USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Epitaphs from Copp's Hill burial ground, Boston. With notes > Part 1
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974.402 B65brk 1786176
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
0 1000 01 109 OTET
Epitaphs
FROM
Capp's Will Burial Ground,
BOSTON.
WITH NOTES.
BY
THOMAS BRIDGMAN.
" Take them, O Death ! and bear away Whatever thou canst call thine own ; Thine image, stamped upon this clay, Doth give thee that, but that alone. Take them, O Grave! and let them lie, Folded upon thy narrow shelves, As garments by the soul laid by, And precious only to ourselves. Take them, O great Eternity ! Our little life is but a gust That bends the branches of thy tree, And trails its blossoms in the dust." LONGFELLOW.
BOSTON AND CAMBRIDGE: JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY. 1851.
i NEWB. RORY
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/epitaphsfromcopp00brid_0
1786176
VIEW OF COPPS HILL, BOSTON.
E 911 .2
Bridgman, Thomas, b. 1795. Epitaphs from Copp's hill burial ground. Boston. With notes. By Thomas Bridgman ... Boston and Cambridge.
J. Munroe and company. 1851. xxiii. [1]. 252, & p. front., illus. 20m.
Bepublished 1:52 under title "Memorial of the dead in Boston : coll- taining an exact transcript ... Copp's hill burial ground".
1. Epitaphs-Boston. 2. Copp's hill burial ground, Boston.
1. - 12219
Library of Congress
1.73.61.CTBS
1690
11.2
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, BY JOHN K. ROGERS, AGENT,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
6.90 1
· STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.
Coup's Dill Cemetery.
COME, let us turn Through yon untrodden avenue, and muse Where rest the ancient dead. Lo, what a throng Have given their fleshly vestments to the worm, "Neath these still shades! Here, first the forest sons Buried their smitten people, ere the feet Of our pale race invaded them -to die. - Thou, who dost pore amid yon mouldering stones So patiently, deciphering the trace That the dull tooth of Time hath worn away, Canst tell me where the Pilgrim fathers sleep, Who with their ploughshare stirred this rocky glebe, And taught the echoes of the wilderness The voice of psalm and prayer ?
Methinks even now, From their unnoted sepulchres they warn Alike the idler and the man of care How soon to Death's forgotten cell shall speed The shuttle of their days. For all her sons, With saddest sigh of hollow-breathing winds,
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Copp's mill Cemetery.
Soft, vernal tears, and winter's naked boughs, Our mother Nature mourns.
She tells how vain The pride that lurks in gorgeous monuments. The pyramid, the stained sarcophagus, Betray their trust. Still, there's a life that lives Amid the mouldering clay, and silent clings To human sympathies. We speak to them Who speak no more, - and listen for their words, Forgetful that the interminable veil Is drawn between us.
Yet they have a voice, A tombstone witness to the holy truths That cannot die ; and may our pulseless hearts Wear worthily the dear Redeemer's sign, - " Yea, saith the Spirit, - blessed are the dead That die in Him."
L. H. S.
TO THE
HON. JOHN PRESCOTT BIGELOW, MAYOR OF BOSTON,
AND TO
THE CITIZENS OF BOSTON,
This Balume
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY THEIR HUMBLE SERVANT,
THE COMPILER.
O
Sutrnanrtinn.
THERE are few passages in the Scriptures more touching than the simple and unadorned narrative of the visit of our Lord Jesus Christ to the afflicted family in Bethany, when he met Martha, while her sister Mary "rose up hastily and went out " to the grave of Lazarus, to weep there. It teaches us to hallow the spot where our departed friends repose.
The Hebrew has ever been noted for regarding with venera- tion the sepulchres of his ancestors - a trait of character con- nected with love of country, filial affection, and all the endear- ments of domestic life. To this day, the devout sons of Abraham, wherever in the wide world they may dwell, look forward to a pilgrimage to Palestine, as the great and most sacred act of their lives ; and often the aged Jew seeks to lay his bones in Judea, where his fathers sleep. Although a dark cloud now rests on that doomed land, yet numerous are the monuments and sepulchres which environ the holy city ; and the " tombs of the kings " and the burial-caves of the patriarchs attract the notice of every traveller, and awaken his sympathy.
