The final resting place of Anna Maria – the elder daughter of Olaudah Equiano – has been rediscovered in the St Andrew’s churchyard. The words on the memorial plaque to Anna Maria on the north wall of the church always indicated that she ‘lies beside this humble stone’. However, the precise location of her grave has not been confirmed until now.

Researchers from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Prof. Victoria Avery and Dr Dawnanna Kreeger, identified the grave with the help of our Vicar, Philip Lockley, after reading a long-forgotten A-level history project written nearly 50 years ago by a then teenage pupil, Cathy O’Neill, of St Mary’s School, Cambridge. O’Neill visited St Andrew’s in the 1970s and took a photograph of a grave marker she speculated might be Anna Maria’s. It was assumed the marker had been subsequently removed with changes to the churchyard path. However, Avery and Kreeger, with Philip, rediscovered the stone, and deciphered its markings. The footstone follows the 18th-century custom of bearing only initials and a date, so when the sun hits the stone at precisely the right angle, it is shown to read ‘A.M.V. 1797’. The stone marks a grave exactly in-line with the memorial plaque to the north of the church. The proposed new stained glass window commemorating the Equiano Family will also be located parallel to the grave.

A moment for commemoration to mark the rediscovery of Anna Maria Vassa’s grave will be held in St Andrew’s Churchyard, Chesterton, on Saturday 18 October, 12 noon. All welcome.