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James Hovey was a Mansfield, Connecticut, carver who probably falls into the category of what late Dr. Caulfield liked to call a local yokel. Certainly he can scarcely be considered a first rate gravestone carver. His large heavy granite stones have been found thus far only in Mansfield and the adjacent towns of Willington, Ashford, and possibly Tolland. They are most abundant in the old Storrs burying ground near where he lived. Most of the Hovey stones are very badly eroded and the original designs often barely discernable. The skilled rubbing reproductions of Anne Williams and Susan Kelly, of Darien, Connecticut, however, demonstrate that Hovey tried hard to produce work of some quality with attention to details of the cherubim and the border panels, some of which are quite elaborate. Hovey must have taken pride in his work, for he signed at least three stones: the Margaret Toplift stone in West Willington; the Eleanor (?) Cummins (1754) stone in Warrenville burying ground in Ashford; and the footstone for Thomas Marsh (1753), the valiant separatist, in Mansfield Center. Hovey stones need the attention of skilled students of rubbing techniques before the designs are irretrievably lost. There appear to be two basic types, one with round heavy faces and the downbent wings, as on the John Farwell (1750) and Eliz. Farwell stones at Storrs, and the other with more delicate face upturned wings. These latter stones are similar to the work of Obadiah Wheeler and somewhat resemble the work of the Hampton Indian (who Hovey probably copied in making the Thomas Marsh stone, since the Hampton Indian carved the same stone for Marsh's wife Eunice). The Thomas Baldwin (1750) stone at Storrs is also and excellent example of this latter style. Hovey border panels are surprisingly varied: a checkerboard design (Abigail Woodward 1756, Storrs), vine leaves (John Farwell 1750, Storrs), large half loops (Eliz. Farwell, Storrs), etc.
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