The Greeks were no less remarkable for paying honors to the dead. Their obsequies did not cease at the burial. They cherished the memory of their friends with monuments and in- scriptions, and sanctified the place of interment with a venera- tion which might raise a blush in some Christian mourners in our own land. The Via Sacra, from Athens to Eleusis, passed by Ceramicus, their public cemetery, where the ruins of many splendid sepulchres are still extant.
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Introduction.
Nor were the Romans less distinguished for this sacred and refined respect for the ashes of their ancestors. They buried their dead near the great highways, so that their memory might be ever before them ; from whence comes SISTE, VIATOR- Pause, traveller, at this spot. Lofty sepulchres and marble mon- uments still survive among the ruins of the Eternal City, on the Appian Way. Whose heart does not burn within him, when he reads in Cicero - when he was quaestor in Sicily -- of his discovery of the tomb of Archimedes among thorns and briers, with the cylinder and sphere upon it, which Marcellus had raised to his memory nearly two centuries before ?
The preservation of the memory of our ancestors by tomb- stones and monuments in hallowed spots is honorable to our nature, and conducive to the cultivation of better and holier feelings. We are too apt to forget the lives and characters of those who adorned the circle of another generation; and, amidst the cares of life, and the absorbing pursuits of the hour, friends and connections once dear to society, when they have left us, are too often buried in the grave of oblivion. Every step, therefore, which tends to bring them up to memory, and recall their actions when alive, though it may appear a humble labor in itself, is valuable in its influence.
" It is wise for us to recur to the history of our ancestors. Those who are regardless of their ancestors and of their pos- terity - who do not look upon themselves as a link connecting the past with the future, in the transmissions of life from their ancestors to their posterity - do not perform their duty to the world. To be faithful to ourselves, we must keep our ances- tors and posterity within reach and grasp of our thoughts and affections - living in the memory and retrospection of the past, and hoping with affection and care for those who are to come after us. We are true to ourselves only when we act with be- coming pride for the blood we inherit, and which we are to transmit to those who shall soon fill our places." - DANIEL WEBSTER's Speech, Dec. 22, 1845.
With feelings, therefore, which are canonized by the good
ix
Introduction.
and great of all countries, and of every age, we may approach the subject matter of this volume of epitaphs, gathered by a humble gleaner in the fields of the dead - the dead who lie in one of the ancient churchyards of the PILGRIMS OF NEW ENGLAND. The favorable reception of the "Inscriptions on the Gravestones in Northampton" is a harbinger that such labor will not be in vain.
The venerable cemetery on Copp's Hill is worthy of the researches of the antiquary; for there many of the fathers of New England were buried. With perseverance and much pains-taking, he has pursued his object, and has collected a large number of epitaphs and inscriptions, some of which are connected with historical events, and others with the early pros- perity of this city. Many families, too, are personally inter- ested in this garden of the dead; for there their progenitors repose, where the rains and the frosts are fast obliterating every impression of lithography.
In this manner a record may be handed down to other times, and a permanent transcript preserved, when the marble slab, the heraldic monument, and the fading slate have crumbled into dust. Surely, then, such an enterprise deserves a liberal en- couragement. Like ourselves, the ancient Jews wrote their inscriptions on slabs of marble, and placed them upright at the graves of the deceased, when more splendid monuments were not erected. But the stone and the marble have long since mouldered into dust, and few sepulchres can now be identified. There was then no TYPE in existence to give an everlasting duration to their names. The Valley of Jehoshaphat was the great place of burial for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It ex- tends from the Mount of Olives to Mount Moriah, and is full of sepulchres. In its depths are the Brook Cedron and the Pool of Siloam. Next to the holy sepulchre, no spot in Palestine is more solemnized by sacred reminiscences ; yet, with the ex- ception of the tombs of David, Absalom, and a few others, the darkness of oblivion rests on this valley of the dead.
The sweetest remembrances and highest motives to Christian
x
Introduction.
duty are intertwined with, and strengthened by, meditating on our departed friends, and making the home of the dead soothing to the eye and sacred to the feelings ; and more especially in a Bible land, in which, when we go to the grave to weep there, we weep not as those who have no hope.
Distinct from the respect and affection we owe to our friends who have gone, there is another consideration of weight -the benefit which a preservation of such memorials may confer. They may enable heirs, in some instances, to prove their de- scent and trace their genealogy ; they may excite the young to emulate the deeds of their honored ancestors ; and they teach us, amidst the bustle and business of the hour, that the glory of this world passeth away. They stand like road-guides in the journey of life, casting their long shadows over the whole path to another world.
