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IIn about 1722 Lieutenant John Hartshorne, then seventy years old, moved from Rowley, Massachusetts, to live with his daughter, Martha Ladd in Franklin, Connecticut. He had been the earliest rural carver of Essex County, Massachusetts, where stones continued to be carved in his tradition for several generations. He was one of the last surviving veterans of King Phillips War and has also survived a French and Indian raid on Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1708, in which his third wife, his son, and three grandsons were killed. Old John Hartshorne was to bring his skills to Eastern Connecticut and establish a carving tradition that persisted until the close of the eighteenth century. The work of John Hartshorne directly or indirectly influenced all of the later granite carvers in Eastern Connecticut. Hartshorne gravestones are very easily recognized. They are, with few exceptions, small stones, not much more than two feet in height. The top is three-lobed with the central lunette sometimes relatively wide. The faces on his stones are distinctive. The face is blank and staring, the mouth a simple transverse bar, the nose straight and slender, and both eyes and head usually “framed” as a double circle. On either side of the face is a variation on one of two basic themes. The first of these designs consists of one to three (or even four) segmented layers, often with an eye present centrally above the face. This is generally considered to be an abstract bird motif, a variant of which consists of three or four layers meeting centrally above the face, and producing a halo-like affect. The second major design rather resembles an upswept hair-do, consisting of an upward and then outward and downward series of stripes. At times an exaggerated variant of this style has the appearance of rabbit’s ears. Hartshorne finials usually consist of four converging hearts, but the four-rayed rosettes, complex wheels and whorls like pin-wheels are represented. The border panels are variable; most frequently they consist of a series of reversed spirals, but loops, hearts, and peculiar geometric designs are also represented. Where the earth around the base of the stone has eroded away or the stone is pulled upward, it is not uncommon to find the price of the stone carved on the left side. Norwichtown, Franklin, New London, Groton, Lebanon, and Mansfield are excellent places to see Harthshorne’s work. The latest stone is dated 1737. Hartshorne footstones are always small and simple, usually with a cross in each upper corner and with only the name of the deceased included. In shore communities such as New London and Groton the lettering is quite different. These stones were purchased from Hartshorne and lettered by Joshua Hempstead of New London.
From: Slater, James A. The Colonial Burying Grounds of
Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them. Memoirs of the
Connecticut Academy of Arts & Sciences, vol. 21. Hamden,
Connecticut: Archon Books, 1987.
*Homer Babbidge Library call number f/Q/11/C85/v.21