Sign Up  /  Login

Lunette - Josiah Manning #2 LbNA #41869

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Jul 16, 2008
Location:
City:Franklin
County:New London
State:Connecticut
Boxes:1
Planted by:Nomad Indian Saint
Found by: SherlockMiles
Last found:Dec 31, 2021
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFa
Last edited:Jul 16, 2008
Have you ever marveled at the 18 and early 19th century headstones of our ancestors? The colonial burying grounds of New England represent some of the most wondrous carvings and are treasure troves of information and beauty of many kinds. The stones are the “persisting symbols of an art form that is largely indigenous, that reached a high level of abstract complexity and beauty that died away in an amazingly short period of time.”

The term lunette is referred to as the top central area of the stone, the area containing the cherub. Josiah Manning and his 2 sons, Rockwell and Frederick, established a style of gravestone carving that became dominant in eastern Connecticut for nearly 50 years. Manning stones are present in almost every eighteenth-century cemetery in Eastern Connecticut from the Sound to the Massachusetts border, but are most abundant and varied from Mansfield and Norwich eastward. The predominant Manning style uses a frowning face pattern with a sweeping upswept hair style consisting of a central pompadour and side curls. Most of the stones of this type have solid wings that curve strongly upward. There is frequently a series of half circles above the face and elaborate scroll design below the wings. Come and see what it looks like!

Birchard’s Plain Burying Ground – Franklin, CT

When entering the main gate, the first stone in the first row on your left is what you seek. It is the stone of Mrs. Elizabeth Burley. Now walk northeasterly along the row and at the end continue to the stone wall. Look at the bottom of the wall behind a trap door. Please respect the cemetery during your visit.