Sunday, September 14, 2008

101 Ways, Part 29: Kill'd By a Cart

For a brief intro to the "101 Ways to Say 'Died'" series, click here.

John Hill of Arlington was "kill'd by a cart" in 1798. Boston's Columbian Centinel elaborated in a June 30th death notice:

2 comments:

Robert J. said...

Many interesting things there indeed. Who were Messrs. Boot & Thwing? Undertakers?

The verse is magnificent -- tailor made for an adult accidental death. I tried several Google searches but couldn't come up with another example of it. If it was written for the occasion it was very well done.

This is a stone of Dwight workshop in their style of the 1790s. Along the edges of the tympanum you can see the typical "Dwight drops" as I call them, a feature he used abundantly in earlier decades, but now reduced to a remnant.

I remember another accidental death stone in Lunenburg, but alas I didn't get a photo of it. I think it was a child killed by a flying spindle.

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

I checked the 1798 Boston Directory for Boot and Thwing, but wasn't able to find anything obvious.

Mr. Kirk Boot, merchant (Boot & Pratt), lived on Sudbury St. and had a shop or office at #30 State St.

There are three men named Mr. Thwing:
James, cashier @ Massachusetts Bank
Samuel Sr., clerk @ Massachusetts Bank
Samuel Jr., baker (I double-checked in the newspaper - he's definitely a baker, not a banker)