The Townsend Tomb in King's Chapel Burying Ground

Stepping away from the tombs along the front fence of King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts, we carefully make our way to some of the other armorial tombs there.

I say "carefully," but the burying ground has paths laid out for people to follow, in order to better preserve the tombstones there from damage. This does mean, alas, that I was not always able to get as close to a tomb as I would have liked to get the clearest possible photograph of the arms carved on it. Still, that's what a good variable telephoto lens is for. And being a historian as well as a heraldry enthusiast, I will (mostly) gladly follow the rules laid out by an historical site that continues to allow common folk like myself to have access to these artifacts.

Although here at King's Chapel, it does mean that I can no longer get a photograph like the one my wife took of me back in 2008 in front of the tomb of my 10th great-grandparents who are buried here. (We will see the side of this table tomb and its coat of arms in a subsequent post.)

No matter, we will continue to do the best we can within the limits of what the site allows.

Next, we come to the tomb of James Townsend. We are certain of this identification because the inscription at the bottom of the armorial plaque in the center of the slab says “James Townsend’s Tomb”.

Changing the orientation of the photograph, and zooming in a little, we can see the arms more clearly. (I did try working some "perspective correction" magic on this photo, but it was not sufficiently improved that I felt that I could in good conscience use it here.)

Zooming in, and you can click on the image above to go to the full-sized picture to do that, what I saw was: James Townsend. A chevron between three escallops. Crest: A stag statant.

The Heraldic Journal, Vol. II, p. 21 makes the chevron Ermine.

Burke’s General Armory: “Townsend (Ludlow, co. Salop) [also, Townshend]. Azure a chevron ermine between three escallops argent.”

The Dictionary of British Arms, Vol. II, p. 334, gives Townsend/Townsende, Azure a chevron ermine between three escallops argent.

Bolton’s An American Armory, citing The Heraldic Journal, gives the same blazon as Burke and the Dictionary of British Arms, but for one of the other Townsend coats of arms he cites make the escallops Or rather than Argent.

As does Crozier’s General Armory:

            “Townsend. Massachusetts.
            “Thomas Townsend, Lynn, 1637.
            “Salop.”
            “Azure a chevron ermine between three escallops or.
            “Crest—A stag passant proper.
            “Motto—Droit et evant. [Right and forward]”

Two of the sources we have cited in some of our recent posts give us more information about the Townsend family:

The Heraldic Journal, Vol. II, p. 21: “The Townsend tomb possibly belonged to the family descended from William Townsend, who married Hannah Penn, and had sons James, Penn and Peter here. Of these, the most noted was Penn, who married Sarah Addington, Mary Leverett and widow Hannah Jaffrewy, and held many high offices here. Penn Townsend died in 1727, leaving several children.
    “In this case as in several others it is extremely difficult to race out the ownership of the tombs, and we must leave the task to those interested, having discharged out duty in recording the existence of the stones.”

Preachers, Patriots & Plain Folks, Boston’s Burying Ground Guide, p. 125, notes that Penn Townsend (1651-1727) is buried in Boston’s Granary Burying Ground (just a few blocks from King’s Chapel) in Tomb No. 36 there.

Next Up!

Moving along the Tremont Street fence fronting the King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts, we come to our third armorial tombstone, No. 6.

This one is a little tricky, because the sources describing it don't match.

What the arms look like to me, based on what can be seen on the top portion of the half-buried stone, is: A charged field, though it's difficult to make out the charges well, on a chief three delfs. No crest.

It was a little (but only a little) clearer when we were there back in 2008:

Preachers, Patriots & Plain Folks, Boston’s Burying Ground Guide says: ”Waine, E. … ae 13, 1787”, but dates the tomb to 1741. But the arms on this tombstone are not found in Burke’s General Armory under either Wain or Waine.

The Heraldic Journal, vol. II, pp. 20-21, says: 

The tomb bearing the following arms is inscribed, Capt. John Steel, and was no doubt the property of the gentleman who died July 18, 1768, ‘far advanced in years,’ as his will states. He was in in 1750 the Captain of the North Battery, and was doubtless the son of the Thomas Steele who died 8 Jan. 1735-6, aged 71, upon whom Rev. Benj. Colman preached a funeral discourse.

