USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > Historic burial-places of Boston and vicinity > Part 3
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EPITAPH WROTE FOR THE TOMB OF LEONARD HOAR. DOCTOUR OF PHISICKE WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE IN BOSTON THE 28 NOVEMBER WAS INTERRED HERE THE 6 DECEMBER AND WAS AGED 45 YEARS. ANNO DOM. 1675.
The great mother referred to in this epitaph is Mrs. Joanna Hoar, who died 1661.
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One of her daughters, Margery, married Rev. Henry Flint, both of whom are buried near by under a stone with the following inscription : -
Here lyes interred ye Body of ye Reva M' HENRY FLYNT who came to New England in y Year 1635, was Ordained ye first Teacher of y" Church of Braintry 1639, and Died April 27, 1668. He had ye Character of a Gentleman Remarkable for his Piety Learning Wifdom & Fidelity in his Office. By him on his right hand lyes y" Body of MARGERY his beloved confort who Died March 1686/7. her maiden name was HIOAR. She was a Gentlewoeman of Piety, Prudence & peculiarly accomplished for inftructing young Gentlewoemen, many being fent to her from other Towns, efpecially from Boston. They descended from antient and good familys in ENGLAND
The ancestral line of President JJohn Adams can be traced, step by step, on the tombstones in this cemetery.
First, there is Henry Adams the emigrant, in whose memory is the following inscription, written by John Adams : -
In memory of HENRY ADAMS who took his flight from the Dragon persecution in Devonshire, in England, and alighted with eight sons, near Mount Wollaston. One of the sons returned to England : and after taking time to explore the country, four removed to Medfield and the neighbour ing towns. Two to Chelmsford. One on ly, Joseph, who lies here at his left hand remained here, who was an Original Proprietor in the Township of Braintree incorporated in the year 1639. This Stone and several others have been placed in this yard, by a great-great grandson from a veneration of the piety. humility. simplicity, prudence, patience, temperance,
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frugality, industry, and perseverance of his Ancestors, in hopes of recommending an imitation of their virtues to their Posterity.
This inscription is on a marble slab set into a flat granite slab. At the foot is the original stone in which there is a recess in which probably a metal plate bearing an inscrip- tion was placed.
The inscription accompanying the above in memory of Joseph Adams, senior, is as follows : -
Dedicated to the memory of JOSEPH ADAMS, senior who died December 6, 1694, and of Abigail his wife whose first name was Baxter, who died Aug. 27, 1692 : by a great grandson in 1817 1
The third step in the line of descent is represented in the inscription : -
In memory of JOSEPH ADAMS, son of Joseph senior and grandson of Henry and of Hannah his wife, whose maiden name was Bass, a daughter of Thomas Bass & Ruth Alden,
1 The older stones marking the graves of Joseph and Abigail (Baxter) Adams are inscribed :-
IERE LYEH BURIED Y BODY OF ABIGAIL ADAMS WIFE OR AGED 68 YEARS AGED 58 YEARS
IERE LYET BURIED ℮ Y BODY OF
JOSEPH ADAMS SENIOR TO JOSEPH ADAMS SENI
DIED DECEMBER Y 6 ! 1 694 1 692
DIED AUGUST Y 27
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parents of John Adams, and grand parents of the lawyer John Adams. Erected December 1823.
Another stone, similar to the three already described, marks the burial-place of John Adams, son of Joseph, Jr., and father of the " Lawyer" and President, inscribed as below : -
SACRED to the memory of MR JOHN ADAMS who died May 25, A D 1761 Aged 70.
The name Quincy is seen on many stones in this old burying-ground.
The grave of Edmund Quincy is marked,
EDMUND QUINCY A. D./1698. AGED 70 YEARS.
Judge Sewall visited Edmund Quincy, who was an unele of Hannah, his wife, several times in his last illness. His death is recorded by Sewall in 1697-8 . Seventh day, Jany 8. between ten and 11 m. Parmiter comes in, and tells us that Unekle Quinsey died between 7 and 8 last night. A true New England man, and one of our best friends is gone. Fourth day Jany 12 1697-8 went to the funeral of my dear Unckle, Went in the coach, our horse failing us, . . Had my wife, Cousin Quinsey, and Madam Dudley. Bear- ers were Col. Paige, Lt. Col. Hutchinson, Mr. Addington, Mr. E" Hutchinson. Major Townsend, Capt. Dumer, Major Hunt, and Ens. Peniman ; had scarves. Ens. Peniman was the only commision officer of Braintry that could come abroad. Ministers there, Mr. Torrey, Mr. Willard, Mr. Fisk, Thacher, Danforth, Baxter ; I saw from Boston Capt. Hill, Mr. Eliot, Mr. Tay, Benet ; Mr. Palmer 3
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waited on his father and mother Hutchinson." (I. Diary, 466-7.)
