Sola in Deo Salus

This distinctive coat of arms and impressive tombstone stand out in the local cemetery and a bit of research gave an insight into the lives of the family it belonged to. The grave is that of Mary Helena (Dixon) Mayhew who died 12 April 1887, age 38 after a short illness.

Mary and Horace had produced six children - four of them born in the five years immediately before Mary's demise. The 'short illness' from which she perished a year after the birth of her last surviving child might well have been connected with another pregnancy.

The family had connections with the church in Westhoughton and may have lived there before moving to the much grander address of Wigan Lane. Two of their children were born in Westhoughton and Hindley in 1872 and 1874. Both these areas had a profusion of coal mines at that time.

Mary's husband, Horace Mayhew was a successful mining engineer with offices at a prestigious address in Wigan -
Leader's buildings, 31a King street. At the time of Mary's death the family were residing at Bank House, Wigan Lane. However the inscription on the grave refers to the family home of Broughton Hall in Flintshire.

The Mayhew family were living for at least part of the year at Broughton Hall in 1883 before Mary's death. By 1901 the census shows them eventually residing permanently at the Hall in Flintshire.

Two years after Mary's death Mabel Joyce becomes Horace's second wife. Only two years older than his eldest daughter and from a successful merchant family, she may have been attracted by the aristocratic origins of the Mayhew family name.

Various spellings of the name which derives from the family's place of residence prior to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, Mayeux, Normandy. The family was first found in Norfolk where they held a family seat from lands granted by Duke William of Normandy for distinction at the Battle of Hastings. The coat of arms on Mary's tombstone in Westhoughton would have been carried into battle in 1066 when the motto would have been a war cry or slogan - Sola in Deo salus - Safety in God alone.