Saturday, August 7, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Freelove Windsor

Freelove Windsor, 1783, North Burial Ground, Providence, RI
IN Memory of
Mrs. FREELOVE
WINDSOR,
the late amiable
Consort of
Mr. Olney Windsor,
who died Feby. 17th.
A.D. 1783, in the
28th. Year of her
Age.

Freelove was a fairly popular name in 18th-century Rhode Island, though I have not seen it much elsewhere. Freelove Windsor was the wife of Olney Winsor, whose gravestone appeared yesterday.

2 comments:

Roy said...

Heh, heh! Yeah, we have a few Freeloves down here in Newport, too.

What intrigues me is the carving in the tympanum. I've found two stones in the Common Burying Ground here with that symbolism of the sun peering over the horizon, sort of looking like Kilroy with a crown. Where did this come from? Is it one particular carver, or was it a symbol that cropped up all over the place in the late 18th Century? Both of the stones in the NCBG are from the 1790s and were carved on very black slate.

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

These rising/setting suns are most common in Providence and southeastern Mass — the Bridgewater, MA graveyards are full of them (1760s-1770s). Unfortunately, the Farber Collection is a little weak on Rhode Island, and that is usually my go-to for carver attribution, so I'm not sure who made them all. Some are by Gabriel Allen, but I don't think they are all his.