[The Mayflower Descendant, 24 [1922]:116]
| 116 | Duxbury Gravestone Records |
pared with the inscriptions on the stones, and the inscriptions as they appeared in the N. E. H. G. Society's book were also compared with those on the stones.
Of the twenty stones which were in the cemetery in 1907, we found, in 1922, all but one, which will be considered later in this article; and in justice to Messrs. Smith and Willard I wish to emphasize the fact that their copies of the remaining nineteen inscriptions were correct in every case.
There were twenty stones in 1907; one has disappeared, and two bear dates after 1849. At the present time, therefore, the cemetery contains seventeen gravestones, the death records on which should have been correctly printed in the N. E. H. G. Society's book.
The deaths on two of those seventeen are not even mentioned in that book, as they were not on the town records, and the N. E. H. G. Society's copyist overlooked the two stones.
Another gravestone record is not mentioned in that book, although the date is not the same as that printed from the town records, and all variations were supposed to be printed.
One gravestone record, as printed in that book, omits valuable information found on the stone.
Six of the remaining records, as there printed, contain errors of various kinds.
And only six of the eighteen gravestone records in this small cemetery were accurately printed, without errors or omissions.
Details of the numerous errors and omissions referred to will be found at the end of this article, in connection with accurate and complete abstracts of the inscriptions, as copied and verified by Messrs. Smith and Willard, in 1907, and again verified, in 1922, by Miss Dawes and myself.
As already stated, one gravestone found by Messrs. Smith and Willard, in 1907, has since disappeared. This was the stone of Hiram Thomas Paulding, son of William and Mary Paulding, who died 14 May, 1837, aged 9 months and 9 days.
The N. E. H. G. Society's book, as will be shown, makes two very serious errors in printing this child's death in the following manner:
Polden, Hiram T., ch. William and Mary, May 14, 1837. [Hiram Thomas Paulding, May 14, 1831, a. 9y. 9d., G. R. 5.] [Hiram Thomas Paulding, May 14, 1837, P. R. 21.]
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