The yellow arrowhead marks the position of the funerary monument.
This is another church of Portuguese origin in Cochin area where a British (or Anglo-Indian?) funerary monument is still preserved. The church located in Mattancherry near the 'Jew Town' is called the Church of Our Lady of Life [Igreja da Nossa Senhora da Vida (Portuguese) or 'Jeevamatha Palli' (Malayalam)]. Its fame is also associated with the 'Coonan Cross Oath' or the 'Oath of Bent Cross' taken on 3 January 1653 in Mattancherry by the St Thomas Christians, a pledge that they will no longer obey the Latin Archbishop or any other Jesuits, nor accept the Portuguese dominance.
A brief history of the 'Church of Our Lady of Life', Mattancherry-the official version:
i) The first church in Mattancherry was established c. 800 AD in the name of Virgin Mary, but was also known as Thoma Palli (St Thomas Church) or Irumesa Palli (Twin Altar Church)
ii) The 'Chapel of Holy Cross' (the modern Coonan Cross Catholic Church) was established by the Portuguese in 1550
iii) The Portuguese built a new church (2nd) replacing the St Thomas church and dedicated it to 'Our Lady of Life' (Nossa Senhora da Vida) in 1557
iv) After the Dutch destroyed the church in 1663, a 3rd was built on the same site and was blessed on 10 August, 1769 by the Bishop of Cochin, Clemente José Colaço Leitão
v) When the 3rd church was burnt down by the Travancore insurgents (during Vettikola Pada) in December 1808, a 4th one was built and consecrated in the current location on 22 June, 1911 by the Bishop of Cochin José Bento Martins Ribeiro, and a cemetery was established at the old site
vi) The 4th church was renovated and consecrated on 30 November, 2017 by the Bishop of Cochin Joseph Kariyil, which is the present-day worshiping place known as Jeevamatha Palli (Church of Our Lady of Life).
A few images of the 'Church of Our Lady of Life', Mattancherry captured under different time points
The non-Catholic communities, especially the Syrian Orthodox have a different interpretation of the Coonan (Bent) Cross Oath of 1653-the historic event that changed the course of Christianity in Kerala. Today, two sites are shown connected to the famous oath, the Chapel of Holy Cross/Braanthan Kuriachan Palli (Catholic) and the St. George Orthodox Coonan Kurishu Old Syrian Church (Syrian Orthodox), both claim that the fateful event took place in their soil.
The Chapel of Bent Holy Cross/Coonan Cross (Catholic)
St. George Orthodox Coonan Kurishu Old Syrian Church (Syrian Orthodox)
GRAVE MONUMENT OF JOHN JAMES STEVENAGE (d. 11 AUGUST, 1854).
In front of the Jeevamatha church, before the main eastern entrance, are two funerary monuments. The one closer to the front door is for the former Vicar of the church, Fr. Augustine Menezes Kiliyara (Vicar from 26-01-1916 to 25-04-1932), who died at the age of 63. The other gravestone is certainly older as evident from its appearance. This interesting epitaph has engravings in three different languages, viz. English, Malayalam and Portuguese. There is a skull motif on the top flanked by a writing, and below this symbol is the main text in English consisting of 12 lines. The English script is followed by a 2-lined Malayalam and 3-lined Portuguese verses. The epitaph is broken and the inscriptions are worn off, and as a consequence, the readings are difficult to decipher. However, I could figure out a few words like, 'To the Memory of' in the beginning and 'Cornelia' and ‘Married’ in the middle of the epitaph. The first name of the deceased (3rd line) appear vaguely as John, but the rest is not clear.
Position of the Tombstones (1-John James Stevenage and 2- Fr. Augustine Menezes Kiliyara) in the Courtyard
The Tombstone of Fr. Augustine Menezes Kiliyara
I found a quote from Roberts and Chekkutty (2017, p. 161) that T. W. Venn has mentioned 5 burials in the forecourt of the church in 1947. The authors however could not trace the gravestones during their survey. To my surprise, Fr. Menezes Kiliyara's (d. 1932) name is in the list, so my hunch was that tombstone of our concern could be one of the remaining graves cited. This is where it’s getting interesting, there is a 'John' in the list, and the epitaph is for "Stevenage, John James, son of John Stevenage & Susannah, died 1857, age 58" (Roberts and Chekkutty, 2017, p. 161). Interestingly, Venn in his other work, 'Cochin-Malabar. Palms and Pageants' (1950, p. 206), clearly identifies the tombstone in the forecourt of Muttancherry (Mattancherry) church belonging to John James Stevenage an Eurasian clerk dated 1857, and adds that he was born at Tellicherry in 1803 to Mrs. Perugina Stevenage who died at Mangalore in 1810. I tried to align the words 'John James Stevenage' with the letters in the corresponding position of the epitaph, and the match was perfect! This was possible despite the letters appeared faint and blurry. Now that the biggest hurdle is over, that is the identification of the deceased was done, the next phase was to find about 'John James' and his background.
