Gravestone of the Day: Hubert Russel

Hubert Russel, 1726, Cambridge, MA

Here Lyes Buried

the Body of Mr.

HUBERT RUSSEL

Who Decd. June

the 4th 1726

Aged 39 Years

Also Here Lyes one of his Children

It is commonplace to find gravestones dedicated to a mother and one or more of her children. Similar stones for fathers are rarer. I find them most frequently in maritime communities like Plymouth, where a child's gravestone also serves as a cenotaph for a father lost at sea. A few other gravestones celebrate the achievements of successful patriarchs.

Gravestone of the Day: Rebecca Barrett

Rebecca Barrett, 1738, South Burying Ground, Concord, MA

Here lyes Interred ye Remains

of Mrs REBECCA BARRETT late

Consort of Capt. JOSEPH BARRETT

Who Departed this life June 23d: 1738 AE 54

A person of true piety & excellent vertue

Exemplary in her religious Conversation &

Conduct being a diligent instructer & faithfull

guide to her Children kind & Charitable

to her neighbours truly virtuous & desirable

in her life & much lamented at her Death.

The Memory of the Just is Blessed.

Gravestone of the Day: Jose Appleton

Jose Appleton, 1723?, Cambridge, MA

Here Lyes ye Body

of Jose Appleton,

Son of Revd Mr.

Nath[aniel Appleton]

I think that this is the gravestone of Jose Appleton, infant son of Nathaniel and Margaret Appleton, who died at the age of 3 months on June 6, 1723. Revd. Nathaniel Appleton was born in Ipswich in 1693 and came to Cambridge to preach. His wife, Margaret Gibbs, was the daughter of Watertown minister Henry Gibbs. The couple had at least 13 children.

There were several boys named Jose in the extended Appleton family in the 17th and 18th centuries. There is a Jose in the lineage of Jesus (see Luke 3:29, KJV) — many modern translation report the name as "Joshua." Other translations use Jose or Joses as a variant of Joseph. I imagine that the Appleton family probably pronounced this name JOES, not ho-SAY.

Just add Jose to the list of names you might not expect to see among English-speaking colonists in New England, along with Vashti and Jezebel.

Gravestone of the Day: Nathan Hale

No, not that Nathan Hale. A different one.

Nathan Hale, 1767, Newburyport, MA

Here lie ye Remains of NATHAN HALE Esq

Who died May 9th. 1767. Aged 76 Years

He was a Physician of much Experience & Considerable

Eminence, & highly esteemed in his Profession, which he

carefully attended, distributing his Services without

Distinction to Rich & Poor. He was for many years

a Justice of the Peace; which office he faithfully executed

with Integrity & without Partiality. He was a Gentleman

of agreable Manners & a thorough Friend, But above all

he was a Christian of exemplary Piety; he was devout

without Ostentation, & religiously carefull to confirm

his Principles by a Life becoming the Doctrines he

professed; Indeed ye Physician, ye Magistrate, ye Gentleman

and the Christian were united in his Charecter in

such a Manner as made his Life desirable and

greatly usefull & his Death justly lamented.

During the 1760s and 1770s, the Lamson shop went through a phase where they carved whole obituaries on gravestones. This is a good example.

Custom-Made Gravestone?

Were 17th- and 18th-century gravestones custom carved or did customers purchase pre-carved blanks and pay for a custom epitaph? This is an important question for anyone who wishes to argue that the iconography of a particular stone is connected with the person buried under it.

The evidence seems to indicate that many stones were custom-made, but many (most?) were pre-carved.

It is easiest to argue that a stone was custom-made when it is of an unusual size/shape, when it displays a portrait of the deceased, or when the iconography is directly related to something mentioned in the text. If a stone is custom-made, there should also be consistency between the hand that carved the words and the iconography.

Thus, there little doubt that the Langley children stone and the Childs children stone are custom-made: they are too large, unusual, and specific to be pre-carved. Similarly, I would wager that the Jonathan Pierpont stone is a custom stone due to the minister-specific iconography and the correspondence between the letterforms and iconography. The stone for Desire Tripp's arm is definitely one-of-a-kind.

On the other end of the spectrum, it is easy to argue that a stone is probably pre-carved when its iconography is standard for a particular workshop, the text does not fit particularly well, or the hand carving the iconography seems different from the hand carving the text.

For example:

The Lee children stone (Phipps Street Cemetery, Charlestown, MA) looks like every other Lamson shop stone carved between 1730 and 1750 and the names of the children are squished into a space that is much too small. To me, this looks like a (rather large) blank that was intended for a single person, but purchased by the Lees for their children.

The Thomas Brown stone (NCBG, Newport, RI) is typical of William Stevens' early work, but the text does not fill the space allotted, suggesting that the border and tympanum carvings may have been done before the epitaph.

On the Sarah Rogers stone (NCBG, Newport, RI), there is a profound disconnect between the style of the borders and the style of the lettering, indicating that the work was divided between two carvers.

Next time: pre-shaped, but not pre-carved

In Peace Amidst ye Rage of Noise & War

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I found three gravestones with the same, unusual inscription. All date from the Revolutionary War era and look like Lamson shop stones, though I can't be sure. They all start the same way: "In Peace Amidst ye Rage of Noise & War Here Rests the Remains of . . ."

John Hart, Portsmouth, NH, 1777

Jacob Tilton, Portsmouth, NH, 1776

Deborah Parrott, Portsmouth, NH, 1779

I'm very interested in gravestones that recognize public events. The Jason Russell stone is a good example of a stone dedicated to a single person that nonetheless has a lot to say about current events. These three stones aren't quite as overt — no barbarous murders or bloody troops, but they acknowledge the war.

"A Man of his Word"

This Lamson shop stone from 1723 is unusual for its pithy, personal epitaph. During this period, the Lamson shop carved two general types of epitaphs: a short version consisting of name, date, age, and occasionally a one-line verse such as "Ye Memory of Ye Just is Blessed," and a long version that's more personal and usually dedicated to ministers or other eminent public men. Robert Anyan's stone in Waltham conforms to the short version, but commemorates one of the deceased's admirable qualities, rather than employing a stock phrase.

Here Lyes Buried

the Body of Mr.

Robert Anyan

Who Decd. Decmbr.

ye 12th 1723. Aged

about 68 Years.

A Man of his Word.