Martha Thompson

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Parkhurst-217

Death: 16 July 1728 aged 50, Martha, wife of John Thompson. Burial: First Presbyterian Church Yard, Elizabethtown, NJ [1]

Born c. 1678, Mrs. Thompson, nee Martha Parkhurst, was the wife of John Thompson. She died "in her 50 Years", as it's rather awkwardly phrased in her gravestone inscription (see below). Her brown sandstone stele appears to have been made by an unidentified craftsman known as the "Old Elizabethtown Soul Carver I", who was active in the 1720-30's, and whose work is distinguished by highly detailed mortality imagery and the unusual use of skull-with-cross-bones soul effigies. Mrs. Thompson's gravestone reflects the Puritanical emphasis on the brevity and frailty of life on earth, but its grimness is somewhat alleviated by the Tudor-style roses engraved in the border, which may allude to noble descent and/or spiritual virtue in full bloom. Roses like these, with undulating stems and leaves, may be seen in Connecticut gravestones of the period--an indication that the carver of this stone learned his craft in that colony.

Family

From Family records, or, Genealogies of the first settlers of Passaic Valley and vicinity above Chatham, with their ancestors and descendants as far as can now be ascertained by Littell, John. Page 414. < Archive.Org >

NOTE: Source of spouse & parental links: Findagrave member #47353710, "family tree maker"

Inscription

"Here lieth ye Body of Martha Thompson Wife of Mr. John Thompson who departed this life July the 16th Ao 1728 Aged in her 50 years"

Sources

1. https://archive.org/details/inscriptionsonto03whee/page/n41
2. Family Data Collection - Individual Records (http://search.ancestry.com/collections/4725/records/4556844)
3. Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6079260/martha-thompson : accessed 13 May 2022), memorial page for Martha Parkhurst Thompson (1678–16 Jul 1728), Find a Grave Memorial ID 6079260, citing First Presbyterian Churchyard, Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey, USA ; Maintained by Nikita Barlow (contributor 46508077) .