The wife of Edmund Quincy was Joanna Hoar, daughter of Mrs. Joanna Hoar and sister of Mrs. Margery Flint and President Leonard Hoar.1
One other inscription should be given in this connection. It is in honor of Josiah Quincy, Jun., and was written by John Quincy Adams.2
1 The stone marking her grave is inscribed :--
FERE LYEH BURIED ℮ Y BODY OF MRS JOANNA QUINSEY Y WIFE OF MR EDMUND QUINSEY AGED 55 YEARS DYED Y 16th OF ℮ MAY 1680. SACRED To the memory of JOSIAH QUINCY JUNR late of Bofton. Barrister at Law, Youngest Son of Josiah Quincy, late of this town, Esquire. Brilliant Talents. uncommon Eloquence, and indefatigable application Raised him to the highest eminenee in his profefsion. Ilis early enlightened, inflexible attachment to The caufe of his Country, Is attested by Monuments more durable than this, and transmitted to pofterity By the well known productions of his Genius. He was born the 23d February, 1744, And died the 26th April 1775. HIis mortal remains are here deposited, With those of ABIGAIL his wife,
Daughter of William Phillips, of Bostou, Esquire, Born on the 14th of April 1745, Died on the 25th of March 1798. STRANGER, In contemplating this Monument as the frail tribute of filial gratitude and affection. (lows thy bold breast with patriotic flame? Let his example point the paths of fame; Or seeks thy heart, averse from public strite, The milder grace of domestic life? Her kindred virtues let thy soul revere, And o'er the best of mothers drop a tear.
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The Adams line is continued in the granite church which stands near the cemetery. Under the vestibule of this church in vaulted chambers are the bodies of John Adams, his wife Abigail, John Quincy Adams and Louisa Catherine Adams. Memorial tablets have been placed on either side of the pulpit in the body of the church.' The burial-
1 LIBERTATEM AMICITIAM FIDEM RETINEBIS
D. O. M. Beneath these Walls Are deposited the Mortal Remains of JOIIN ADAMS,
Son of John and Susanna [Boylston] Adams, Second President of the United States. Born 38 October 1735. On the fourth of July 1776 lle pledged his Life, Fortune and Sacred Honour To the INDEPENDENCE OF HIS COUNTRY. On the third of September 1783 He affixed his Seal to the definitive Treaty with Great Britain Which acknowledged that Independence. And consummated the Redemption of his Pledge. On the fourth of July 1826 Ile was summoned To the Independence of Immortality, And to the JUDGMENT OF HIS GOD. This House will bear witness to his Piety : This Town, his Birth-Place. to his Muniticence : History to his Patriotism : Posterity to the Depth and Compass of his Mind.
At his Side Sleeps till the Trump shall Sound ABIGAIL, His beloved and only Wife, Daughter of William and Elizabeth [Quincy ] Smith. In every Relation of Life a Pattern Of Filial, Conjugal, Maternal and Social Virtue. Born November 22 1744, Deceased 28 October 1818. Aged 74.
Married 25 October 1764. During an Union of more than Half a Century
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chamber is entered from the basement of the church and is guarded by a granite door which is opened with difficulty. On either side of the entrance are the bodies of John Adams to the left, and Abigail Adams on the right. The original
They survived, in Harmony of Sentiment, Principle and Affection The Tempests of Civil Commotion ; Meeting undaunted, and surmounting The Terrors and Trials of that Revolution Which secured the Freedom of their Country ; Improved the Condition of their Times : And brightened the Prospects of Futurity To the Race of Man upon Earthi.
PILGRIM.
From Lives thus spent thy earthly Duties learn ; From Fancy's dreams to active Virtue turn : Let Freedom, Friendship, Faith, thy Soul engage, And serve like them thy Country and thy Age.
ALTERI SECULO A 5
Near this Place Reposes all that could die of JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Son of John and Abigail [Smith ] Adams, Sixth President of the United States, Born 11 July, 1767. Amidst the Storms of civil Commotion He nursed the Vigor Which nerves a Statesman and a Patriot, And the Faith Which inspires a Christian. For more than half a Century,
Whenever his Country called for his Labors, In either Hemisphere or in any Capacity, He never spared them in her Cause. On the twenty fourth of December, 1814, He signed the second Treaty with Great Britain, Which restored Peace within her Borders, On the twenty third of February, 1848, lle closed sixteen years of eloquent Defence Of the Lessons of his Youth, By dying at his Post In her great national Council.
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chamber was only for two bodies, but it was enlarged to- wards the right for the bodies of John Quincy Adams and his wife. Each body is in a massive granite sarcophagus, securely sealed by heavy granite slabs. Each sarcophagus is marked in plain capital letters with the full name.