British heraldry is often connected with British history ; and the coat of arms -though sometimes bestowed on unworthy objects - may reflect the lustre of other times on descendants whose virtues and talents have been veiled by misfortune, or buried in undeserved obscurity. What armorial ensigns may be to the living, the faithful and judicious epitaph is to the ineritorious dead.
It was by exploring the catacombs, obelisks, and monuments erected to the dead more than forty centuries ago, that Cham- pollion discovered a key to Egyptian history, so happily and eloquently elucidated by George R. Gliddon, Esq., at the Low- ell lectures, in this city, a few years since.
A brief account of the celebrated spot where so many of the founders of Boston were gathered to their fathers may not be without interest to the numerous descendants of the deceased, and to the stranger who visits this city.
Boston was called by the Indians Shawmut, - which signi- fies "living fountains," for this peninsula abounded in springs, - and by the English at Charlestown, Tri-mountain, either from three lofty hills, visible afar off, Beacon, Copp's, and Fort Hills, or from Beacon mountain alone; on which were " three little
xi
Entroduction.
rising hills " of peculiar form. The weight of historic evidence seems to be in favor of the last derivation. Indeed, Johnson, in his "Wonder-working Providence," compared Beacon Hill, with its two hillocks, to the head and shoulders of a man, and therefore called the place Trea-mont ; and William Wood, in his book called "New England's Prospect," printed in 1634, says, "To the north-west is a high mountain, with three" little rising hills on the top of it; wherefore it is called Tramount." The same writer says of Boston, "His situation is very pleasant."
Fort Hill, Beacon and Copp's Hills were all distinguished in our colonial history. On Fort Hill, Andros, the tyrant gov- ernor under James II., was imprisoned, "bound in chains or cords," in the castle built there about 1640, until he was sent home to England. This ragged cliff, as it then appeared, commanded the harbor. It was anciently called Corn Hill, and was once the site of an Indian fort.
Beacon Hill was in the form of a sugar loaf, 138 feet in height from the water; on the summit was a tall, stout mast, secured by supporters, with treenail steps, and a barrel of tar on the top, forming a beacon. In times of danger this was guarded by a sentinel, ready to light it at a moment's alarm. From this circumstance it was called at first Sentry Hill. The view from this height was very extensive. The beacon to which it owes its permanent name was blown down in a vio- lent storm in November, 1789 ; and the year following, a Doric column of brick and stone, sixty feet high, surmounted by a large gilt eagle, was erected under a subscription by the Bos- tonians. On the four sides of the pedestal, some of the leading events of the revolution were inscribed upon marble slabs : - the stamp act when passed and repealed, -the destruction of the tea, - battles of Lexington, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and surrender at Yorktown, - and the confederation, independence, peace, and forming the constitution were among the subjects commemorated. For several years this column stood as a proud monument of glory, until taken down and the mountain where it stood levelled to enlarge the narrow territory of the growing place.
5
xii
Introduction.
Beacon Hill was conveyed by the town of Boston to John Hancock, Esq., by deed, August 6, 1811. The lot is described in the deed as six rods square. It was bounded east and west by Bowdoin and Hancock Streets, and north and south by Mount Vernon and Derne Streets ; and had Temple Street been laid out at, that time, it would have run directly over the brow of this hill, and included the monument ; which may give the stranger and the young of this day a more accurate idea of the locality of this eminence; for every feature of its position is now utter- ly effaced. Stately houses and handsome streets occupy or surround its site, once so memorable as a watch-tower. But the monument, with its pictorial features and historic inscrip- tions, still exists, recorded in the page of our country's annals, which neither frost, nor rain, nor the innovations of modern improvement can efface - a convincing argument of the benefit which a humble work, like this, on Copp's Hill Burying-ground may render to other times.
It may be well to remark, that Mr. Hancock caused the mon- ument to be removed soon after the execution of his deed from the town, as he himself informed the writer of this introduction. The marble slabs and the gilt eagle were excepted in the pur- chase. The four slabs were deposited in a recess on the ground floor at the north-eastern part of the State House, where they are annexed to the wall. They are four feet four inches long, by three feet three inches wide. The eagle has been placed over the speaker's chair in the Hall of the Representatives ; and there may this mute but national emblem of our glory excite all hearts to preserve our Union inviolate and forever.
