Thursday, December 30, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Lisley Pallmer

Lisley Pallmer, 1682/3, Granary Burying Ground, Boston, MA
HERE LYES BURIED
Ye BODY OF LISLEY
PALLMER AGED 33
YEARS DEPARTED
THIS LIFE FEBRUARY
Ye 12
1682/3

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Lydia Meriam

Lydia Meriam, 1690, Lexington, MA
 LYDIA
MERIAM AGED
32 YEARS DIED
DECEMBER 29
1690

It is somewhat unusual to see an epitaph with so little supporting text.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Anne Whipple

Anne Whipple, 1720, Newport Common Burying Ground, Newport, RI
Here lyeth Interred
the Body of Anne
the Wife of Ioseph
Whipple, who dyed
Decembr: ye: 28th:
1720: Aged about
25 years.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Frankey and Judey

Frankey and Judey, 1732, NCBG, Newport, RI

Here lieth two
Negro Sarvants
to Mr Edward Baner
Frankey died Sepr:
ye 14th 1732 & Judey
died ye [22?]

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Samuel Mumford

Samuel Mumford, 1769, NCBG, Newport, RI

In Memory of Mr. Samuel
Mumford, son of Mr Benjamin &
Mrs. Ann, who died July 16th, 1769,
in ye 46th year of his Age.
Who, equal, steady, sirene, in temper liberal,
hospitable, social, humane, in Deportment,
first in friendship; catholic & benevolent
in principle, patient and persevering in
every duty; who liv,d the man
and died the Christian __
With sighs, his friends recall him but in vain,
when no pretence, a longer stay could gain;
Farewell, they cry dear charming friend; with thee
- - - - - - - -

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Nathaniel Appleton

Nathaniel Appleton, 1726, Cambridge, MA
Here Lyes ye Body of
Nathaniel Appleton
onely Son of ye Revernd.
Mr. Nathaniel Appleton
& Ms. Margaret His Wife
Who Suddenly Departed
this Life Decembr. 1st Anno
Dom: 1726. Aged 21 Mo

Nathaniel's brother, Jose, is buried nearby.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Eunice Tullock

Eunice Tullock, 1807, North Cemetery, Portsmouth, NH
FUGIT HORA, MEMENTO MORI.
Sacred
to the memory of
MRS. EUNICE TULLOCK
the late belovid Consort of Capt.
WILLIAM TULLOCK
5th. daughter of the late Mr. James
Tuttell, who after enduring a painful
and rapid decline, with Christian
patience fortitude, and resignation.
departed this life in the well grounded
hope of a better, Feby. 4th. 1807.
AEt. 27.
Favour is deceitful and beauty is
vain; but a woman that feareth
the Lord, she shall be praised

Eunice Tuttle Tullock?

Monday, December 20, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Daniel Whitcomb

Daniel Whitcomb, 1746, Stow, MA

HERE LIES BURIED
Ye BODY OF DANIEL
WHITCOMB SON OF
CORNEl EPHRAIM &
MRS PARTHAIANS
WHITCOMB WHO
DECd SEPTMbr 13th
AD 1746
AGE 1 YEAR
2 M & 2 DS

"Parthaians" is Parthias Wheeler, who married Ephraim Whitcomb in 1731. Her name is also recorded as "Parthiana," but she may well have been named Parthians, as the stone suggests. Any guesses as to why an 18th-century New Englander is named after an ancient kingdom in Iran are welcome. The Parthians are mentioned once in the Bible (Acts 2:9), but the story is about Pentecost, and it is clear that "Parthians" are people from Parthia – it isn't a given name. Is there another Parthia/Parthias/Parthiana in classical literature?

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Abraham Fits

Abraham Fits, 1714, Ipswich, MA
HERE LIES Ye BODY
OF Mr ABRAHAM
FITS WHO DIED
AUGUST
Ye 18
1714 AGED
59 YEARS

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: James Smith

James Smith, 1678, Phipps Street, Charlestown, MA

HERE LIES Ye BODY OF IAMES
SMITH AGED 28 YEARS DECEASED
SEPTEMBER Ye 18 1678

Friday, December 17, 2010

Prepare to Waste the Rest of Your Day


This nifty little tool lets you graph the frequency of a word or phrase in GoogleBooks over time.

More from Jezebel.

Gravestone of the Day: Katharine Chauncy

Katharine Chauncy, 1667, Cambridge, MA
MRS
KATHARINE CHAUNCY
AGED LXVI DYED IAN XXIII
ANo: DOM MDCLXVII

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Thomas Burroughs

Thomas Burroughs, NCBG, Newport, RI
Here lies ye bodye of
Thomas Burroughs
Who died deceer ye 16th
1722 aged 37 years
& 5 months

Note the thorn used as a y.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Peace Cazneau

Peace Cazneau, 1767, Granary Burying Ground, Boston, MA

Here lies buried
the Body of
Mr. PEACE CAZNEAU
who departed this
Life March 23
1767

Peace Cazneau was either a felt maker or a tavern keeper or both. He came from a family of Huguenots and is sometimes listed in the records as Paix Cazneau.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Orinda Carpenter Hyde

Orinda Carpenter, 1812, East Bridgewater, MA

In Memory of 
ORINDA CARPENTER
Daught. of
Mr. Ephraim &
Mrs. Mary Hyde,
died Dec. 14, 1812;
Aged 7 Years
& 5 Months.

