Having completed our review of the armorial headstones and memorials outside and inside King's Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts, we move now a few blocks away to Granary Burying Ground.
The burying ground is a bit of a tourist trap, owing to a number of famous individuals buried there; John Hancock (whose memorial we will see shortly), Benjamin Franklin's parents, the slain in the Boston Massacre of 1770, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, General Dr. Joseph Warren, and a number of others. So what was at the time I visited it, off-season and on a weekday, Granary Burying Ground was full of tourists and tourist guides, leaving me feeling just a little claustrophobic. (The burying ground really isn't all that large: it's only about two acres total in size, with a little over 2,300 grave markers for an estimated 5,000-6,000 interments there.
That said, I was able to get some good photographs of many of the armorial headstones and tombstones in Granary Burying Ground, even with all of the foot traffic there being restricted to the paved paths, which don't always let you get that close to the heraldry to be found there.
The first armorial headstone is that of Richard Sears. (You will probably want to click on the image below to go to the full-size photograph to get some greater detail. As I said, I was having to take pictures from the paved paths, and thus not always as close as I would have liked to be to the heraldry.)
The Heraldic Journal, Vol. II, pp. 137-140, tells us of the family: "Though we do not know the date of this inscribed slab, we presume it has been placed here during the present [19th] century. From information, now made public, we learn that the emigrant ancestor of the Sears family was Richard Sears of Yarmouth, Mass., who died in 1676. He was born in Holland, and was the son of John Bourchieer Sears, by his wife Marie L., dau. of Philippe Van Egmonde of Amsterdam.
"Richard Sears of Yarmouth had sons Knyvet, Paul, and Silas, of whom Knyvet died in England in 1686, at the residence of his relative Catherine, daughter of Sir John Knyvet. By wife Elizabeth Dimoke he had a son Daniel, b. in 1682, who had three sons, Richard and David, both killed at Culloden, and Daniel, b. in 1719. This Daniel, by wife Fear Freeman, had sons Richard and Daniel, whose lines are extinct, and David, b. in 1752, who was a great purchaser of lands in Maine, and married Ann Winthrop. His only son is Hon. David Sears of Boston, who married Miriam Clarke, dau. of Hon. Jona. Mason. Mr. Sears is too well known in Boston to render any sketch of his public services necessary. He has had ten children."
Bolton’s An American Armory gives us the colors of the arms: Sears. Gules a chevron argent between three eagles (or pewits) proper on a chief ermine an escallop between two mullets gules.
Crest: An eagle displayed wings inverted.
And Crozier’s General Armory cites: Sears. Massachusetts. Richard Sears Plymouth, 1630. (Colchester, Essex.) Gules a chevron argent between three eaglets proper on a chief ermine an escallop between two mullets argent.
Crest: An eagle displayed wings inverted proper.
Mottoes: (1) Exaltat humiles. (2) Honor et fides.
While the motto on the belt surrounding the shield reads “Exaltat humiles,” I believe that it should be: Exaltavit humiles (He hath exalted the humble). But what do I know?