JOHN LOUISA
JOHN ADAMS. ABIGAIL ADAMS. QUINCY CATHERINE
ADAMS. ADAMS.
From this historie and sacred church the party proceeded past the site of the oldest church in Braintree, in the mid- dle of the highway, to the Episcopal Church, where records were shown under date of 1728 in the hand of Rev. Ebenezer Miller, who was appointed Missionary for Brain- tree, N. E., in 1727. The records of baptism of slaves, and prayer-hooks mutilated by the tearing out of the pray- ers for the King, were historie relies dearly prized. In the
A Son worthy of his Father A Citizen, shedding glory on his Country, A Scholar, ambitious to advance Mankind, This Christian sought to walk humbly In the Sight of his God.
Beside him lies His Partner for fifty Years LOUISA CATHERINE Daughter of Joshua and Catherine [Nuth] Johnson. Born, 12 February, 1775, Married, 26 July 1797, Deceased, 15 May, 1852. Aged 77. Living through many Vicissitudes, and Under high Responsibilities, As a Daughter, Wife and Mother, She proved equal to all. Dying, she left to her Family and her Sex The blessed Remembrance Of a 'Woman that feareth the Lord.'
" Ilerein is that saying true, one soweth and another reapeth. I sent you to reap that whereon Ye bestowed no labor, other men labored and ye are entered into their labors."
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Episcopal cemetery is the tomb of Ebenezer Miller, who died in 1763, and the grave of Ralph Shirley, an infant son of Governor Shirley, who was born Jan., 1734, and died while his parents were in Quincy, Aug., 1737.
The old Adams houses where, it is stated, John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born, are together, a short distance from the centre of the city. These houses are still carefully preserved and are occupied.
The old Quincy house is an inviting residence, after the colonial style. The house was built in 1705, or 1707, by Edmund Quincy, 3d, who married Dorothy Flynt. Here was the home of Tutor Flynt, the well-known tutor of Harvard College. The tutor's chamber is still pointed out. Indeed, the house and grounds are so little changed that Judge Sewall, could he visit them, would know perfectly how to turn into Cousin Quincy's, and how to find "the chamber next to the Brooke," in which he lodged, March 28, 1712.
The pleasures of a visit to the old Quincy house were an introduction to those of seeing the Adams homestead, the home of John Adams in his old age, of his son and grand- son, filled with the family portraits and with the library of John Quincy Adams close by. A description of these pleasures and many others of the day is not properly within the scope of my subject, and reference to them is given merely to complete an outline of the day spent at Quincy.
The last inscription in honor of the Adams line is the following, over the grave of Hon. Charles Francis Adams in the Mount Wollaston Cemetery : -
THIS . STONE MARKS . THE . GRAVE . OF CHARLES . FRANCIS . ADAMS SON . OF . JOHN . QUINCY AND . LOUISA . CATHERINE (JOHNSON)
ADAMS BORN . 18. AUGUST . 1807
TRAINED . FROM . IIIS . YOUTH . IN . POLITICS . AND . LETTERS HIIS . MANHOOD . STRENGTHENED . BY . THE . CONVICTIONS
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WHICH . HAD . INSPIRED . HIS . FATHERS HE . WAS . AMONG . THE . FIRST . TO . SERVE AND . AMONG . THE . MOST . STEADFAST . TO . SUPPORT THAT . NEW . REVOLUTION WHICHI . RESTORED . THE . PRINCIPLES . OF . LIBERTY To . PUBLIC . LAW AND . SECURED . TO . HIS . COUNTRY THE . FREEDOM . OF . ITS . SOIL DURING . SEVEN . TROUBLED . AND . ANXIOUS . YEARS MINISTER . OF . THE . UNITED . STATES . IN . ENGLAND AFTERWARDS . ARBITRATOR . AT . THE . TRIBUNAL . OF . GENEVA HE . FAILED . IN . NO . TASK . WHICH . HIS . GOVERNMENT . IMPOSED YET . WON . THE . RESPECT . AND . CONFIDENCE OF . TWO . GREAT . NATIONS
DYING . 21 . NOVEMBER . 1886 HE . LEFT . THE . EXAMPLE OF . HIGH . POWERS . NOBLY . USED AND . TIIE . REMEBRANCE OF . A . SPOTLESS . NAME.
BY . HIS . SIDE SLEEPS . ITIS . WIFE ABIGAIL . BROWN DAUGHTER . OF . PETER . CHARDON AND . ANNE (GORHAM) BROOKS BORN . APRIL . 25 . 1808 MARRIED . SEPTEMBER . 3. 1829 DIED . JUNE . 6. 1889 HIS . COMPANION . AND . SUPPORT IN . PRIVATE . LIFE . AND . PUBLIC . STATION LOVED . AND . HONORED TRUSTED . AND . TRUE
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 0 007 637 078 3
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