED HIS ADMINISTRATION THE BOAST AND SECURITY OF A GRATEFUL PEOPLE; THE ASSEMBLY OF JAMAICA, HAVING CAUSED THE REMAINS OF THIS NOBLE AND LAMENTED PAIR TO BE INTERR’D WITH FUNERAL HONOURS AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE, THE WHOLE HOUSE ATTENDING EACH PROCESSION AS MOURNERS, AS A FURTHER TESTIMONY OF MERITED ESTEEM, INSCRIBE THIS MONUMENT. By an Act passed in 1789, burying in churches had been recently prohibited, and a penalty of £500 imposed on any rector permitting such burial; but two bills, dispensing with that Act and indemnifying the Rev. Robert Stanton Woodham, the then lately appointed rector of St. Catherine, from its penalties in the special cases of the Earl and Countess were introduced in the Assembly by Bryan Edwards and passed unanimously. On November 19 the House “resolved, _nem. con._, in order to testify the grateful respect which this House entertain of his late Excellency’s merit and virtues, his firm and independent conduct, and the sense they have of the great and universal satisfaction which his mild and equitable administration, in every department, gave to all ranks of people, and the regret which they feel at his loss, that the funeral of the late Earl of Effingham be conducted at the public expense”; and on December 7, 1791, the Assembly voted £500 sterling toward this monument. The monument, together with the two funerals, which were attended by the members of the Assembly, cost the island £8700. The Rev. Thomas Warren, rector of St. Elizabeth, and domestic chaplain to the governor—the same Thomas Warren who ten years later disgusted Lady Nugent by his toadyism while conducting the service at Black River-preached the funeral sermons, which are given in the “Columbian Magazine or Monthly Miscellany” published in Kingston in June 1797.