Today, we turn our spotlight ontoGrimstone Bowde,
whose wife, Elizabeth, gave birth to a daughter (also named Elizabeth) in Boston on August 22, 1683.
I wanted to bring attention to Grimstone not only because his name superficially recalls my gravestone obsession, but also because he may have been a Dorset man. There are several villages in England named Grimstone, including a tiny hamlet in West Dorset, and Grimstone Bowde may have had a familial connection to that area. I am always interested in finding 17th-century New Englanders who were not East Anglians (though one of the Grimstones is in Norfolk, so he might be an East Anglian after all).
2 comments:
I knew I had seen that stone illustrated before, and I finally found it. It's the 1776 Susanna Jayne stone from Marblehead, yes? I love the bats in the corners. Forbes attributes it to Henry Christian Geyer.
You're right — it is the Susanna Jayne stone. I visited Marblehead to celebrate Patriots' Day. If you get a chance to visit, you should — the stones in this graveyard are in amazingly good condition.
One of the most interesting things about the Susanna Jayne stone is its date: 1776! It just goes to show that date and style do not correspond perfectly.
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