Upon searching for other ‘Stevenages’, I found one in the St Thomas Church Cemetery at Quilon (Kollam). The grave belongs to John James' mother "Stevenage, Susanna widow of M. A. Sgt. John Stevenage, died 2 December 1834, age 90" (Roberts and Chekkutty, 2017, p. 193). However, his father’s name is absent, so he must be buried outside Kerala. What about his wife? In the epitaph, after Cornelia, the next name appears like Guzehlar or Guzhlar, so she could be from the famous ship merchant Gueizelar family of Vypin. With these details and speculations, I managed to decipher the epitaph to some good extend, but gaps were still there. Eventually, some other words became clear, such as ‘Madras’, ‘T..cherry’ (Tellicherry or Thangacherry) etc., but I couldn't put them in context. More importantly, the dates and numbers remained still illegible, even though, you could make some educated guesses. This was the situation until I came across excerpts of Patrick Hugh Stevenage’s work, ‘A Railway Family in India Five Generations of the Stevenages’ (2001), which became very helpful in this study. Patrick has not only come up with an elaborate sketch of John James Stevenagen’s life but also a detailed background of this Anglo-Indian family. His (John James Stevenagen) baptism certificate, his last Will and Testament and the inscription on his tomb all were used to reconstruct the story. He has provided the complete epitaph and here is how it reads.
The full inscription on the epitaph:
SIN IS- [SKULL EMBLEM] -THE CAUSE OF DEATH
TO
THE MEMORY
OF
JOHN JAMES STEVENAGE
BORN AT TELLICHERRY
BAPTISED AT MADRAS
MARRIED FRANCES
CORNELIA GUZHLAR
LIVED AND DIED AT COCHIN
THE 11 DAY OF AUGUST
A.D. 1854 AGED 55 YEARS
MAY HE REST IN PEACE
(In Malayalam)
CHRISTIAN PASSING THROUGH
PRAY FOR MERCY TO THE ALMIGHTY
(In Portuguese)
HOMOENS CATHOLICOS
PECO ENCARACIDAMENTE DEROGAR
A DEOS PARA SALVACO DESTE POBRE ALMA
(Catholic People I Dearly Ask to God for the Salvation of this Poor Soul)
The Tombstone of John James Stevenage
Enlarged views of the tombstone 
A brief history and family background of John James Stevenage.
The Stevenages' Indian connection begins with John Stevenage, who was born in 1759 in Surrey, England. He was enlisted as a private in the Madras European Regiment of the East India Company in 25th March 1778 and was sent to India, where his family remained for two hundred years. John Stevenage married Susanna and their youngest son, John James Stevenage was born on May, 1799, not long before he died in a battle fought against Tipu Sultan. The record of baptism states that John James, aged 5 months, the son of Sergeant John Stevenage and Susanna, was baptized at Vepery (a suburb of Madras/Chennai) on 16th October 1799. Susanna and her son moved from Madras to Cochin. John James' father was buried in the cemetery of St Mary’s, Fort St George, Madras, the tombstone states simply: 'John Stevenage, Soldier, buried 8th April 1799'; whereas his mother's burial monument at Kollam reads: 'Quilon, 2nd December 1834 - Susannah, relict of Serjeant John Stevenage, Madras Artillery aged about 90 years was buried by me G. Graeme Chaplain, Archdeaconry of Madras'. I am not sure if both the funerary monuments have survived, but John James must be having an Anglo-Indian heritage if Susannah his mother is native by birth.
John James married Frances Cornelia Guzhlar, who belonged to the family of Manuel Gyselaar, his son Poney Guizelaar and his grandson Cornelius Guizelaar-all wealthy successful shipbuilders at Cochin. Together John James and Cornelia Guzhlar had three sons (Cornelio Augustus Stevenage, Charles Stevenage and Peter Alcantra Stevenage), and two daughters (Adelia Justina Roza and Leticia Maria Brown), all survived to adulthood and well settled. According to gravestone in Mattancherry, John James was born in Tellicherry (about a month after the death of his father), baptised at Madras, and lived and died at Cochin on 11th August, 1854. He had acquired a more than modest fortune in his lifetime. He maintained residences at Mattancherry and Cochin, owned several properties in Ernakulam, and was very active in religious matters of the church both at Verapoly (Varappuzha) and Mattancherry.
(Compiled essentially from the information provided by Patrick Hugh Stevenage in his book, ‘A Railway Family in India Five Generations of the Stevenages’, 2001).
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