ancient burial-ground, with its mossgrown and mouldering monuments, is a place most fitting for the exercise of sober thoughts. The rude headstones that surround us are almost the only visible links that bind us to our ancestry, and they compel us, as it were, to stop at times along our pathway to the tomb, and contemplate the "world that was." The cemetery at "Old-Town" is a sacred spot. The relics of Puritans are slumbering there. Those that were among the founders of a mighty nation, the "avant-couriers" of liberty, repose around, "Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap." The sod that covers men like these is "consecrated ground," and there shall honor come, In our ramble to this hallowed spot, we took pains to transcribe some of the more quaint and characteristic epitaphs, which we think may not be uninteresting to the readers of this journal. And here we would remark "en passant," that "Time's effacing finger" is rapidly obliterating most of the older inscriptions, and unless some "Old Mortality" shall happen soon to come this way, they will ere long pass into complete oblivion. One stone, we observed, had been retouched. It bears the following historical inscription. "Mr. Henry Sewall (sent by Mr. Henry Sewall, his father in ye ship Elizabeth and Dorcas, Capt. Watts commander) arrived at Boston 1634, wintered at Ipswich, helped begin this plantation, 1635 furnishing English servants, neat cattle, and provisions, Married Mrs Jane Dummer march ye 25, 1646, died may ye 16 1700 Æt 86. "His fruitful vine, Being thus disjoined, January ye 13th following On the tablet of one of the early ministers of Newbury we find the following quaint, but significant epitaph; "A resurrection to immortality is here expected, for what was mortal of the Reverend Mr. John Richardson (once fellow of Harvard College, afterwards teacher to the church of Newbury) putt off Apr. 27, 1696 in the fiftieth year of his age." "When preachers dy, the Rules the pulpit gave to Live well, are still preached from the grave. The Faith and Life which your dead Pastor taught in One Grave now with him, syr, bury not," "Abi Viator A Mortuo disce vivere ut moriturus That poetry was not particularly cultivated in "Old Town" in early times is sufficiently apparent; but then it is to be remembered that the men of those days had some occasional fighting to do with the Indians; and that the ladies spun and wove their own garments. The tablets of the graveyard show, however, that the village always had its poet, and that he at least possessed the merit of originality. The headstone of Mr. Benj. Pierce, who died in 1711, bears the following stanza; "Pillar i' th' State he was Bid fair still At greater things, To all yt knew him well, Kind to all was he Loued by his friends Enuey itselfe stood dumb In times most troublesome." The following, bearing date of 1714, is doubtless from the same pen. The next, on the headstone of Mrs. Judith Coffin, who lived to see 177 of her children and grandchildren, and died at the age of 80, in 1705, is somewhat better. "Grave, sober, faithful, Fruitfull vine was she A rare example of true piety, Widow'd awhile, she wayted wisht-for rest With her dear husband in her Savior's brest." The epitaph of this "dear husband" follows: "To the memory of Tristam Coffin Esq, who having served the church of Christ in the office of a deacon 20 years died Feb. 4th 1703-4 aged 72 years. "On earth he pur-chas-ed a good degree, Great boldness in the faith and liberty And now possesses immortality.” On the stone of Mr. Robert Adams, who died in 1773, a. 71, we find the following lines, which the rude engraver has taken pains to space out, as below, in order to make them pass for poetry. "For-near-12-years He-to-murmer Was never heard by won Till his change did come." On a young man who died in 1796 we find the ensuing elegiac lines. If we recollect right, this was just previous to the publication of Lindley Murray's Grammar, and of course the author is excusable. "This youthful bloom was took away That ever died since Adam's fall." On the headstone of Mr. Daniel Pierce, we found an epitaph which, if taken literally, would seem to militate against the doctrine of the soul's immortality, than which, we presume, nothing could have been further from the poet's intention. "Here lies interred a soul indeed In grace if any him exceed Another on Mr. Timothy Noyes, who died in 1718, runs as follows: "Good Timothy in There for you children As an offset to these "uncouth rhymes," we subjoin the following beautiful epitaph on the first wife of the present worthy pastor of the parish. She died April 1, 1826. "How softly on her head