Saturday, September 4, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Jose Appleton

Jose Appleton, 1723?, Cambridge, MA
Here Lyes ye Body
of Jose Appleton,
Son of Revd Mr.
Nath[aniel Appleton]


I think that this is the gravestone of Jose Appleton, infant son of Nathaniel and Margaret Appleton, who died at the age of 3 months on June 6, 1723. Revd. Nathaniel Appleton was born in Ipswich in 1693 and came to Cambridge to preach. His wife, Margaret Gibbs, was the daughter of Watertown minister Henry Gibbs. The couple had at least 13 children.

There were several boys named Jose in the extended Appleton family in the 17th and 18th centuries. There is a Jose in the lineage of Jesus (see Luke 3:29, KJV) — many modern translation report the name as "Joshua." Other translations use Jose or Joses as a variant of Joseph. I imagine that the Appleton family probably pronounced this name JOES, not ho-SAY.

Just add Jose to the list of names you might not expect to see among English-speaking colonists in New England, along with Vashti and Jezebel.

3 comments:

Marian said...

Beautiful stone. I love your blog. Can't wait to see what you post every morning.

Marian

Robert J. said...

The best name I came across recently was Xenophon Adams.

—RJO

Unknown said...

My favorite gravestone name is Experience Tarbox. Not sure why.