The arms illustrated there are: [Field] a bend counter-compony Ermine and [tincture] between two lion’s heads erased [tincture] on a chief [tincture] three delfs [tincture].

Going back to Burke’s General Armory based on this identication of the arms, we find: “Steel (Derwent Bank, co. Cumberland) [also, Steele]. Argent a bend checky sable and ermine between two lion’s heads erased gules on a chief azure three billets or. Crest – A lion’s head erased gules.”

Obviously, the arms on the tombstone do not have a crest. And it is very plausible that the stonecarver didn't know that heralds treat billets and delfs as different, though similar, charges, or that checky and counter-compony are also different, though similar.** But those two items notwithstanding, the arms 

Putting the entire story of this armorial tomb together,* it would appear that this was originally the tomb of Captain John Steel, who died in 1768 and whose arms are carved upon the face of the stone, but where nine years later 13-year-old Master Waine was also buried, this practice not being uncommon as we have seen before in several of the tombs in Copp's Hill Burying Ground in some of our recent posts of armorial memorials there.

* Well, except that this still doesn't explain the 1741 dating of the tomb. Is it an error? Is there additional information about which we have not been told? It will take more research to determine what's going on with that.

** Counter-compony has but two rows of checker squares; checky has three or more. Or as James Parker tells us in his A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry: "If there be two rows [of checks] it is called counter compony (or compony counter compony), but if more, it comes under the term chequy." As I said, different, though similar.

The Next Armorial Tombstone in King's Chapel Burying Ground

Continuing from our last post along the fence at the front of King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts, we come to Tomb number 7.

If you click on the image above of this half-buried tombstone, you can see "No." on the top left and "7" on the top right of the stone.

The Heraldic Journal, Vol. II, pp. 19-20, ascribes these arms to John Wheelwright, 1740. The illustration of the arms there hatches the field ermine and the fess or.

Preachers, Patriots & Plain Folks, Boston’s Burying Ground Guide, p. 191, of this tombstone says only “John Wheelwright” and dates the tomb to 1740.

Bolton’s An American Armory cites these arms, with his source being this tombstone: 

Wheelwright. Ermine on a fess or between three wolves’ heads erased three roundels. Crest: A wolf’s head erased.

At top of the slab ‘No. 7’ at bottom ‘John Wheelwright,’ 1740. King’s Chapel Graveyard, Boston, by Tremont Street fence.

Obviously, any inscription at the bottom is no longer visible to us.

The one Wheelwright family listed in Burke’s General Armory bears an entirely different coat of arms from those shown here. Papworth’s Dictionary of British Armorials does not show the arms here; the very closest in the Papworth’s category of “On a fess between three heads,” and the only one with an ermine field, is the arms of Gordon, Ermine on a fess between three boar’s heads erect and erased sable a spear point to dexter argent. So, not that close. Nor are any Wheelwrights listed in Sir James Balfour Paul's An Ordinary of Arms of Scottish arms granted in Scotland. Finally, the name Wheelwright does not appear in Fairbairn’s Crests, though a large number of families bearing A wolf’s head erased do appear there.

So what's the bottom line for me?

I am taking the sources which mention this coat of arms at face value, and allowing both the tinctures of their blazons and the inscription at the bottom of the stone. But in the end, I have no idea where these arms come from. But there they are, literally "carved in stone," so I feel we have to take them as we see them. (Or as we half-see them, given the state of the placement of the stone in the ground here.)

Still, I'd love to know from whence they came and how they came to be here.

Armorial Tombstones in King's Chapel Burying Ground, Boston, Massachusetts

Having finished reviewing the armorial tombstones and headstones that I saw in Copp's Hill Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts, we now walk a few blocks to King's Chapel Burying Ground.

If you walk in the front gate of the burying ground and make an immediate left turn, along the front fence you will find three tombstones carved with coats of arms. In today's post, we're going to look at the first of these, Tomb Number 9. In our next two posts, we'll see Tombs Numbers 7 and 6, before moving on to the other armorial tombs and headstones in the burying ground.

Tomb Number 9 is that of Bartholomew Gedney, whose name is carved at the top. (You can click on the image below to go to the full-size photograph, which shows everything in greater detail.)

