Buckingham Houses: Solitude Cemetery
In 1937, Rosa G. Williams surveyed the cemetery at Solitude for the Virginia Historical Inventory. Located four miles west of Buckingham Court House, about one mile south of Hwy 60, Mrs. Williams noted that the oldest grave in the cemetery was dated 1820. The flat, slab marker set on a two-foot rock foundation, marked the grave of William H. Perkins, Sr. the inscription reads:
Sacred to the memory of
William H. Perkins
he was born
9th Sept. 1780
and died 11th. December 1820
In death society has lost a valuable citizen, his wife, an affectionate husband and his children a tender father, his servants a kind master.
Lived beloved, died lamented by all who knew him.
Mrs. Williams survey was mislabeled “Solidute Cemetery”—a reminder to always search a subject with multiple terms. I discovered the survey not by searching “Solitude” but by searching Perkins and Buckingham.
Slate River Ramblings readers can dig into the Virginia Historical Inventory at the online catalog of the Library of Virginia.
For more about the Perkins family, see Buckingham Notables: William H. Perkins (1824–1892).
slate river ramblings . . . . 
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