Tombstone Tuesday ~ Rev. William Homes and wife, Katherine Craighead, Chilmark, Massachusetts

These gravestones were photographed at the Abel's Hill Cemetery, Chilmark, Massachusetts, pn the island of Martha's Vineyard by my sister Laurel Wilkinson, and her friend Kate Fournier.  They used an iPad to get these photos, which came out terrific considering the great age of the tombstones.  Genealogy blogger Barbara Poole, at "Life from the Roots" uses an iPad for her fantastic photography, too.   I was able to very clearly read the epitaphs on these photos so I could transcribe them below.  Someday I'd like to visit this cemetery, which my sister reports is full of names from our family tree, like MAYHEW and DAGGETT.

In MEMORY of

the Reverend learned

emenently prudent &

pious Mr.  William Homes

the pastor of the Church

of Christ in Chilmark

who departed this life

June ye 27th 1746 in ye

83rd year of his age.

HERE LIES

BURIED THE BODY OF

KATHERINE HOMES

THE VERY PIOUS RELICT OF THE

REVEREND MR WILLIAM HOMES 

LATE DECEASED WHO DEPARTED

THIS LIFE TO A BETTER. 

APRIL YE 10TH 1754

IN YE 82ND YEAR OF

HER AGE.

William Homes and Katherine Craighead are my 9th great grandparents.  The Reverend Homes was born in 1663 in Donaghmore, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland.  He was pastor of the church at Chilmark, on the island of Martha's Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts.  His wife, Katherine Craighead, was the daugher of another Ulster Presbyterian minister from Northern Ireland, the Reverend Robert Craighead.

Don't you love the great use of adjectives on these two tombstones?  The Homes family, or perhaps their congregation, must have been quite wealthy to pay for all the extra adjectives carved onto Rev. William Homes's epitaph.

Click here to read my "Surname Saturday" blog posts on these families:

Homes:    http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/02/surname-saturday-homes-of-northern.html

Craighead:   http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2014/02/surname-saturday-craighead-family-of.html

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Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo