Here lies ye Body
of Lt. Benony
Perham Son of
Mr. Samuel & Mrs
Sarah Perham
who departed
this Life Feb. 10th 1774
Aged 25 Years 10 M
and 27 days
This tombstone caught my eye because of the very three dimensional winged head peeking out from the tombstone. All the other winged heads in this cemetery were flat.
The ancestry of Lt. Benoni Perham:
Generation 1: John Perham, immigrant from Coventry(?), England to Rehoboth, Massachusetts about 1640.
Generation 2: John Perham, born 1633; married Lydia Shipley on 15 December 1664 and removed to Chelmsford about 1666.
Generation 3: Benoni Perham, born 1676 and died about 1723; married Sarah Robbins. He was one of the "Snow Shoe Men" of Dunstable who marched north with Captain William Tyng in the of winter 1703/4 during Queen Anne's War.
Generation 4: Samuel Perham, born 4 March 1715; married Sarah Richardson on 11 April 1741
Generation 5: Lt. Benoni Perham, born about 1748, died 10 February 1774, unmarried. Buried in Chelmsford.
[ from The History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts by Wilson Waters, 1917, page 809]
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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday ~ Benoni Perham, died 1774, Chelmsford, Massachusetts", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 20, 2016 (http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2016/09/tombstone-tuesday-benoni-perham-died.html: accessed [access date]).
An unusual winged head...sad to see how young he died.
ReplyDeleteJohn Perham and Lydia Shipley are paternal 9x gg of mine. In the mid-1880s, the by-then abbreviated "Peram" was a common middle name in the family; for example, a 4x grand-uncle, Benjamin Peram Squires (30 Mar 1827 - 20 Mar 1883).
ReplyDeleteThat's a big clue to how it was pronounced in those day!
DeleteI also descend from John Perham and Lydia Shepley; they're my 8th great grandparents. I am making a note of The History of Chelmsford, Massachusetts - I don't believe I've explored that local history before.
ReplyDelete