Tombstone Tuesday ~ Samuel Steel, Derry, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at Forest Hills Cemetery, Derry, New Hampshire

HERE LYES THE BODY OF MR

SAMUEL STEEL.  HE DIED

DECEMBER 8TH 1761 AGED

32 YEARS

READER BEHOLD AS THOU GOES BY

AS NOW THOU ART SO ONCE WAS I

AS NOW I AM SO MUST THOU BE

REMEMBER MAN SO THOU MUST DIE

According to Rick Holmes, the town historian of Derry, New Hampshire, the rhyming scheme in this epitaph doesn't appear to rhyme unless you use a Scots accent.  In Scots, "die" rhymes with "be", pronounced "dee".  The Scots Irish dialect was alive in Londonderry and Derry, New Hampshire for many generations, as evidenced by the poetry of Windham's Rustic Bard, Robert Dinsmoor (1757 - 1828).  

This tombstone is decorated with the primitive geometric designs seen all over the 18th century section of Forest Hill Cemetery's Scots Irish settlers graves.  Some of these can be attributed to stone carver John Wight (1702 - 1775).  Whenever I see these geometric symbols on gravestones they remind me of Celtic knots. Here we see a primitive hour glass and a pair of crossed bones mixed in with the geometric patterns.

Samuel Steel was married to Janet Morrison, daughter of Charter James Morrison. 

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Copyright (c) 2014, Heather Wilkinson Rojo