The arms carved into this headstone is Three eagles displayed (facing to sinister). And the crest, An eagle displayed (facing to sinister).

Burke’s General Armory gives us the colors on the shield: “Gedney (co. Suffolk). Or three eagles displayed sable.”

The crest does not appear in Fairbairn's Crests.

I am not sure why all of the eagles, both on the shield and the crest, face to sinister. The expected default would be to dexter. Is it an error on the part of the stonecarver, or did the Gedney family bear these arms and crest this way? 

The Heraldic Journal, vol. II, p. 20: “The Gedney tomb has these arms [illustration] upon it. This was a branch of the Salem [Massachusetts] family, which commenced with John, who had sons John, Bartholomew, Eleazur [sic], and Eli.”

Preachers, Patriots & Plain Folks, Boston’s Burying Ground Guide, p. 54, gives us some more information about Mr. Gedney: “Bartholomew Gedney (1698-1762) …, A[cient and] H[onorable] A[rtillery] C[ompany]. He was a wharf manager and his gravestone is one of the few heraldic ones here. His uncle Maj. Bartholomew Gedney of Salem was an associate judge at the Salem Witch Trials, May 27-Oct. 29, 1692.”

It is much easier to find information about Bartholomew’s uncle Bartholomew (owing to his relation to the Salem witch trials) than this Bartholomew. A genealogy website gives us only the briefest thumbnail sketch of his life. Bartholomew Gedney was born on 22 March 1698, in Salem, Essex, Massachusetts, to Major William and Hannah (Gardner) Gedney. He married Abigail Mason in 1720 in Boston. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. He died on 16 July 1762, in Boston, at the age of 64, and was buried in Kings Chapel Burying Ground there (thus leading to his inclusion in today's post).

Two Confusing Armorial Tombstones in Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Boston

One of the problems in researching armorial headstones and tombstones in colonial American burying grounds is that there are many instances where a burial plot where an armiger has been buried is later sold to an entirely different family, whose deceased members are buried there, though the coat of arms still displayed on the stone does not relate to them.

We saw this in our recent post of December 15, 2025 (http://blog.appletonstudios.com/2025/12/we-start-looking-at-some-armorial.html), where one tombstone displays the arms of and an inscription toWilliam Clark, but also has the name of a later owner, Samuel Winslow, carved into it, though he clearly had no relation to the arms seen there.

Today, we're going to take a brief look at two other armorials tombstones which have the same issue as "the Winslow stone" bearing the arms of Clark. (Again, you can click on any of the images here to see the full-size, and more detailed, photographs.)

The first is the tomb of T[homas] and J. Lewis, but it is decorated with the arms are the Hutchinson family of Boston. These arms appear three times in the Gore Roll of Arms, for Elisha Hutchinson, Eliakim Hutchinson, and for William Hutchinson. 

The arms are blazoned: Per pale gules and azure a lion rampant argent within an orle of crosses crosslet or.

The crest (seen in the close-up above, is: Issuant from a ducal coronet a cockatrice azure combed beaked wattled and the tail barbed gules.

Built in 1711, several members of the well-known Hutchinson family have been buried here, but the Copp’s Hill Burying Ground Guide, p. 15, gives a more detailed description of which Hutchinsons were, and which were not, buried here. At some later date, Thomas Lewis purchased the tomb and inscribed it with the Lewis name.

Even more mysterious is another nearby tomb, whose arms do not appear to be related to either of the two families known to be the tomb's owners.

The arms (without knowing the colors), Three crescents. The crest is: An eagle displayed.

The Copp’s Hill Burying Ground Guide, p. 23 says: “Edward Martyn (1665-1717/8). Tomb 10 is the first one to the right as you enter Copp’s Hill and bears a coat of arms. He was a merchant, living on Hanover near Richmond, and served on many selectmen’s committees. He left 10 pounds to 2nd Church for a ‘piece of plate and 20 pounds to be distributed to the poor of the flock.’ He owned most of the land from Hanover St. to the water. A[ncient &] H[onorable] A[rtillery] C[ompany], 1702.”

