Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Tombstone Tuesday: Elizabeth Barrett

Prepare for Death: Elizabeth Barrett

Elizabeth BARRETT by midgefrazel
Elizabeth BARRETT, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

Elizabeth Barrett was the wife of Zoroable Rice. Her slate gravestone is as intriguing as the one that was carved for her husband. I have not seen the "wings" of the undifferentiated or "portrait" face depicted in the tight upright position like this on other gravestones. Her footstone is also decorated.

The lovely ornamental carvings on the side panels of her gravestone did not leave enough room for her name, relationship or the dates. As you can see, there's a lot of hypenation and spacing issues.

The daughter of Thomas Barrett and his wife Elizabeth Stow and the sister of Lydia (who also married into this family) was born 12 Jun 1677 in nearby Sudbury. She married Zoroable on 4 Feb 1728/9 in Marlborough. As her parents are buried in Spring Hill cemetery, they must have moved to Marlborough at some time.

Elizabeth died in 1770 before her husband. She was 67 years and 10 months as we can see by this clip of the carvings. She is buried alongside her husband in the Old Common Cemetery in Marlborough, Middlesex, MA



The epitaph or verse on Elizabeth's gravestone is the one that appears (in several forms) on so many New England gravestones.








Behold & see! as you pass by,
As you are now, so once was I;
As I am now, so you must be,
Prepare for Death, & Follow me.

Elizabeth's gravestone can be examined more closely here.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Midge, Great post! I think that the slate stones are among the more beautiful of the grave markers I have seen in pictures. That verse is really interesting and reflects the religious views of the time she lived in.