Orinda Carpenter Hyde was named for her maternal grandmother, Orinda (Carpenter) Dresser (b. 1738). Though little Orinda's mother bore the prosaic name of Mary, Orinda the elder had an ecclectic naming style – English, German, biblical, classical/literary, and puritan virtues. Her children were:
  • Elfreda (b. 1759)
  • Huldah (b. 1761)
  • Serena (b. 1764)
  • Esther (b. 1766)
  • Thomas (b. 1767)
  • Nathan (b. 1769)
  • Mary (b. 1772)
  • Abel (b. 1775)
  • Comfort Carpenter (b. 1777) named for Orinda's father, Capt. Comfort Carpenter
  • Sally (b. 1779)
  • Jonathan (1782)

Orinda was the pseudonym of the 17th-century English poet Katharine Phillips. I do not know why an 18th-century New England family decided to name their daughter after a high-society, Anglican, pastoral poet whose work is best known for its celebration of passionate female friendships. Classical names were all the rage in 1800, but not so common in the 1730s.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Elizabeth Haiden

Elizabeth Haiden, 1680, Phipps Street, Charlestown, MA

[HERE] LIES Ye BODY
[OF] ELIZABETH HAIDEN
AGED ABOUT 76 YRS
DECD OCtOBER 31
1680

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Colonial American Names That Would Cause Trouble for a 21st-Century Child

Freelove

Mehitable

Dorcas

Gravestone of the Day: Peter Hart & Jubaafford Greenhill-Hart

Peter Hart & Jubaafford Greenhill-Hart, 1763 & 1755, NCBG, Newport, RI

In Memory of
Peter Son of
Michael &
Jane Hart
died Novr ye
5th 176[3] in ye
[10?]th Year of
his Age

In Memory
of Jubaafford
Daughter of 
Harford Green
hill & Jane
Hart died Janr

Peter and Jubaafford were the children of Jane Hart, a slave in Newport, Rhode Island. I don't know for sure which Newport slaveowner owned Jane and her children, but he/she was probably a member of the extensive Hart family, one of the largest and oldest Jewish merchant families in Newport.

The name that caught my eye here was Jubaafford. Google reveals no other Jubaaffords, Jubaffords, Jubaafords, or Jubafords whose records have made it to the internet. Juba is a tricky word to pin down; it is variously a term associated with African-American music, dance, and performers, a name for leftover food, and the Akan name for girls born on Mondays.

It is probably impossible to know for certain how Jubaafford Greenhill-Hart came by her name, but I will venture a tentative speculation. If her father's name was Harford, it seems possible that Jubaafford may be a compound name: Juba + Harford = Jubaafford. Venturing even further out onto the overreaching tendrils of conjecture, it is possible that Jane could have been the slaveowner-given name of an African-born woman named Juba, in much the way that Phibba was often mangled into Phoebe. Even if Jane Hart was named Jane at birth, any name containing "Juba" would be read as a link to West African cultural continuity in a city where many of the most prominent slaves (Newport Gardner/Occramar Mirycoo, Jack Mason/Salmar Nubia) were African-born. To me, Jubaafford seems like a name that is meant to do a lot of work by linking a child to West African language and culture, as well as preserving a link to a paternal name even when slavery prevented the establishment of legally-recognized families and surnames.

Thoughts? Other explanations?

*According to the Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries Transcription Project, Jubaafford was born around 1749 and died in 1755.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Elizabeth Reed

Elizabeth Reed, 1803, Phipps Street, Charlestown, MA
 Sacred to the Memory
of Elizabeth Reed
Daut of Mr JOSEPH
& Miss ELIZABETH REED
died Septr 1st 1803

I love this tree. These carvings are usually so rigid, but this one has a sense of movement. It truly looks like the tree is mourning. The Farber Collection attributes a similar stone dedicated to another Reed daughter to the Lamson shop, though it does not differentiate between the work of Joseph, Caleb, and David Lamson.  Other carvings may be more precise, but this one is special.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Samuel Epes

Samuel Epes, 1760, Cambridge, MA
I am too lazy to transcribe this myself. Here is the William Thaddeus Harris' transcription:

Samuel Epes was a promising young lawyer and politician who died of consumption in 1760. His mother married Harvard President Edward Holyoke after the death of Samuel's father in 1741, when Samuel was eight years old. Holyoke considered Samuel a son — his diary contains entries such as "August 20 [1746] Sons John Holyoke and Samuel Epes first attended school in Boston."

