Benjamin Philips was born in 1797 to Benjamin (aged 33) and Hannah (aged 22, nee Jones), the third of their five children. He was baptised on Christmas eve 1797 at Beaulieu church.

Comyn's notebooks show the family lived in a house (since demolished) against the Beaulieu Manor bank, behind the property now called Nightingale Croft, East Boldre.

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On 1st October 1822 Benjamin married Charlotte Etheridge at Boldre church. They had 6 children over the next 10 years; Silvia (b ), Matilda (b. 1823), James (b. 1825), Thomas (b. 1827, William (b. 1829) and Hannah (b. 1833). Benjamin spent his working life as an agricultural labourer.

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Charlotte and Benjamin were both baptised at East Boldre's Baptist chapel on 16th April 1837.

Benjamin was buried by William Mursell on 5th October 1843. His epitaph is a quote from the Book of Revelation 14:13.

Their daughter Matilda does not appear to have married. She was buried by Rev James Dore  on 29th June 1845. Matilda's date of death on the gravestone (1846)  does not match that in the chapel's burial register (1845) nor public records of her death.

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James was buried by Rev John Bartlett Burt on 18th February 1847. The chapel's  burial register gives James date of death as 20 rather than 21 as on this gravestone. Based on the records consulted the latter is correct.

In 1845, on the second anniversary of Benjamin's burial, Charlotte, now 43 years old, married Stephen Read, a 57 year old widower. She died on 16 February 1859 and was buried at the chapel by the Rev John Bartlett Burt two days later.

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While Charlotte most likely commissioned this gravestone to commemorate the lives of Benjamin, Matilda and James her own grave was unmarked.​​