The lengthy inscription on this gravestone in a low, quiet section of the South Ridge (not too far from the beautiful marble monument of Erastus Dow Palmer and the unmarked grave of poet Alfred Billings Street) caught my eye.
With a little research, I've been able to make out the missing and incomplete words on this stone, except for one. I haven't yet been able to determine Sir George's surname. There is also a tiny inscription at the bottom of the stone of which only a word or two can be read since the edges of the stone are embedded in the ground.
In memory of Mrs. Anne Lewis who departed this life April 1st 1836. She was born in Newport Rhode Island March 30th 1763 to honourable parentage, her mother Anne Anderson being a descendent of Sir George ____, an English nobleman. Her father, Judah Cartwright a native of Martha's Vineyard was descended from a family distinguished for their genuine respectability.
This grave was transferred to the Albany Rural Cemetery from the Methodist Episcopal section of the State Street Burying Grounds sometime between 1844 and 1868 when the latter was closed. Like David Fonda, Anne Lewis evidently had descendents or other relatives who chose to move her grave to a private plot instead of letting her be transferred to the Church Grounds with hundreds of others.
An interesting stone! Sir George's surname looks like Thunel, but there could be more under the grass.
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