the mantle fell Of death-her eye, her smiling cheek could tell, She mixed the Christian's with the mother's love, “She was a Christian,” is the simple, and yet significant Sarah Coffin, who died in 1798. inscription on the headstone of Mrs. This brief sentence is in fact one of the finest eulogies ever penned. She was a Christian! Then she was a loving mother; an affectionate wife; a sincere friend; a kind neighbor; in short, an honor and a blessing to mankind. The following, on Mrs. Lois Stone, who died in 1828, is a very good one. "How sweet she shone in social life, As sister, mother, friend and wife, The next is very beautiful. It is upon Mr. Edmund Coffin, who died in 1838. "Let us hope if the banners of light are unfurled In the regions of bliss to the penitent tear, That the peace which was never yet found in this world Is found by the spirit whose relics are here." The one below must be from the pen of some theological speculator, and may interest the curious in such matters. "Here lies in a state of perfect oblivion, John Adams who died Sept 2nd 1811 aet 79. "Death hath decomposed him, and at the general resurrection, Christ will re-compose him, when perception and thought shall resume their several functions and he shall become identically the same person which Deity composed him, and shall be happy or miserable according to his disposition." The uncertainty, (so rare a thing upon gravestones,) expressed in the last line in regard to the final destiny of this man, is worthy of all praise. We transcribe the following for the sake of its orthography. "Hear lyes buried the body of ensign Ioseph Knight who died Ianuary ye 29 1722 & in his 70 forst year of his age." The following, upon a very humble stone, reminds us that slavery was not altogether unknown amongst us "in times gone by." "Here lies Nancy, Dautr to Daniel and Mimboo sarvents to Mrs Joanna Cottle who dest Janry ye 31-1771 aged 1 year 3 mo. Among the inscriptions in the admonitory style, we noted down the following as the most peculiar. "Here lyes ye body of Mr Daniel Noyes who died March ye 15th 1716 aged 42 years 4 monthes and 16 days. A stone over the graves of two infants has the following distich; "Sure what two lovelier gems than they Reflect the sun of endless day?" But lest our readers should be weary of all this, we will close our quotations by the following characteristic epitaph on Henry Evans, a sailor, who died in 1817, aged 23. "Though Neptune's waves and Boreas' blast Now well escaped from all their rage I'm anchored here below, Safely I ride in triumph here With many of our fleet, Till signals call to weigh again, Our admiral Christ to meet. Oh may all those I've left behind Be washed in Jesus' blood, And when they leave this world behind, MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTION, Copied from the stone at Berwick, Me., by Elias Nason, Esq., of Newburyport, May 25, 1847. Here are buried the bodies of John Sullivan and Margery his wife. He was born in Limeric in Ireland in the year 1692 and died in the year 1796. She was born in Cork in Ireland in the year 1714 and died in 1801. EPITAPH ON A MISER. Here lies one who for medicines would not give A little gold, and so his life was lost; I fancy now he'd wish to live, Could he but guess how much his funeral cost. Low's Almanac, 1794. ANCIENT RELICS. Two gravestones were dug up on Thursday morning, April 21, 1847, by some workmen engaged in laying down water-pipes in Salem street, Boston. On one of them was the following inscription; MR. EDITOR: PROLIFIC FAMILY. In the second number of the Register you give an account of an exceedingly prolific family in Nova Scotia, which you think can scarcely be paralleled in history. The following, copied from Allen's American Biographical Dictionary, surpasses it. "Ephraim Pratt, remarkable for longevity, the grandson of John Pratt who settled in Plymouth, 1620, was born at East Sudbury, Nov. 1st, 1687. At the age of 21 he married Martha Wheelright, and before his death he could number among his descendants about 1500 persons. In the year 1801 four of his sons were living, the eldest of whom was 90 years of age, and the youngest 82. Michael Pratt, his son, died at Sudbury in Dec., 1826, aged 103. He was always remarkable for temperance. For the last sixty years he had tasted no wine nor any distilled spirits, and he was never intoxicated in his life. His drink was water, small beer, and cider. Living mostly on bread and milk, for forty years before his death he did not eat any animal food. Such was his uniform health that before 1801 he never consulted a physician, and it is not known that he consulted one afterwards." |