Leaving your mark on the world

We may think of graffiti as being the scourge of modern society - blighting our cities and towns, but graffiti is by no means a new phenomenon, it has been going on for centuries as today's blip shows. This graffiti was found on the stone columns surrounding the doors of a local rural church. The earliest date shows 1740 and another 1751. This church was attached to a local Hall and also served the local farming community. What impresses me so much is that these people could clearly read and write well, so I'm wondering whether they lived in the Hall itself or were local, well educated landowners who wanted to leave their mark on the world.