Gravestone of the Day: Emim How

Emim How, 1705, Little Compton, RI

HERE LYETH Ye BODY

OF EMIM Ye DAVGHTER

OF NICHOLAS & ELINOR

HOW, SHE LIVED 6

YEARS & DYED IVLY

Ye 18TH 1705

Emim is a new one for me. It is the name of an obscure tribe mentioned briefly in the Bible.

Here is another example of colonial Americans using a collective name from the Bible as a personal name.

Gravestone of the Day: Abigail Sims

Abigail Sims, 1702, Little Compton, RI

Here lyeth ye

body of AbiGail

ye wife of Iohn

Sims & dauGhter

of Edward Rich

mond & Sarah his

wife dyed octobr

ye 4th in ye 19th

[year of her age]

Here is another stone with no year on it. I've said before that these stones make me think that they were erected soon after the death – certainly within a year, possibly within 3 months.

Abigail Richmond Sims died in 1702.

Gravestone of the Day: Elizabeth Richmond

Elizabeth Richmond, 1705, Little Compton, RI

Here lyeth Eliz-

abeth ye dauGhtr of

Edwad Richmond

& of Sarah his wife

who dyed in ye 12th

year of her aGe

may ye 11th 1705

Gravestone of the Day: Windsor Goulding

Windsor Goulding, 1702, Granary Burying Ground, Boston, MA

WINDSOR SON OF

WINDSOR AND

ELIZABETH GOULDING

AGED 13. MO. & 8.

DAYES DIED AUGUST

Ye 26. 1702

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.

Gravestone of the Day: Katharine Poulter

Katharine Poulter, 1705, Lexington, MA

KATHARINE

POULTER DAUGHTR

OF JOHN & 

HANNAH POULTER

BORN APRIL 20th

1703 DIED 19th

OF AUGUST 1705

AGED 2 YEARS 4 MO

Gravestone of the Day: Martha Jacksun

Martha Jacksun, 1701, Granary Burying Ground, Boston, MA

MARTHA

IACKSUN

AGED 22

YEARS DIED

FEBRUARY

Ye 26 1701

Gravestone of the Day: Mary Martin

Mary Martin, 1705, North Baptist Burial Ground, Newport, RI

HERE LIETH THE

BODY OF MARY;

Ye WIFE OF IOSEPH

MARTIN; AGED 80

YEARS: WHO DIED

ON SEPTEM Ye

1705

 This stone is obviously in rough shape. I found it propped up against a stone wall at the back of the North Baptist Burial Ground in Newport, but I don't know whether it is still there.

Gravestone of the Day: Edward Thurston

Edward Thurston, 1706, North Baptist Burial Ground, Newport, RI

HERE LYETH THE BODY

OF EDWARD THURSTON

WHO LIVED 90 YEARS

& DEPARTED THIS LIFE

Ye 28 DAY OF FEBRUARY

1706

Gravestone of the Day: Esther Convers

Esther Convers, 1703, Woburn, MA

HERE LYES Ye

BODY OF ESTHER

CONVERS

DIED NOVEM. Ye 7th

1703 IN Ye

16th YEAR OF HERE

AGE

This stone caught my eye because women of all ages are generally identified in terms of their relationships to husbands/fathers/masters. This is especially true of very young women and girls. This stone is very small — perhaps it was cheaply made and whoever erected it didn't want to pay for the extra letters. Maybe there just wasn't room (though carvers squish in all kinds of text when they want to).

Gravestone of the Day: Jonathan Mors

Jonathan Mors, 1709, Nemasket Hill Cemetery, Middleboro, MA

HERE LYES

ye BODY OF

JONATHAN

MORS: WHO

DECEASED JULY: ye

9: 1709: IN ye 70

YEAR OF HIS AGE

Does anyone know this carver? His letters remind me of runes.

Gravestone of the Day: Twins

Twins, 1706, Nemasket Hill Cemetery, Middleboro, MA

These stones are mostly illegible — I can make out "TWIN" and "1706."

It looks like these were once a pair of head- and footstones that may have fallen over or been rearranged to accommodate a modern lawnmower.

Gravestone of the Day: Joseph Reddan

Joseph Reddan, 1708, Marblehead, MA

HERE LYES

ye BODY

OF JOSEPH

REDDAN

AGED ABOUT 10 MO

DIED MAY ye

4th 1708

Gravestone of the Day: Jonathan Marsh

Jonathan Marsh, 1708, Cambridge, MA

HERE LYES ye BODY

OF JONATHAN MARSH

JUNIOR SOPHISTER
WHO DECEASED IN

ye 19th YEAR OF HIS

AGE AR HARVARD

COLIDGE IN CAMBRIDGE

JUNE ye 10 1708

Gravestone of the Day: John Gove

John Gove, 1704, Cambridge, MA

HERE LYES ye

BODY OF JOHN

GOVE AGED

ABOUT 77 YEARS

WHO DECEASED

NOVEMBER ye 24th

1704

Gravestone of the Day: Ruth Johnson

Ruth Johnson, 1708, Haverhill, MA

RUTH ye WIFE OF

THOMAS IOHNSON

DIED AUGUST ye

29 1708 & IN ye

21 YEAR OF HER 

AGE

----------------

----------------

------ TWAS HER LOT

----------- HAND TO DY 

Edited to add:

Many thanks to RJO for looking into this one and finding a rich story:

"Ruth Johnson in her girlhood had been a captive among the Indians, who, March 15 1696-7, murdered her father and mother and her two sisters. Twelve years afterwards, Aug. 20. 1708, when she herself was slain, she held in her arms her only child, Lydia, aged six years and six months, born in the second year of her marriage. Strange to say, the child escaped the tomahawk of the Indians, and grew up to womanhood, and in her twenty-fifth year married Ebenezer Gile, whom she long survived, dying in Enfield, N.H., at the age of seventy-four, leaving issue. Her mother lies buried in Haverhill, Mass., in the old cemetery called Pentucket."

The final lines are said to be:

Once wt ye Indians
In Captivity
After twas her lot
In their hands to dy

Much contained in those few missing words.

—RJO

Gravestone of the Day

Elizabeth Gardier, 1705, Woburn, MA

HERE LYES ye BOD-

ELIZABETH GAR----

WIFE TO HENERY

GARDIER

AGED 43 YEARS

DIED IUNE ye 3D

1705

Gravestone of the Day

John Hammond, 1709, Watertown, MA

Here lyes buried ye

bidy of lieutenant

JOHN HAMMOND aged

85 years & 4 mo who

deceased novmbr 22nd 1709

blessed are ye dead that die in ye Lord