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Thomas Johnson I (1690-1761), (Deacon) Thomas Johnson II (1718-1774), Thomas Johnson III (of Chatham) (1750-1789) The three generations of the Johnson family constitute one of the great gravestone carving dynasties of eighteenth-century Connecticut. They worked from the famous brownstone quarries in Portland, although some of the early Thomas Johnson I stones appear to have been carved in New Haven. Although much of their work is found west of the Connecticut River, many of their stones appear in eastern burying grounds, especially in the western section and along the coast. It is not easy to attribute a considerable portion of the Johnson stones to one specific carver; after the period of Thomas I’s skull stones, they followed each other’s styles and in fact apparently often worked together and with a brother of the second Thomas Johnson named Stephen whose work, if he ever worked independently, has not been identified. All known Johnson stones are brown or red sandstones. The earliest stones by the elder Johnson were apparently simple stones with only pinwheel designs in the finials. The problem with attribution of such stones is that the design was also used by the Stanclifts who were intimately associated with the Johnsons in the gravestone business for many decades. Few of these early stones appear in our area. Thomas Johnson I produced between 1723 and 1736 a wonderful series of original looking skull stones, with menacing faces, triangular noses and border panels of either gourd or fig-like designs or double scrolls. A second type either cut by the second Thomas Johnson or by both him and his father is a less menacing “skull,” but a face still with teeth and hollow eyes, usually capped by elaborate crowns and elaborate border panels of floral designs that Dr. Caulfield has designated as “kidneys and flowers.” Thomas Johnson II developed a more elaborate style that embodied cherubim, usually elaborately crowned, with wings extending outward and upward and with the feather elements depicted as a series of irregular stripes and lines. These stones usually had elaborate decorations of almost Victorian exuberance above the cherubim and at the sides in the form of drapes. Thomas Johnson III did little but elaborate this beautiful motif. A great many of his stones occur in the valley graveyards and seep into the more rural, chiefly granite burying grounds to the east. At present it is often not possible to separate the work of the second and third Thomas Johnsons, for they apparently worked together for years. However the stones of Thomas Johnson III can often be recognized for having the chins of his cherubim more pointed and the eyes more drowsy. The tops of some of his lunettes become exceedingly ornate. To compound the problem, there were many imitators of the dominant Johnson style in the late 1700’s. Dr. Caulfield says that the three Johnsons “set stands for stone art throughout most of Connecticut, not only while they lived, but also for many years thereafter.” Certainly, a detailed study of the evolution and variability of their style will be a formidable but important task.
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