Copp's Hill, in 1630, is thus described by Dr. Snow in his HISTORY OF BOSTON, p. 105: "The hill at the north, rising to the height of about fifty feet above the sea, presented there on its north-west brow an abrupt declivity, long after known as Copp's Hill steeps. Its summit, almost level, extended between Prince and Charter Streets towards Christ's Church. Thence south a gentle slope led to the water, which washed the south side of Prince Street below, and the north side above Thacher
Introduction. xiii
Street as far as Salem Street. Eastward from the church, a gradual descent led to the North Battery, which was considered the bottom of the hill. South-easterly the slope was still more gradual, and terminated at the foot of the North Square, leaving a knoll on the right, where at present stands the meeting-house of the Second Church."
Copp's Hill rose gradually from Hudson's Point, so called from William Hudson, who owned it in 1635. This point and part of the hill were once the property of Joshua Gee, and Gee's noted shipyard lay at the foot of the hill northerly, a short dis- tance from his house in Prince Street. It was afterwards used for a fortification, and called the North Battery. On the hill, Admiral Graves raised a battery of six guns and howitzers, and opened a fire on the American works in Charlestown, on the 17th of June, 1775. Charlestown was set on fire by bomb- shells thrown from this height, and by a body of marines, who landed in the easterly part of that town from the Somerset frigate. The scene has been described by writers with terrific splendor, while the battle of Bunker Hill was kindling that blaze of glory which finally triumphed in the deliverance of an oppressed people, and in the foundation of a great empire.
The first burying-ground, as it is said, laid out in Boston, was the King's Chapel Cemetery ; for in the south-west corner of it, Isaac Johnson, the owner of a large tract there, was buried at his particular request. "He was a prime man among us, and made a godly end," Governor Winthrop remarked. Indeed, he was the principal founder of Boston -the fidus Achates of Winthrop, and was looked up to by him and the colonists as a guide. Mr. Johnson was the happy partner of Lady Arbella, whose early and untimely death was deeply lamented. He fol- lowed her September 30, 1629, before the name of Tri-moun- tain was changed to Boston, which was September 7, 1630.
Copp's Ilill Burying-ground was the second place of inter- ment. It was purchased by the town for this purpose in 1659. The spot was originally owned by William Copp. On the hill once stood a windmill, which, in August, 1632, was removed
6
xiv
Introduction.
from Watertown, because "it would not grind with a westerly wind." It was called from this circumstance Windmill Hill, and afterwards took the name of Snow's Hill ; eventually Copp's Ilill, from William Copp, became its permanent name. Mr. Copp's realty is thus recorded, page 15, in the "Original Book of Possessions " of the town of Boston, now kept in the archives of the city at the City Hall.
"The possession of William Copp within the Limits of Bos- ton. One house and lott of halfe an Acre in the Mill pond bounded wth Thomas Buttolph south-east : John Button north- east : the marsh on the south-west : and the River on the north- west."
The above is not dated, but there is reason to believe it was entered in 1644.
In the Probate Office for the county of Suffolk, there is a record of the will of William Copp, cordwainer. It was dated October 31, 1662, and proved April 27, 1670. Among the items of bequest are the following : "I give to my daughter Ruth my great kettle, little pot and chaffen dish." - " I give to Lydia my little kettle and great pot." In the inventory is a line appraising "1 hour glass and frying pan, 12 shillings." The amount of the inventory was almost £110-no contemptible sum nearly two centuries ago.
Copp's Hill was formerly claimed by the Ancient and Hon- orable Artillery Company under a mortgage, which was finally discharged. Shaw, in his "Description of Boston," published in 1817, says that Mr. Copps was an elder in Dr. Mather's church ; but erroneously, for he had several children, and it was his eldest son David who filled that office. His wife's name, Judith, is spelt Goodeth on the gravestone, and also in his will.
The foregoing origin of the name of Copp's Hill agrees with Snow's and Shaw's statements ; but in the "History of the An- cient and Honorable Artillery Company," by 'Zachariah G. Whit- man, is the following sentence, where he speaks of Nicholas Upshall: "Close beside him lay the gravestones of his wife
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Entroduction.
Dorothy and friend Obadiah Copp, from whom the hill is named." This must be the blunder of a careless compiler. Yet it shows how little is known of the man whose name is immortalized by this hill, where so many illustrious patriarchs sleep.
