Bailah Barrow

http://www.barrow-lousada.org/bb%20headstone.htm

From http://cdm.reed.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/jewishatl&CISOPTR=7... James Greener found this image of the gravestone of Bella Barrow which is situated in enclosure B of the Jewish Cemetery in Bridgetown, Barbados.

In the English text the name of her husband Simon Barrow (1709-1801) can be made out and James Greener transcribed the English section as follows:
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Here rests in hope of a better life

A tender Pure and a loving Wife

Honour was her Standard, Religion her guide A Friend to all and free from Pride

Relief to the distressed ... Charitable Sincere & Generous and Hospitable ... the virtuous BELLA late (wife of) SIMON BARROW

Whom lived every Day ... Morrow She departed this life ... the 18th of Tisri 5331 which corresponds to the 5th of October 1773 Aged 53 Years ... receive her Soul in the ... Heaven

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Rachel Meltzer of the Melbourne Jewish Museum kindly translated the Hebrew for us. Edgar Samuel had suggested we get a translation done and he has seen the result noting that the main part of the epitaph is a Biblical quotation from Proverbs 31 v10-31. The headstone contains different styles of Hebrew and different sources. The translator thought the geographical origin of the Hebrew might be Eastern Europe like Poland but was not certain. In any event, as Edgar Samuel had earlier advised us, the Ashkenasi name Shimon bar Baruch can be found. This is highly significant, for it clarifies certain issues to do with Simon Barrow eg why he had a Prague brother (as shown by his will), how he came (as family legend has it) to have a Montefiore wife before the Montefiores got to England, and how the early Barrow/Lousada link of family legend may have occurred.

Some details of the life of Simon Barrow of Barbados are obscured by contradictions in the records but we have come to a view on these.