Infants Joseph and Benjamin Cummings, died 1774, Merrimack, New Hampshire - Tombstone Tuesday

 This tombstone was photographed at Turkey Hill Cemetery in Merrimack, New Hampshire.

Here lies

the Bodys

of 2 Children Joseph

and Benjamin Cummings

Sons of Mr. Jonathan

Cummings, Junr & Mrs Deborah

his wife.  Joseph died

 May 16th 1774 Aged 

18 days ????????

This little tombstone commemorates two small brothers, Joseph and Benjamin, the sons of Jonathan Cummings and his wife Deborah Russell.   Jonathan Cummings was the son of Jonathan Cummings and Elizabeth Blanchard, born 5 June 1729 and died 10 July 1787.  They lived in what was then called Dunstable, Massachusetts, but it is now Merrimack, New Hampshire. 

The bottom of this little stone was buried below the sod, so I couldn't read the death date of Benjamin. I later found that Joseph and Benjamin were twins, both born on 29 April 1774 in Merrimack.  Joseph died 16 May 1774 at age 18 days, and Benjamin died 24 May 1774 at age 25 days.  They were two of the fifteen children born to Jonathan and Deborah Cummings.  There was a second set of twins born in this family. Rachel and Cyrus Cummings were born 12 May 1775, just a year later than the first set of twins.  Cyrus lived to adulthood and married Abigail Davis, but there is no further information on Rachel. 

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To cite/link to this blog post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Infants Joseph and Benjamin Cummings, died 1774, Merrimack, New Hampshire - Tombstone Tuesday", Nutfield Genealogy, posted November 28, 2023, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2023/11/infants-joseph-and-benjamin-cummings.html: accessed [access date]).