Rounding out the top three ways to say "died" (after the very popular "died" and "departed this life"), is today's synonym: "deceased" (commonly abbreviated "Decd.").
Today, we generally use "deceased" as an adjective, but in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was also employed as a verb. The Oxford English Dictionary Online offers three definitions for the verb "decease" (all of them archaic):
- intr. To depart from life; to die.
- to decease this world (cf. to depart this life). Obs. rare.
- fig. To come to an end, perish; cease
A few carvers favor this term. Many of the Worster family stones say "Decd.," as do those carved by Joseph Lamson of Boston. Other carvers use it only occasionally and spell it as the spirit moves them.
Edward Sprague, Malden, MA (1715)
Carver: Based on the descriptions given by HM Forbes in Gravestones of New England and the Men Who Made Them: 1653-1800 (pgs. 52-3), I think this stone was carved by the elder James Foster of Dorchester (b. 1651).
1 comment:
Thanks for the Fitchburg data. I'm trying to figure out whether the use of "died" vs. "departed" is a question of chronology or individual carvers. I don't have a set opinion on the issue yet.
Also, I hadn't seen one that explicitly says "stillborn," so I'll have to add that to the list.
I haven't been to Charlestown yet. After my adventures in Malden, I'm a little hesitant to go back to that area. It's so much more difficult to read the 18th-century landscape in urban areas than in places like Stow or Ipswich. Usually, when I go in search of a graveyard in a rural area, I don't even bother to find directions before I go — I just find the oldest houses and follow them down the roads called "Boston Road" or "Providence Road," and that usually serves me well. Though, I guess the Phipps St. Cemetery is close enough to the Bunker Hill Monument that I won't get as hopelessly lost as I was in Malden.
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