However, the Guide, later on p. xx, gives the name Watts, and says: "On the reverse of the stone bearing the inscription No. 1199, to the Rev. Andrew Eliot, will be found the following arms. [Illustration of the arms photographed above.]

    "This however was an honest transaction, as is pointed out in the Heraldic Journal, ii, 119, as the Eliots bought the tomb and paid for altering the stone. The presumption is that the Watts family represented the original owner, and that perhaps the stone came from tomb No. 15. The arms are not inscribed to any family of the name of Watts."

I cannot find these arms of three crescents ascribed to any of the surnames noted in the Guide or in The Heraldic Journal; not to Martyn/Martin, nor Watts, nor Eliot. And looking through the usual ordinaries (Papworth's Dictionary of British Armorials and the more recent The Dictionary of British Arms) gives us way too many potential families of this simple coat of arms to decently research in my "copious free time."

So it's a bit of an heraldic mystery. Most every source seems to agree that it is not the arms of the most recent owner of the tomb, the Eliots, nor does it seem to be the arms of the Watts. And I have no indication of where the author who ascribes this tomb to the Martyns obtained that information.

Still, it's kind of interesting to learn about the purchase and sale of tombs in burying grounds in colonial Boston, Massachusetts Bay Colony, isn't it?

Wishing You All a Very Happy New Year!

Well, my friends, we have completed another year's orbit around the burning orb we call our Sun.

At this time, I would wish for each of you a very happy and prosperous new year. May 2026 be good to you.

Another Gore Roll Coat of Arms in Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Boston, Massachusetts

Two years before he died, Jonathan Montfort of Boston, Massachusetts, apparently consulted the Gore family about his coat of arms.

Two years later upon his death, and we find those arms (much obscured by the growth of lichen on the tombstone, but still identifiable) in Copp's Hill Burying Ground. This is the Tomb 59 tomb mentioned below.

The Copp’s Hill Burying Ground Guide, p. 24, tells us: “Mountfort Family. Tomb 17, built in 1711 on Hull Street for John Mountfort (Loc. W-13) and Tomb 59 for Jonathan (J-3a), built in 1724, represent the Mountforts, long a prominent North End family. They were sons of Edward Mountfort who fled political troubles in London in 1656. John (1670-1711), a cooper or barrel maker, later owned Mountfort’s Wharf and lived on Prince St[reet]. [John was a Member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company (Boston, MA)], 1696. Jonathan was a wealthy but eccentric doctor,* owned a pharmacy, and was a founder and treasurer of the New Brick Church. It is highly probable that Joseph Mountfort of the Boston Tea party and later a cooper is buried in another Mountfort tomb located at J3a.”

Here is the non-armorial marker at Tomb 17 for John Mountfort and his son Benjamin Mountfort.

The Mountforts of Boston and of Portland all descend from Edmund Mountfort, a London merchant, who settled in Boston in 1656. The tombstone of his son John is in Copp's Hill churchyard Boston (1724) and bears the arms Bendy of ten Or and Azure [I believe that statement is incorrect; I could only find the Mountfort arms on the tomb of Jonathan], which arms belong to the Mountforts of Beanhurst Hall, Staffordshire and claiming descent from Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester. (Vermont, America Heraldica, p. 107)

There seems to be some confusion among the sources about which Mountfort is buried where in the burying ground, but a closer look at the marker for Tomb 59 clearly (well, as clear as anything else on the marker, given the overgrowth) shows the name "Jonathan Mountfort".

These arms are blazoned Or four bendlets Azure, and the crest shown in the Gore Roll, but impossible to make out here, is A lion's head Azure.

Burke’s General Armory notes a number of variants of these arms:

Montford: Azure four bendlets or.

Montfort, Baron Montfort, descended from Thurstan de Montfort, of Beldesert Castle, county Warwick, temp. Henry II: Bendy of ten or and azure.

Mountford of Radwinter, county Stafford and county Warwick: Bendy of ten or and azure, with the crest A lion's head couped azure.

Mountford of county Sussex: Or four bendlets azure.

Mountford of Willoughby-upon-Wold, Risley, and Wollaton, county Notts, noted in the Visitation of Notts, 1614, Bendy of eight or and azure, quartering Willoughby.

Mountfort of Beamhurst Hall, county Stafford, claiming descent from Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, Bendy or and azure, with the crest A plume of five feathers.

