Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tombstone Tuesday - Obadiah Sawtell (1648-1741) in Groton MA

Obadiah Swatell was born 14 September 1648 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony, the son of Richard and Elizabeth (--?--) Sawtell. He married Hannah Lawrence, the daughter of George and Elizabeth (Crispe) Lawrence, in about 1680 in Groton, Massachusetts. He died 20 March 1740/1741 in Groton, Middlesex, Massachusetts and is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Groton. Here is a picture of his gravestone:


Obadiah Sawtell's gravestone has a death's head at the top. The inscription reads:

Here Lies The Body of
Mr. Obadiah
Sawtell Who Departed
This Life March The 20th
A D l740 in ye 92
Year of his Age.

What a beautifully carved stone. There are many well-preserved stones like this in the Old Burying Ground in Groton. Transcriptions of the stones in this cemetery are provided in the US GenWeb archives here (NOTE: this URL has changed in the last week). A book (Epitaphs from the old burying ground in Groton, Massachusetts, By Samuel Abbott Green, Arthur Bruce Coburn, Published by Little, Brown, & Company, 1878) is available on Google Books here.

I don't recall where I obtained this photograph, and others from this cemetery. I may have taken them myself on a trip to New England in 1994 or 1995, and I may have obtained them from a kind correspondent who took them and sent them to me years ago.

Obadiah Sawtell is one of my 7th great-grandfathers.

3 comments:

Bill West said...

Hey Randy,
We may (big MAY)have a cousin
connection here. My 8x great
grandfather Ralph Farnham(Farnum)
3rd's wife was a Sarah Sterling. Her mother might have been Elizabeth Sawtell, daughter of Richard Sawtelle.

It's a bit tenuous, A William Sterling married an Elizabeth(last name Unknown) and his brother Daniel might have been the husband of Elizabeth Sawtelle, So far I haven't found anything concrete.

I guess it all depends on which
Sterling brother was Sarah Sterling's father!

Bill West said...

Hi again, Randy,
I just found a Sterling genealogy
book on Google with a copy of William Sterling's will, which mentions his daughter Sarah Farnum.
So it looks like there's no cousin
connection after all.

Gloria said...

Randy, just read your post on Obadiah Sawtell and was wondering if any of the following Sawtell's are of this family: Abigail Sawtell, Benjamin Sawtell, Ephraim Sawtell, Edmund Sawtell (great grandson of Deacon John Longley, my 6th great grandfather), Emma Sawtell, Eunice Sawtell, John Sawtell, Susanna Sawtell, Joshiah Sawtelle, Josiah Sawtelle, Miriam Sawtelle. If so there may be a relation somewhere.