John Hartshorn

     John Hartshorn was born on 6 May 1650 at Reading, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts.¹ He was the son of Thomas Hartshorne and Susannah Buck.¹ John Hartshorn married Ruth Swan, daughter of Robert Swan and Elizabeth Acie, on 19 September 1672 at Haverhill, Essex Co, Massachusetts.² John Hartshorn died after 1737 at Norwich, New London Co, Connecticut.²
     An early settler of Haverhill, Massachusetts, John Hartshorn was a weaver, a tailor, and a clerk. He became a lieutenant in the militia and was active in the Indian Wars, serving under Capt. Sill, from 1675-76. He served in Queen Anne's War in the Massachusetts Militia. In 1693, he was called son-in-law of John Brown and was spoken of later as "Lieut. Hartshorne". A step-brother of the carver Joseph Lamson, John at about the age of fifty began carving gravestones in Haverhill, where he was that town's first carver. His early stones all have elongated unframed faces in the top of the stone, with solid bars of varied design on either side of the face. The side border design is usually a series of crude bell-like shapes. About 1708 the faces become more round and are framed, and the bars become segmented and more delicate. The side borders also become more varied and lighter. Large circled rosettes then enter the top alongside the face and the segmented bars are pushed to the corners.

About 1723, Hartshorn went to Connecticut where his work is devoid of the rosettes and the face is decorated with either halo-like bars or "rabbit-ear" bars, for the most part.

His work is interesting in that it does not portray a death-head (skull with wings) but is simply a face or "soul-mask" and thus is not a copy of the traditional gravestone design of his day. His best work is found in Haverhill and Ipswich, Massachusetts, and in Lebanon, Connecticut.²