The final line reads, "Tu, aeternam eis requiem, viator, precare", which translates roughly as "Pray, traveller, for their eternal rest." It is a small, quietly insistent appeal, carved into fossiliferous limestone, the kind of stone packed with the compressed remains of ancient marine creatures, which gives the slab a subtly textured surface even before its decorative elements are considered.

The monument was set up in 1646 by William Shee, identified in the inscription as the son of Gaspar, and dedicated to himself, his wife Maria Crispe, their children, and their descendants. The Latin text praises William as a man distinguished by Christian piety, integrity, prudence, and strength of character, devoted to the public good and a careful provider for his family. Above the inscription, a heraldic shield displays the Shee coat of arms impaled with those of the Crispe family, a standard heraldic arrangement for a married couple, with the motto "VINCIT VERITAS", meaning "Truth conquers", rendered in false relief. By around 1900, the antiquarian William Carrigan recorded the plaque as sitting in the nave of the church. At some point in the 1960s it was relocated to a Monuments Room in the north transept, and in 2015 it was moved again to its present position on the south wall of the chancel, meaning this particular object has drifted quietly around the interior of St Mary's for well over a century, accumulating a small itinerary of its own.