Wagner, Aspilogia II: Rolls of Arms of Henry III, p. 137, notes the arms in Glover's Roll of pers de Mountfort, bende d'or et d'azur. Piers de Montfort of Beaudesert, Warwickshire, succeeded his father Thurstan in 1216. He died at Evesham in 1265, and was succeeded by his son, Piers, who died in 1287.

Brault, Aspilogia III: The Rolls of Arms of Edward I, vol. II, pp. 298-299, notes the arms of: John de Montfort of Preston and Uppingham, d. 1296, blazoned in different rolls as Azure, four bends or (Collins' Roll, 1296), Azure, three bends or (Guillim's Roll, 1295-1305), and Bendy or and azure (Sir William le Neve's Roll, temp. Edward I); and John's father Piers de Montfort, blazoned as Bendy or and azure (in several rolls), and Azure, four bends or (Dering Roll, ca. 1280). He also states that he family name derives from Montfort-sur-Risle, southwest of Rouen in France.

I must say, that for such a comparatively simple coat of arms, that's a lot of minor variations! But sometimes, that is part of the fun of researching heraldry!

* There's got to be a good story there, but I haven't been able to find it. A Rootsweb page about Copp's Hill Burying Ground says: "Jonathan Mountfort was a wealthy physician and apothecary, his shop being long known as 'Mountfort's Corner,' and was of a decidedly eccentric temperament. He was one of the seceders from the New North Church in 1719, and helped build the 'New Brick' or 'Weathercock' Church, of which he was chosen treasurer." So we are told that he was eccentic, but not what behavior of his branded him so. Too bad; as I said, there's got to be a good story there.

Wishing You All a Very Happy Christmas!

In the spirit of the season, and to help wish you and yours a very happy Christmas, here are some of the attributed arms of Santa Claus/St. Nicholas I have seen over the years, as well as two versions of the attributed arms of the original Christmas gift givers, the three magi, or wise men.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Two Coats of Arms on Copp's Hill _Not_ Found in the Gore Roll

We've been looking at some of the armorial headstones and tombstones in the historic Copp's Hill Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts. The ones we've looked at so far bore arms which are also found in the Gore Roll of Arms, so today, we're going to make a change, and look at two memorials which bear arms that do not appear in the Gore Roll.

The first is the table tomb of the Rev. Francis W.P. Greenwood, the rector of King’s Chapel (just a few blocks away, and which we will be visiting in time to see the armorial memorials erected in that building) in the early 1800s.

The tomb has a Latin cross carved into its top, and a coat of arms (though the stone it is carved into is broken) on the "head" end of the tomb.

The arms show "A fess between three mullets of six points pierced and three ducks." And the crest: "A mullet of six points pierced within a pair of wings conjoined." Burke’s General Armory gives us: “Greenwood (Norwich and co. York, 1594). Argent a fess between three mullets in chief and as many ducks in base all sable. Crest—A mullet between a pair of duck’s wings expanded sable. Motto—Ut prosim.”

So now we know the colors of the arms and crest, having them here "in black and white," as it were.

(Sorry, not sorry. I couldn't resist the temptation of saying "in black and white" for a coat of arms whose colors are, oh, yeah, white and black.

The other non-Gore Roll arms today are on the memorial to "Isaac Dupee, heir to Goodridge." The inscription running around the four sides of the base of the obelisk is: "Erected by Isaac Dupee / Grandson to G. / Aged LXXV / August 31. A.D. 1846"

The Copp's Hill Burying Ground Guide, p. 13, informs us that this monument is "the most elaborate monument in the burying ground," and "demands a level of religious undterstanding few of us have today. It was erected by Isaac Dupee in 1846 and tells little about him or about the Dupee Family. Some were involved with early Boston education and later generations owned mill at Lowell [Massachusetts] and started copper mines in Upper Michigan."

The Heraldic Journal, Vol. II, pp. 81-83, gives the family descent of Walter Gutridge or Goodridge,* naming him as "undoubtedly" the owner of this tomb, and demonstrating that Isaac Dupee was the grandson of Walter through his daughter Mary, who married Elias Dupee.