Since the appearance of Copp's Hill in 1630, as described by Dr. Snow, the features of the place have undergone a great change. Houses, streets, and wharves environ it; and the only open space is an area of about three acres, forming the cemetery, and including a lot of half an acre or more, bought by the town in 1806, and separated from the original burying- ground by a handsome granite wall. The whole is surrounded by a high, durable, and ornamental fence of iron. The grounds have been laid out in regular alleys and gravel paths, and em- bellished with a great variety of native forest-trees, some of which are of stately growth. The gravestones of many gener- ations have been raised up, and numerous seats located under shady branches, where the aged and weary may pause, and the mourner find a quiet resting-place. Yet it is to be lamented, that the mounds and hillocks of the dead have been cut down to an unnatural level, and so many stones misplaced to form a geometrical row on the borders of the paths. This mode of restoring and adorning an ancient churchyard is singular ; and to speak of it kindly, and not in anger, it certainly was not the act of good taste.
This cemetery is now bounded north by Charter Street, west by Snow Hill Street, and south by Hull Street; the east is bordered by blocks of handsome brick houses, which shut out the picturesque view of the harbor, so attracting in olden time. Indeed, this airy spot, once so rich in scenery, is almost en- closed by buildings. Some years ago, the western margin was cut down nearly twenty feet, and a perpendicular wall erected, making the eastern border of Snow Hill Street. Formerly, before this side was dug down, there was a small rise of the land to the west of some seven feet higher. This formed the brow of an eminence with a very steep and abrupt bank to the
xvi
Introduction.
shore. From this lofty height the prospect of the harbor, Charles River, and adjacent country must have been expansive and magnificent. Here the British threw up a small fort and erected a battery, from which they directed their fatal shells in the burning of Charlestown.
At the north and north-west there is an open space, through which part of Charlestown heights and the Navy Yard are visible ; and by taking a stand a little east from the western boundary, the majestic OBELISK on Bunker Hill becomes visible, looming up in solitary grandeur, and bringing to mind the words of the GREAT ORATOR, when the corner stone of this monument was laid by the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, June 17, 1825 : "Let it rise! let it rise ! till it shall meet the sun in its com- ing - let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and the part- ing day linger and play on its summit!"
In the vicinity of the burying-ground, about seventy yards eastwardly from the south-east corner, is Christ Church, the corner stone of which was laid April 15, 1723. A chime of eight bells was added in 1744. Under it is a cemetery of thirty-three tombs. The venerable Dr. Eaton, formerly rector of this church, in a discourse delivered December 28, 1823, gives an interesting history of its origin, and relates an anecdote somewhat singular : the sprigs of evergreen I have Italicized.
" The following fact, which in some ages would have excited the superstitious veneration of ignorance and bigotry, may be worth recording. Some years since, in 1812, while the work- men were employed in the cemetery building tombs, one of them found the earth so loose that he settled his bar into it the whole length with a single effort. The superintendent directed him to proceed till he found solid earth. About six feet below the bottom of the cellar he found a coffin covered with a coarse linen cloth, sized with gum, which on boiling became white, and the texture as firm as if it had been recently woven. Within this coffin was another, protected from the air in a sim- ilar manner, and the furniture was not in the least injured by time. The flesh was sound, and, somewhat resembling that of
Introduction.
xvii
an Egyptian mummy. The skin, when cut, appeared like leather. The sprigs of evergreen, deposited in the coffin, resem- bled the broad-leaved myrtle .; the stem was elastic, the leaves fresh, and apparently in a state of vegetation. From the inscrip- tion it was found to be the body of Mr. Thomas, a native of New England, who died in Bermuda. Some of his family were among the founders of Christ Church. His remains, when dis- covered, had been entombed about eighty years. They now rest in the north-east corner of the cemetery, and the stone so long concealed from observation is placed over them." - Shaw, p. 259, note.
Dr. William Walter officiated as rector of this church from 1792 to 1800, of whose death Bishop Samuel Parker, D. D., of Trinity Church, who died in 1804, remarked, that "religion mourns the loss of one of her most obedient children and bright- est ornaments." It is worthy of observation that in Christ Church was the first monument ever erected to the memory of Washington in America. Shaw * describes it, " at the cast end of the church on the side of the chancel, with a bust well executed by an Italian artist."
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