Inscription
Anna Maria Vaasa, daughter of Gustavus Vaasa, the African. She died July 21st, 1797, aged 4 years.
Should simple village rhymes attract thine eye,
Stranger, as thoughtfully thou passest by,
Know that there lies beside this humble stone,
A child of colour, haply not thine own.
Her father born of Afric's sun-burnt race,
Torn from his native fields, ah! foul disgrace;
Through various toils at last to Britain came,
Espoused, so heaven ordain'd, an English dame,
And follow'd Christ their hopes two infants dear,
But one, a Hapless Orphan, slumbers here.
To bury her, the village children came,
And dropp'd choice flowers, and lisp'd her early fame;
And some that lov'd her most, as if unblest.
Bedew'd with tears the white wreath on their breast.
But she is gone and dwell's in that abode,
Where some of ev'ry clime shall joy in God.
