Monday, June 7, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Abraham Preble

Abraham Preble, 1714, York, ME
THIS STONE IS FIXED AT Ye
HEAD OF ABRAHAM PREBLE
ESQR. DEACON OF THE CHURCH
CAPT. OF THE TOWN & ONE
OF THE JUDGES IN Ye COUNTY
OF YORK WAS UNIVERSALLY
FAITHFULL TO Ye DEATH
WHO DECD. OCTOBER Ye
4th 1714 AETATIS 72

2 comments:

Robert J. said...

A Google search for the curious formula "This stone is fixed at the head of" returns four results, all of them transcriptions of this stone.

Any speculation on where that odd phrase came from?

—RJO

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

It certainly is an odd turn of phrase. I found it particularly interesting because the stone itself was carved in the Boston area and shipped up to Maine, so the focus on place-specificity is even more exaggerated. I don't know where the language comes from, but I haven't seen it on any of Nathaniel Emmes' Boston-area stones.