Tombstone Tuesday - Alice Ayers (1664 - 1717)

HERE LYES ENTTRD

Ye BODY OF ALLICE

AYERS WIFE TO

EDWARD AYERS AGED

53 YEARS DIED Ye

9 OF FEBRUARY

1717/8

Alice Shapleigh was the wife of Edward Ayers, a Portsmouth blacksmith.  She was born about  1664, and may have been the daughter of John Shapleigh and Sarah Withers (granddaughter of Alexander Shapleigh and Elizabeth Tellman).  Edward Ayers was the son of Captain John Ayers and Susannah Symonds, married in Ipswich about 1644.  Edward was born 12 February 1658 in Ipswich, and died before 27 June 1723 in Greenland (near Portsmouth), New Hampshire.  His second wife was Hannah Martyn, and his third wife was Margaret Williams.

Edward and Alice had eight children:  Elizabeth (married Moses Ingraham), Edward, Susannah, Abigail, Mary, Hannah, Phebe, and John.

I love the spelling on this tombstone, and the finely carved death's head that has survived the ravages of time, even though this burial ground is withing a few yards of Portsmouth harbor with it's salty air and weather.

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Tombstone Tuesday - Alice Ayers (1664 - 1717)", Nutfield Genealogy, posted August 27, 2019 ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/08/tombstone-tuesday-alice-ayers-1664-1717.html:  accessed [access date]).