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| Katherine and Shem Drowne, 1774, Copp's Hill, Boston, MA |
HERE LIES BURIED
THE BODY OF
Mrs. KATHERINE DROWNE
WIFE TO
DEACON SHEM DROWNE
DAUGHTER OF THE LATE
TIMOTHY CLARKE ESQr.
& SARAH HIS WIFE
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
APRIL 21st, 1754.
AGED 67 YEARS & 4 DAYS
The REMAINS
of
Deacon SHEM DROWNE
who departed this Life
JANUARY 13th:
1774.
AGED 90 YEARS
1 month & 9 days.
For if we beleive [sic] that JESUS
died & Rose again even so
them also who Sleep in Jesus,
will GOD bring with him.
I don't know why the carver decided to go with all caps on the left and a mix of upper and lower cases on the right. Since 20 years elapsed between the deaths of Katherine and Shem, it seems possible that the two sections of this stone may have been carved at different times.
Shem Drowne was a coppersmith/tinsmith in 18th-century Boston. He is best known for making the grasshopper weathervane for Faneuil Hall (1742). He made other weathervanes, too: the Indian Archer for the Province House (1716), a rooster for the First Church of Cambridge (1721), and the swallowtail banner for Old North Church (1740).
1 comment:
The rooster weathervane, which is now on Cambridge's First Church, was originally made for a parish in Boston's North End -- the New Brick, I think -- which had split off from the New North Meetinghouse. The split was very unfriendly; the rooster image was chosen to spite Peter Thacher, the assistant pastor of the parish they were leaving. Fast forward about a century and a half later, the North End parish was moving, their building being demolished, and they sold the weathervane to a member of the Cambridge parish, which was just then erecting its new building.
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