Friday, April 17, 2009

Silvester Collins

Silvester isn't an unheard of name, but I've never seen it used as a girl's name before. Silvester Collins of Newport, RI was "ye DAVGHTR OF ARNOLD COLLINS & OF SARAH HiS WiFE."

I'm also interested in John Stevens I's spelling of "departed" as "dparted."

2 comments:

Robert J. said...

Fascinating that the lettering is all capitals, and yet he dots all the capital I's. I haven't studies the Stevens stones carefully -- is that their usual practice?

Non sequitur in re: "101 Ways." I was in Waltham today and spent a few minutes walking through the Grove Hill Cemetery. The early section goes back to the 1710s at least and has quite a few lovely stones in excellent condition. It's a good place to see the mid-1700s transition from the striking purple/green banded slate favored by the Lamsons to the dark gray Pin Hill slate favored by the carvers of the later 1700s. Lots of Lamson-style stones from the early period, and I think many of the later ones are Daniel Hastings (but I haven't studied these folks carefully). The large and beautiful stone of the Rev. Mr. Samuel Angier, who d. 21 Jan 1718/19, aet. 63, reports that he faithfully discharged his responsibilities "Till his Translation to ye Temple Above."

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

Thanks for the tip. I haven't been to Grove Hill yet, but I will make a point of visiting now.

This stone was carved by John Stevens I, who carved in all capital letters (with dotted capital Is) between 1705 and 1709/10. Sometime around 1711, he learned to carve lowercase letters. A few later stones have all caps, but he stopped dotting the Is after he learned to carve lowercase.