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.

4 comments:

Roy said...

Hmmmmm... This looks like the work of one of the Emmes family carvers. Given the date, probably Josua. Stylistically it looks very much like one of Henry's stones, but he died in 1767. Unfortunately Farber doesn't seem to list anything specifically by Josua, only by Nathaniel, Henry, and William Codner. So maybe Josua's style was much like Henry's?

By the way, due to economic necessity I've had to leave Newport and I'm now living with family in Shippensburg, PA. And yes, I've discovered the historical cemeteries here. I did a post on the God's Acre cemetery just the other day, and I'll be visiting the Spring Hill cemetery today. Now I just need to study up on the carvers in these parts.

Caitlin GD Hopkins said...

Interesting. Is it possible that this stone was carved by Josua Emmes before his death and lettered by someone else in the shop 2 years later?

I'm sorry to hear that you've left Newport, but glad that you have some new graveyards to visit. A friend of mine is writing her dissertation about Philadelphia and had to learn the old form of German in order to read her sources. She speaks modern German, but, apparently, 18th-century German has a very different orthography. I always have to ask for her help when I want to decipher a German stone from the Farber Collection.

jim blachowicz said...

I'm pretty sure this was carved by John Homer of Boston.

Roy said...

Good catch, Jim! This stone is almost a carbon copy of Homer's Sally Pond stone.