Victorian tragedy

Wandering through Lewes early this evening I came across these cast iron 'leaping boards' in the churchyard of StAnne's. They mark the graves of 13 members of the Medhurst family. Samuel Medhurst was a millwright and one of the first to use cast iron in his machinery. He also used it to mark the graves of his children who died in an almost unimaginable and relentless sequence. His son, also Samuel, died first, in June 1828 aged 9 months, followed by his daughter Philadelphia in April 1831 aged 4 months. Then a second daughter, Margaret in March 1834 aged 10 months, Benjamin aged 6 months in February 1838, Naomi aged three in January 1839, Reuben aged 8 months in May 1840, Frank aged 18 months in April 1846, Ruth in 1865, Boaz in 1879 and Mark in 1881. Remarkably their mother, Philadelphia, outlived all her children, living on to be 79 when she died in 1884 and Samuel survived them all. He died aged 88 in September 1887.