Over the past thirty years I have examined thousands of old slate gravestones in the cemeteries of New England. This fascination led me to write A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries, which allowed me to determine the oldest cemeteries in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
When I started at NEHGS in 1993, I came across a curious artifact wrapped in butcher block paper in the Society’s archives. For some time NEHGS had been caretaker of the remaining fragments of the seventeenth-century Bernard/Barnard Capen gravestone. It is uncommon to locate fragments from broken gravestones in local historical societies.
What makes these broken fragments unique is the fact they were reputed to be from the oldest dated gravestone in New England. Upon examination, these wrapped fragments – now stored in an archival box in the R. Stanton Avery Special Collections at NEHGS – offer up another mystery. Barnard Capen (c.1562–1638) married Joan Purchase, daughter of Oliver Purchase, on 31 May 1596. They left Dorset in England and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts Bay, in 1633. For further details on Barnard Capen, refer to the genealogical sketch by Robert Charles Anderson in The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, 3 vols., 1: 309–11, or the online sketch on Americanancestors.org.
So does the Capen stone represent the oldest extant gravestone in Massachusetts? Here are two other questions designed to get at an answer:
When did the fragments actually arrive at NEHGS? There is no record of exactly when these broken fragments entered the Society’s collection in Boston. However, a clue I located in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (October 1895), 49: 489, places its arrival in the early 1890s: “A fragment of the original grave-stone of Barnard and Joan Capen was found a few years ago, in the old cemetery at Dorchester. It is in possession of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society…”
What was the original inscription? All that remains from the original inscription is the following: [Ye] BODY O[F] / [CA]PEN AGE[D] / [DI]ED Ye/ [NOVEMB]ER 163[8] / JOAN / AGED / 26. In the eighteenth century, a replacement stone made out of slate marked the gravesite. Laurel K. Gabel, an authority on early gravestones, informed me the replacement stone is in the style of carver John Dwight, who operated in Dorchester until the 1770s.
It is quite possibly at that point that the fragments were found; perhaps the original stone already lay in pieces, which required the new stone be erected in its place. The current stone at Old North Burying Ground bears the following inscription: HERE / lies the bodies of / Mr. Barnard Capen, / & Mrs. Joan Capen his / wife; He died Nov. 8, / 1638: Aged 76 years,/ & She died March / 26, 1653: / Aged 75 years. This transcription was taken from the image of the stone on Findagrave.com.
This verbatim inscription varies slightly from the inscription published in the Register in 1895, and is not close to the original inscription from the fragments. Based on inscriptions I have seen from the seventeenth century, I would speculate the original inscription went something like this: HERE LYES Ye BODY OF / BARNARD CAPEN AGED / WHO DIED Ye 8th / of NOVEMBER 1638 / AND HIS WIFE JOAN / WHO DIED AGED 75 YEARS / ON 26 / MARCH 1653.
As it stands now, the fragments of the Capen gravestone are not from a gravestone erected in 1638 for Barnard, nor for his wife in 1653. Laurel Gabel and I are in agreement that these fragments are most likely from the 1670s or later, replacing an impermanent wooden marker. An examination of the wings of other seventeenth-century “death heads” used on Dorchester stones may enlighten us as to who created this stone and when it was erected. My search for the oldest surviving gravestone in New England continues.
What interested me in all this has nothing to do with the gravestone, although the analysis is in-depth. If Bernard died at the age of 75 in 1638, he was only in Massachusetts for 5 years. Why did he come here at age 70? He, and his wife, must have been incredibly courageous to leave England in their elder years. I would love to know their story.
Yes, that thought struck me, also. I would like to know who and where those first comers graves are, also. Perhaps his child or children came and they didn’t want to be parted.
And, I have a personal interest in early cemeteries (ever since I read the story of Edward Bosworth who in 1634, died as he sailed into Boston Harbor and, like Abraham, never set foot in his promised land) and finding where my 10th ggrandfather was buried. I would think they anchored at Hull which is what ships did back then. The description of this event says he was buried in Boston, but that could be anywhere. Could he be buried in Hull or Hingham? What cemetery or cemeteries were established in 1634? His son Jonathan Bosworth was settled in Cambridge. Would he have taken his father there? Would there even be a record? The whole Bosworth family, including Jonathan, his widowed mother, his brothers and sister Mary Buckland and her family eventually settled in Hingham and Hull. Would they have moved their father’s grave? Did anyone do that back then?
Anyone have any thoughts?
All very interesting questions. I want to assume that Barnard & Joan came with their adult son(s) or daughter(s). Cemeteries, marked and unmarked, are fascinating. I love walking through the marked ones and “reading” the stories that can be gleaned from the tombstones. I wonder if there was more reverence back then for leaving a body where it was buried, rather than moving it to the family farm (so to speak). They handled death far differently than we do now, so maybe it wasn’t an “icky” thing back then and moving their loved one was natural. That would be interesting to research.
I thought that these names sounded familiar so I checked my family tree on the computer. They are the in-laws of my 9th great aunt. I just added them to my family tree this summer that is why the names were still in my head.
Thank you! Bernard Capen and Joan Purchase are my 9th great grandparents.
Me too
From our program at the Stoughton Historical Society several months back: “Bernard’s son Captain John, who was born in England around 1612, married Radigan Clapp and then a Bass was a Dorchester deacon, selectman, and recorder. As a recorder he is said to have written more than anyone else in the Dorchester records and also wrote the love letter on display when he was wooing Mary Bass in 1647, after the death of his first wife. Eventually Mary bore him seven children. John died in 1692 As a deacon, John had the responsibility of occasionally having his house serve as a half-way house between jail and freedom. Nathaniel Upshall, an apparently otherwise prosperous and upstanding member of the community was fined and jailed for protesting the harsh treatment of Quakers; Upshall “stayed” in John Capen’s house a number of months in 1661 and 1662.” And there is plenty more.
As a 12th generation Bernard Capen descendant through his son John Capen and wife,Mary Bass, I found your blog very interesting. I’ve always been amazed at the elderly Bernard and Joan Capen leaving Dorchester England for Dorchester NE, even allowing that 2 of their daughters were already in NE with their husbands. After all, they left other grown children in England. I recommend “Fire from heaven” by David Underdown (1992) that explains why Dorchester became the most religious town in England. Many mentions of Bernard Capen/Galpin and family.
This posting really caught my eye since Barnard and Joan’s daughter Dorothie is my 5th great grandmother, and I was looking for her parents, at least her mother. Barnard was already considered her father in my tree. It set me searching for more information about Barnard and Joan.
It would be very enjoyable to see some of the early gravestones and visit some of my early ancestors final resting places. I did have the privilege of seeing Dorothie (Capen) Upshall’s grave in Copp’s Hill Burial Grounds this past August.
Hi Dave! Yes, Barnard and Joan are my 11th great-grandparents.
The fragments shown have lettering closer to that of the unknown Charlestown Stonecutter or perhaps Mumford. In my studies, it seems the oldest known headstone in New England is in Ipswich Mass and is a primitive dated 1647. The oldest known grave marker in New England is a table tomb type dated 1644 in Windsor Connecticut carved by Mathew Griswold Sr.