Saturday, February 28, 2009

101 Ways, Part 71: Yielded Her Spirit to its Benevolent Author

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

I've been reading James Blachowicz' wonderful From Slate to Marble: Gravestone Carving Traditions in Eastern Massachusetts, 1770-1870. He showcases a couple of stones with new ways to say died.

On page 150, he features the Hannah Symmes stone (1794) in Plymouth, MA. It was carved by Lemuel Savery and is an example of that carver's late-career simplified style. I don't have a picture of my own, but you can find one at Find A Grave.

The epitaph:
Here lies
inter'd the body
of Miss. Hannah
Symmes eldest Daughter
of Mr. Isaac & Mrs. Hannah
Symmes who at the early
period of 28 years after being
long exercis'd with bodily pain
with christian fortitude
yielded her spirit to its
benevolent Author.
Born Jany. 30. 1766.
Died May 27. 1794.

An interesting note: the letterer originally misspelled "yielded" by transposing the i and the e, but scratched them out and treid tried again.

3 comments:

Robert J. said...

Does it really say "teh"? Lulz!

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

Nope. My bad.

Robert J. said...

O hai.
Here lies teh body
of Ezekial Lolspeak
who kikd teh bukkit
in teh 98th yr
of his age.
O rly? Ya rly.