In addition to the large Latin cross and letter "God Is Love", the four sides of the obelisk each have a Bible verse reference, and those verses were then used to form two couplets. But as the Guide notes, "From our viewpoint today, it is difficult to see how the couplets could be made from the verses cited."

But, of course, it was the heraldry on the front face of the base that is the reason for its being reviewed here.

The arms (untinctured here, obviously) show "a fess and in chief three patriarchal crosses fitchy at the foot." The crest is a bird. Burke’s General Armory cites: “Goodridge (Totness, co. Devon; Walter Goodridge, of that place. Visit. 1620). Argent a fess sable in chief three crosses crosslet fitchie of the last. Crest—A blackbird proper.” So here, too, we now know the colors "in black and white." (Hey, there's no point in using a marginally funny joke if you can't run it right into the ground, right? Right?)

* Spelling was a lot more flexible back then. In working on my own family tree, I have found spellings of the surname now normally spelled "Bigelow" running the gamut from the very short "Biglo" to the very much longer "Biggalough". People wrote what they heard, and spelled it to match. Which is how the good old Scottish surname "Forbes" (which would have been pronounced with two syllables: For-bess) became, upon hearing someone pronounce it with their highlands brogue, "Farrabas". Ain't orthography fun?

Another Armorial Headstone in Copp's Hill Burying Ground, Boston, Massachusetts

Our next armorial headstone in Copp's Hill Burying Ground in Boston is another coat of arm also found in the Gore Roll of Arms, that of Gee, where they are impaled with Thacher or Thatcher.

I recommend that you click on the image above to go to the full-size version, where the shield and its charges are a little easier to make out. They were less obscured when we last visited Boston in 2008, as you can see from this image taken then.

Of the bearer of these arms, the Copp’s Hill Burying Ground Guide, p 22, says: "Joshua Gee, wealthy shipbuilder, whose son [also Joshua] was pastor of 2nd Church 1742-48, once had the only privately owned family plot in the burying ground. His wife 'wanted to be laid away from the multitude,' instead of the helter-skelter way the other graves were arranged."

Joshua Gee of Boston was a freeman in 1675. He married (1st) Elizabeth Harris, 25 Sept. 1688, by whom he had several children besides Rev. Joshua Gee, a colleague of Rev. Cotton Mather.** He married (2nd) Elizabeth, daughter of Judah Thacher, December 7, 1704. (Savage, A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England, Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692)

The arms are blazoned: Azure on a chevron Argent between three leopard’s faces Or three fleurs-de-lis Gules. The crest is difficult to make out here, being more than somewhat obscured by the growth of lichens on the tombstone, but is given in the Gore Roll as A wolf statant reguardant Ermine.

Dr. Harold Bowditch ("The Gore Roll of Arms," Collections 29 (1-4) of the Rhode Island Historical Society),* says: "The 'Gee' arms turn out to be those of Gay, Guy or Gye. Identified through Papworth, they are found in Burke under Guy of Oundle, Northamptonshire, and of Wiltshire, but with this crest: A lion's head azure with a collar partly azure and sable, between two wings gold. Under the name of Gye of the Cellar they appear in Glover's Ordinary, a compilation by Robert Glover, Somerset Herald in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. By giving the name Guy its French pronunciation it is easy to see how it became spelled Gee in England."

I must say, it always gives me a bit of a thrill to see in real life a coat of arms that has appeared in one (or more) of the books that I own.

* We noted two other publications in our previous post where Dr. Bowditch's full review of arms in the rediscovered Gore Roll of Arms can be found, along with additional information.

** Cotton Mather, and his father Increase, and other Mathers, are also buried in Copp's Hill Burying Ground. I make it a point every time I visit Copp's Hill to stop by their table tomb to execrate Cotton, because of the nasty things that he said about my 10th great-grandmother, Susanna (North) Martin, during the Salem witch trials of 1692. Yes, I know that more than 300 years is a long time to carry a grudge, but while she was an old widow with opinions, she was no witch, and Cotton called her a "rampant hag," described her as "one of the most impudent, scurrilous, wicked creatures in the world," and said that Satan himself had promised her that "she would be the Queen of Hell." So, yeah, I take it a bit personally. We now return you to your regularly scheduled post on heraldry.