Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Jonathan Burnham, Essex, Massachusetts

This tombstone was photographed at the Ancient Burying Ground in Essex, Massachusetts.


ERECTED
in Memory of Capt.
JONATHAN BURNHAM
who died April 3d
1773: In the 87th
year of his 
age.

Captain Jonathan Burnham is my 7th great grand uncle.  He was the brother of TWO of my 7th great grandfathers, Thomas Burnham (1673- 1748) and David Burnham (1688 - 1770).  The parents of all these men were John Burnham (1648 - 1704) and Elizabeth Wells (1646- 1731), who had a total of nine children.  Jonathan Burnham was married twice.  He married first to Mary Perkins on 17 March 1710 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and then he married second on 18 May 1730 to Martha Foster.  Mary Perkins was the great grand daughter of of John Perkins (1583 - 1654) and Judith Gater (1589 - 1654), my 10th great grand parents.

According to the book Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of Boston and Eastern Massachusetts, Volume 2, by William Richard Cutter, 1908, "Captain Jonathan Burnham, seventh son and child of John Burnham and Elizabeth Wells, his wife, born October 10, 1685, died April 3, 1773.  The scene of his life was laid during the years which followed King Phillip's war and those which preceded the American revolution, a period during which the colonists knew very little of the blessings of peace; and Captain Jonathan himself, as had his ancestors before and his descendants after his time, saw service in the wars with the French and Indians, and held a commission as captain."

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

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