Gravestone of the Day: John Jackson

John Jackson, 1691, Point of Graves, Portsmouth, NH

HERE

LYETH BURIED

Ye BODY OF

IOHN IACKSON

AGED 33 YEARS

DYED IANUARY

Ye 26 1690/1

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.

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.

Gravestone of the Day: William Waters

William Waters, 1691, Copp's Hill, Boston

HERE LYETH BURIED
Ye BODY OF
WILLIAM WATERS

Ye SON OF 

SAMSON & REBECCA

WATERS AGED 21

YEARS 3. MO. & 12 DS

DECD JUNE Ye 15

1691

Gravestone of the Day: William Burtt and James Wood

William Burtt and James Wood, 1682, 1693, Granary Burying Ground, Boston, MA

WILLIAM BURTT

AGED ABOUT 40 YEARS

DIED NOUEMBER

Ye 10 1693

MR. JAMES WOOD

OF LONDON AGED

34 YEARS DIED

JANUARY Ye 5

1682/1

This is an unusual stone. It is rare to find a monument that commemorates two adult men who are not obviously related to one another. Sometimes, unrelated individuals who die together in accidents are buried together, but Burtt and Wood died more than a decade apart. Might they have been employees of the same company? Or servants of the same master? I don't know and their names are common enough that I haven't had much luck finding them.

Note also the practice carvings beneath the ground line.

Gravestone of the Day: Walter Hasting

Walter Hasting, 1699, Cambridge, MA

HERE LYES Ye BODY OF

WALTER HASTING

WHO DIED SEPTEMBER

25TH 1699 & IN

THE 21 YEAR OF HIS

AGE

I love the mustaches.

Gravestone of the Day: Elizabeth Carter

Elizabeth Carter, 1691, Woburn, MA

HERE LIES Ye BODY

OF ELIZABETH

CARTER WIFE OF CAPt

JOHN CARTER AGED 

78 YEARS DIED Ye

6 OF MAY 1691

Gravestone of the Day: Matthew Johnson

Matthew Johnson, 1696, Woburn, MA

HERE LYES Ye BODY OF

LIEUTENANT MATTHEW

JOHNSON AGED 62

YEARS DIED IULY 19

1696

Here's another Matthew from Woburn. Matthew is a fairly unusual name in colonial Massachusetts — not unheard of, but not common like Ebenezer or Mehitabel. I wonder if these Woburn Matthews are related and named in honor of one another.

Gravestone of the Day: Ebenezer Convers

Ebenezer Convers, Woburn, MA

EBENEZER

CONUERS SON

OF JAMES & HAN-

NAH CONUERS

AGED ABOUT 5

YEARS DIED

[November 9, 1693]

Gravestone of the Day: Dorothy Manning

Dorothy Manning, 1692, Cambridge, MA

HERE LYES ye BODY

OF DOROTHY

MANNING WIFE TO

WILLIAM MANNING

AGED 80 YEARS

DIED IULY 26

1692

Gravestone of the Day

Josias Covers, 1690, Woburn, MA

HERE LYES THE BODY OF

DEACON JOSIAS

CONUERS AGED
72 YEARS DECEASED

THE 3 OF FEBRUARY

1689-90