Gravely Speaking

THIS MEMORIAL ERECTED

A. D. MDCCCXCV  BY THE COM

MONWEALTH OF MASSACHU

SETTS TO MARK THE GRAVE OF

JOHN HANCOCK

An impressive stele in the Granary Burying Ground marks the grave of John Hancock (January 23, 1737-October 8, 1793).  The stele is the tallest tombstone in the cemetery and replaced Hancock’s original gravestone which had deteriorated and disappeared. The stele is topped with the Hancock family crest which includes a pictogram of the family name and the Latin phrase which means “resist the beginnings”.  The memorial also includes a bas-relief portrait of a young and dashing looking John Hancock surrounded in laurel wreath.

According to legend, the revolutionary patriot John Hancock, the first to sign the Declaration of Independence, signed his name large enough so that ol’ King George III would be able to see it without putting on his spectacles.  That signature is now arguably the most famous in American history.  And, you know you have quite a signature when your name becomes a synonym for signature!

That hand, the one that signed the Declaration of Independence, was later cut off by grave robbers.  When Hancock died he had the largest funeral in Massachusetts history up ’till that point and was buried by his wife in his finest clothes and jewelry.  As the story is told, grave robbers tried to pry the rings from his fingers but struggled.  When they didn’t slip off easily, they cut off his hand apparently to take them off later at a more secluded spot.

HERE LYES Ye BODY OF

MARY GOOSE WIFE TO

ISAAC GOOSE; AGED 42

YEARS DEC’D OCTOBER

Ye 19^th 1690

Here lyeth also susana

goose Ye [illegible] aged 15 mo

died August .[illegible]. 1687

According to some, namely a 1930s travel writer, the original and undeniable Mother Goose is buried at the Granary Burying Ground at Boston.  As the story goes, Mary Goose reportedly sang to her brood of children (16 altogether—six from her first marriage and her husband’s ten came together in a hers and his family).  The children loved the stories and rhymes that she told and sang to them.  Supposedly, her son-in-law, Thomas Fleet, who was a publisher in Boston on Pudding Lane gathered up her rhymes and ditties into a book and printed them.

Just one small problem.  No copy of the book has ever been found.  There is no evidence to support the claim.  In addition to that, nursery rhyme scholars (yes, there are such people) have found mention of “Mother Goose” in France years before Mary Goose was born.

HERE LIES BURIED

SAMUEL ADAMS

SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

GOVERNOR OF THIS COMMONWEALTH

A LEADER OF MEN AND AN ARDENT PATRIOT

BORN 1722 DIED 1803

Sam Adams (1722-1803) was a firebrand who as much as anyone inspired and led men to cast off the British monarchy.  His revolutionary credentials were so well known Thomas Jefferson called him, “The Man of the Revolution”.

During his lifetime Sam Adams was well known to every American as a patriot but lost favor with historians and the story of his influence and participation during the war became less emphasized and written about.  Then in the 1980s, Jim Koch founded a Boston-based brewing company naming his signature great-tasting beer after Sam Adams.  Sam Adams was once again on the lips of Americans!

Sam Adams is buried in the Granary Burying Ground at Boston.  His large rock marker is slightly to the right of the main gate and in the front, visible from the fence surrounding the burial ground.  The plaque on his grave was placed there by the Massachusetts Society and the Sons of the American Revolution.  The docents who give tours through the cemetery take visitors past the venerated Sam Adams’ grave.  One wag was heard to remark, “You can go across the street to the tavern and have a cold Sam Adams, and look across the street at a cold Sam Adams!”

While the beer was named after Sam Adams and honors him, his family most likely never were brewers.  They did, however, make malt a main ingredient in beer.  Even Sam worked as a maltster, though there is no evidence he was a brewer.