During the 1750s and 1760s, a stone carver in Hampton, Connecticut created a number of bizarre gravestones in the town and in a few other neighboring communities. He abruptly stopped producing these stones after 1769, but then in the 1770s his work started to appear some 60 miles away in the Western Massachusetts towns of Becket and Worthington.

Until now, his identity has eluded gravestone scholars, who dubbed him the "Hampton Indian" because the feathered wings on the stones bear some resemblance to a Native American headdress. This episode explores the style of his gravestone carvings, his sources of inspiration, and a theory as to his identity, which is based on several key pieces of circumstantial evidence.

For further reading on New England gravestones and carvers, I would highly recommend:

Colonial Burying Grounds of Eastern Connecticut and the Men Who Made Them by Dr. James A. Slater

Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them by Harriette Merrifield Forbes

Graven Images by Allan Ludwig

The Masks of Orthodoxy by Peter Benes

Memorials for Children of Change: The Art of Early New England Stonecarving by Dickran and Ann Tashjian

Back issues of Markers, published by the Association for Gravestone Studies

The Farber Gravestone Collection

And if you are interested in more of my content on New England gravestones, you can follow my account @gravestonesofnewengland on Instagram and Facebook.