CHAP. VI. DEATH AND CHARACTER. 89 



repose. He died on the 28th of October, 1792, in the 

 ()8th year of his age ; and was buried with his fore- 

 fathers in the old parish church of Whitkirk, where a 

 tablet with the following inscription was erected to his 

 memory : 



SACRED TO THE MEMORY 

 OF JOHN SMEATON, F.K.S. 



A Man whom God had endowed with the most extraordinary abilities, which 

 he indefatigably exerted for the benefit of Mankind in works of science 



And Philosophical research : 



More especially as an Engineer and Mechanic. His principal work, the 

 Edystone Lighthouse, erected on a rock in the open sea, (where one had been 

 washed away by the violence of a storm, and another had been consumed by 

 the rage of fire,) secure in its own stability and the wise precautions for its 

 saiety, seems not unlikely to convey to distant ages, as it does to every Nation 

 of the Globe, the Name of its constructor. 



He was born at Austhorpe, June 8, 1724. 

 And departed this Life October 28, 1792. 



Also Sacred to the Memory of 



ANN, the Wife of the said JOHN SMEATON, F.R.S., 



who died January 17th, 1784. 



Their two surviving Daughters, 



Duly imprest with sentiments of Love and Eespect 



For the kindest and tenderest of Parents, 



Pay this tribute to their Memory. 



