James Wilder, Stone carver
Sarah Coney Guild (1733-1755) Lot 196
Priscilla Coney (1722-1768) Lot 191
We have scholar Laurel K. Gabel to thank for much of the information that is available about stonecutter, James Wilder. Born on June 22, 1741 to a well-thought of family in Lancaster, Massachusetts, he was the fourth of seven children and notably his father’s favorite son. He married Jemima Johnson of Bolton in 1772 and the couple had 8 children. In addition to his occupation as a stone cutter, Wilder served his community as a field driver, highway surveyor, and church warden and, served in the Revolutionary War. He also lived less than a mile from a quarry with a rich vein of dark slate.
In 1766, he acquired land near his father’s property and by 1771, owned two acres, a shop, and a horse. Spanning three decades, Wilder created four types of tympanum styles: skulls and three types of faces (young, older, and a more stylized face).
There have been close to 200 Wilder-type stones documented, including two in Old Parish Cemetery. The memorial to Sarah Coney Guild (lot 196) and Priscilla Coney (lot 191) have been identified as being the work of James Wilder. Each stone is representative of the carver’s distinctive style.
Sarah Coney was born on April 18, 1733 in Stoughton. She was the eldest child of Nathaniel Coney II and his wife Sarah Morse Coney. On January 1, 1751, Sarah married
Aaron Guild, the youngest son of Nathaniel and Mehitable Hartshorn Guild of Dedham, and a fourth-generation descendant of Dedham proprietor John Guild. Guild was a farmer. The young couple had two children: Aaron Jr. (1753-1832) and Oliver (1755-1814). Within two weeks of Oliver’s baptism, Sarah died on February 18, 1755 just shy of her 22nd birthday. Her stone, a fine example of Wilder’s “young face” displays tightly wound curls, was similar to those he carved most often in the late 1750s and 176os. The stone reads:
In Memory of
Mrs. Sarah Guild, wife,
of Mr. Aaron Guild
who died Feb. ye
18th 1755 Aged
21 Years & 10
Months
Wilder sometimes added a symbolic “flourish” to his stones. That symbol is visible on Sarah Coney Guild’s monument. Aaron Guild went on to marry two more times and have his effigy placed on Norwood’s town seal.
Priscilla Coney was born on April 2, 1722. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Coney I and his second wife, Abigail Skinner Coney. Priscilla Coney resided in Dedham, remained unmarried and died on September 11, 1768 at the age of 47. According to Dedham records, Priscilla died “suddenly as she was riding to meeting in a chair.” Her gravestone bears a winged-skull on its tympanum, another example of Wilder’s work. Her stone reads:
In memory of Miss
Priscilla Coney daugh'r
of Mr. Nathaniel &
Mrs. Abigail Coney, who
died September 11th,
1768 in ye 47th year
of her age.
In their book, Gravestone Chronicles, Theodore Chase and Laurel K. Gabel include examples of James Wilder’s skull and young face artistry. Comparing these two tympana with those of Priscilla Coney and Sarah Coney Guild, one can clearly see these two memorials in Old Parish Cemetery are the work of James Wilder.
Wilder’s production of stones dropped off in the 1780s as he devoted more and more time to farming. James Wilder died in 1794 at the age of 53.
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