Ferdinando Paleologus Tomb

St John’s Parish Church Cemetery

One intriguing feature of the St John’s Parish Church Cemetery is probably found outside in the graveyard where the tomb of Ferdinando Paleologus (son of Theodore) rests. Paleologus was a descendent of the brother of the great Emperor Constantine XI, the last of the Byzantine Imperial family from the 1400’s that produced the last Christian emperors of Greece. He fled to Barbados after the 1645 Battle of Naseby in England where his family was driven from the throne of Constantinople by the Turks. He was a church warden of St. John’s Parish having lived there for 20 years where he owned a 197-acre plantation, which he managed from 1649 to 1670 and later died there in 1678.When Paleologus died, he was naturally buried in the St John’s Parish Church, since he had been a prominent person in that community. He left behind a legacy of mystery which until 1844 was buried at St John’s.

It was said that he was buried ‘backways’. The rumours persisted until nearly 200 years later in 1844 when a curious church official ordered the vault opened.

Paleologus lead coffin was found to have been in a different position to all the others. As the lid was opened, his skeleton was found lodged in quicklime. He had been buried according to Greek orthodox traditions, which amongst other things, demanded that the dead person’s head should point to the west and their feet to the east.

The dignified memorial, wrought in Portland stone portrays a Greek temple with Doric columns surrounding the cross of Constantine carved in the centre. The following inscription may still be read:

Here lyeth ye body of
Ferdinando Paleologus
Descended from ye imperial lyne
Of ye last Christian
Emperors of Greece
Churchwarden of this Parish
1655-1656
Vestryman, Twentye years
Died Oct. 3 1678

 

The estate of Ferdinando still survives today (2005) as a working farm now called the “Ashford Plantation”. Enevitably becaming a tourist attraction, since in the 1980s, when the Ashford Bird Park and animal sanctuary were opened there.

There is a memorial to his father Theodore in Landulph Church (England). He arrived in England in 1596 he went first to Lincolnshire, thence to Plymouth, ending up in Landulph. He left five children one of being Ferdinando Paleologus.

 

 

 

The turret-like entrance to the St John Church

St.John’s Church itself is a classic Gothic-style church situated on a cliff overlooking the picturesque East Coast of Barbados. Built in 1836 to replace the previous church, which had been destroyed by a hurricane in 1831,…

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Recorded 1964]