Here Lyes Buried
the Body of Doctor
James Hersey
of Kittery Who Died
July 8th 1758 in ye 20th
Year of His Age.
Old South Cemetery, Peabody, Massachusetts
This gravestone opens up all sorts of interesting genealogical and historical questions. Did James Hersey "of Kittery" die in Kittery or in Peabody? Being only "in ye 20th Year of His Age" was he really a doctor or was he being confused with another James Hersey, perhaps his father? And the question that really begs to be asked is, what killed him at such a tender age?
Copyright 2010 Marian Pierre-Louis
May not be distributed or "fed" through another website without permission
May not be distributed or "fed" through another website without permission
You can read about James Hersey of Kittery in "Genealogical Notes of Barnstable Families" Vol 2, page 6. It looks like he studied to be a doctor under his uncle, and it states he died at age 20, but it doesn't give a cause of death. According to a newsclipping from "The Boston News Letter" 17 August 1758 "We hear that Dr. James HERSEY, of Kittery, on his return from a visit to his friend's at the Westward, was seiz'd a few weeks since at the Rev. Mr. PRESCOT's of Danvers, by an acute fever, which soon put an end to his life." (I just found it on Google!)
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