I have not been able to find a translation online. My high school Latin is rusty, but this also looks like another way to say died: "Animam sjus in Jesu sinum expiravit." That must be something along the lines of "His soul expired in Jesus." Sinus means a curve or fold, so maybe something like Jesus' embrace? Does maceratus mean "to chew"? Tabesco means "to waste away," which makes sense because he died of consumption, but "to chew" seems a little graphic.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Elizabeth Lathrup

Elizabeth Lathrup, 1730, Norwich, CT
HERE LIES Ye BODY
OF MRS ELIZABETH
LATHRUP LATE WIFe
TO MR JABEZ LA-
THRUP WHO DIED
APRIL Ye 14 1730
AGED 79 YEARS 6
MONTHS & 9 DAYS

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Anna Holyoke Cutts

Anna Holyoke Cutts, 1788, North Cemetery, Portsmouth, NH

Here lies (mix'd with the clods of the
valley) the Dust of Anna Holyoke Cutts
2d: daughr: of Samuel Cutts Esqr:
she cherfully resin'd her Soul to God
who gave it 28th of Augst: 1788. AE 20
With Life contented as in death resin'd
To sea's congenial flow the unspoiled mind;
Attending Angels hail'd her to that shore
Where Times dull [winter?]

Does this count as another way to say died? Number 60 is "Resigned His Soul to God" — do you think that "cherfully resin'd her Soul to God who gave it" is substantially different? I usually have no trouble booting a gravestone from 101 Ways to Say Died when I find a more interesting version of the phrase, but #60 is the gravestone of Yarrow, which is one of the few gravestones of African Americans in the series.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Munings Sawin

Munings Sawin, 1722, Watertown, MA

Here Lyes ye Body
of Mr MUNINGS
SAWIN; Who
Decd Novembr ye
28th, 1722 in ye 68th
Year of His Age

Munnings Sawin, town clerk and treasurer of Watertown, was named for his mother's family.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Hannah Dodge

Hannah Dodge, 1773, Ipswich, MA
HERE lies Buried the
Body of Mrs.. HANNAH
DODGE, second amiable
Consort of CAPT: THOMAS
DODGE & 2d: Daugtr.. of Mr:
DANIEL STANIFORD; She de–
parted this Life Janr: 29th..
1773: In the 27th.. year
of her age.
Unblam'd through life lamanted in her end
A pleasant daughter, sister, wife, & friend.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Zibeah Sweat

Zibeah Sweat, 1791, Wellfleet, MA
In Memory of
Miss Zibeah Sweat,
who Died
June 27th 1791. in
the 28th Year of her
Age.

Another obscure name from the Bible — Zibiah was the mother of King Joash. Zibeah Sweat's mother, Zibah, is buried nearby. The divergent spellings make me wonder how the family pronounced this name.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Caitlin and Mark, 14 July 2007

Gravestone of the Day: William Warland

William Warland, 1708, Cambridge, MA

WILLIAM
WARLAND SON
OF WILLIAM
& TABITHA
WARLAND WAS
BORN OCTOBR Ye
3RD 1706 & DIED
AUGUST 23RD
1708 AGED 1 YEAR 10
MO & 17 DAYES

This is not the first stone I have found that has the year added in as an afterthought. Since the year of death seems to be crucial information, I think that these stones might offer some clues about the time that elapsed between a death and the carving of a gravestone. I think that it would be easier to leave off the year if the stone were carved in the same year as the death — to the person who carved this stone, young William died in August, not August of 1708. I would venture that this thought is easiest to have between August of 1708 and the spring of 1709. It's not hard evidence, but it is suggestive.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: John White

John White, 1690, Copp's Hill, Boston
HERE LYETH BURIED
Ye BODY OF
JOHN WHITE
AGED ABOUT 30 [edit: 50]
YEARS DECD Ye 6
OF AUGUST 1690

This stone has been vandalized to make it appear that the date is 1620, rather than 1690. If you look closely, you can see that the bottom line of the the 2 has been scratched in. Also, 1620 is an implausible date — there was no Boston, let alone a burying ground at Copp's Hill in 1620. No New England gravestone survives from the pre-1650 period, and I strongly suspect that some of the 1650s stones are backdated. I suppose someone could have erected a drastically backdated stone at Copp's Hill to honor an ancestor who had died in 1620, but that's more of a 19th-century thing, while this is clearly a 17th-century stone.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Gravestone of the Day: Thomas Webb

Thomas Webb, 1769, Granary Burying Ground, Boston, MA

Here lies deposited the Remains
of Mr. THOMAS WEBB
who Died Very suddenly much
lamented ye 8th July 1769
Aged 33 Years.
He was born in the City of
Glocester in England.
This Stone the Hand of Social friendship rears
Whose generous Griefs supply a Parents Tears
Could friendly wishes stay ye Transient Breath
A kind Companion had not tasted Death.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Happy Decmber!

Marcy Winsor, 1771, Providence, RI
 This message brought to you by Seth Luther.