Sunday Pastries With the Dead 43
A 1740-era New Jersey cemetery that boasts some haunting headstone art.
I first visited today’s cemetery in July 2022, before Sunday Pastries was serialized here on Substack—it was fascinating to return and realize how much I’ve learned since then. I remember being awed by the intricate symbols on certain stones, especially images that appeared to be faces. I now know that they’re called death’s heads and soul effigies, and their designs are unique to the carvers who created them.
There are almost 700 early inhabitants of the area interred in this New Jersey graveyard; its oldest burial dates back to the year it was established—alongside the first iteration of a nearby Presbyterian church—in 1740. The current church was built in 1826, with the steeple added in 1854.
This cemetery is particularly notable for its copious surviving 18th and 19th-century headstones showcasing the work of several well-known New Jersey carvers. Much of the tympanum art is weathered and covered with lichen, but I find that makes it all the more hauntingly beautiful.
My two favorites here are a particularly notable rudimentary version of the soul effigy (left, circa 1771) and death’s head (right, circa 1748)—these are gorgeous examples of early American folk art. I love how the somewhat concerned-looking soul effigy’s wings are spread across its neck in the manner of a ruffled collar, and the death’s head shows the faintest remnants of a wide, grinning row of teeth. Very Victorian, extremely metal!
I saw these two symbols again and again, though spotting them through each stone’s weathering and biological growth layer took a bit of imagination—can you make out the winged faces and skulls on these tympanum tops?
The most prolific local carvers with headstones here are brothers Jonathan Hand Osborn and Henry Osborn. The duo, who worked from the late 1700s to mid-1800s, is known for their bird, curtain, monogram, and soul effigy tympanum designs. Jonathan Hand’s lettering includes g’s with the lower portion tucked; this is how his stones can be differentiated from Henry’s, whose lower g’s are round with a dented center.
Another popular carver in the area was Ebenezer Price (1728-1788), who operated out of Elizabeth, NJ. His soul effigies are unmistakeable thanks to a characteristic dimple in their chins; that cloud-like design over the head is known as a “crown of righteousness.”
These three monogram-topped stones (left to right: 1791, 1801, 1777) are likely from three different carvers, based on the wildly varied font and design styles. The older two might possibly be by the Sillcocks family (Joseph, Gabriel Sr., Gabriel Jr., Henry, Isaac, James Hull, and John) of New Brunswick, NJ, whose work from the late 1700s to the late 1800s crops up in many central NJ cemeteries.
These three headstones commissioned by the McDowel family are clearly by the same carver, as the font is uniform. Though they span 1806, 1807, and 1794, it’s possible they were all made at the same time based on the identical stone type.
These delicate urn tympanum symbols are by the same carver—a local historian I know refers to him as “the droopy urn carver” based on the handles of the left-most design.
It’s common to find smaller headstones up against the front or back of larger ones—usually the petite versions include the initials or last name and death date of the deceased detailed on the bigger memorial. These were once footstones—graves were originally designed to look like beds, with the headstone acting as a “headboard” and the footstone denoting the bottom of the bed (eternal rest, get it?) Over the years, groundskeepers have moved them to make it easier to mow—sometimes they’re paired up, but often the footstones are separated, ending up at the perimeter of the burial ground or lost entirely.
That’s all for this latest Sunday Pastries—I hope I’ve inspired you to explore your local cemetery this spooky season, and beyond. If you love these posts and want to help fund my research and reporting, you can support me here. Until a future Sunday, fellow taphophiles!