Teekie
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PHILADELPHIA -- Historians working at Christ Church Burial Ground, the final resting place of many famous figures in American history, have unearthed the gravesite of a renowned Revolutionary War silversmith and his family.
Conservators dug more than two feet below ground to find the sunken vertical headstone marking the grave of Philip Syng Jr., a silversmith who worked with Benjamin Franklin and crafted the inkstand in which signers of the Declaration of Independence dipped their pens.
Franklin himself is buried at the 284-year-old cemetery, along with five signers of the Declaration. But many of the earliest headstones have either sunk or weathered so much that they are illegible. Others were stolen or thrown away.
Syng (1703-1789), an intellectual partner of Franklin's who helped him experiment with electricity, had been laid to rest along the eastern edge of the cemetery, but no one knew what had happened to his grave marker.
Earlier this month, J. Del Conner happened to be studying the area where his ancestor Syng was thought to be buried when a shaft of sunlight hit a fragment of marble jutting from the ground.
The marble caught Conner's eye, and he and Donald U. Smith, executive director of the Christ Church Preservation Trust, started brushing away the dirt. Soon the name "Philip" appeared.
Conservators were brought in, and they discovered the Syng family marker, which recorded the deaths of Syng, his wife, and seven of his 13 children. Historians had not been aware that Syng's family was buried with him at the site.
The serendipitous find "was unbelievable," said Conner, a sculptor and illustrator.
It also came at a good time. The silversmith's descendants had raised money for a replacement headstone, which was to be dedicated at the 300th birthday celebration this fall.
Now, the original stones will be raised and reset and a small plaque will give the full text of the inscriptions.
Guides are also looking for lettering at ground level as they lead tours of the newly restored burial ground, which opened last month after being closed to the public for a quarter-century.
"There's ground-penetrating radar that goes 2 1/2 to 3 feet into the earth that would tell us whether there are other markers buried here," Smith said. "It's a magical repository of Philadelphia history."
Conservators dug more than two feet below ground to find the sunken vertical headstone marking the grave of Philip Syng Jr., a silversmith who worked with Benjamin Franklin and crafted the inkstand in which signers of the Declaration of Independence dipped their pens.
Franklin himself is buried at the 284-year-old cemetery, along with five signers of the Declaration. But many of the earliest headstones have either sunk or weathered so much that they are illegible. Others were stolen or thrown away.
Syng (1703-1789), an intellectual partner of Franklin's who helped him experiment with electricity, had been laid to rest along the eastern edge of the cemetery, but no one knew what had happened to his grave marker.
Earlier this month, J. Del Conner happened to be studying the area where his ancestor Syng was thought to be buried when a shaft of sunlight hit a fragment of marble jutting from the ground.
The marble caught Conner's eye, and he and Donald U. Smith, executive director of the Christ Church Preservation Trust, started brushing away the dirt. Soon the name "Philip" appeared.
Conservators were brought in, and they discovered the Syng family marker, which recorded the deaths of Syng, his wife, and seven of his 13 children. Historians had not been aware that Syng's family was buried with him at the site.
The serendipitous find "was unbelievable," said Conner, a sculptor and illustrator.
It also came at a good time. The silversmith's descendants had raised money for a replacement headstone, which was to be dedicated at the 300th birthday celebration this fall.
Now, the original stones will be raised and reset and a small plaque will give the full text of the inscriptions.
Guides are also looking for lettering at ground level as they lead tours of the newly restored burial ground, which opened last month after being closed to the public for a quarter-century.
"There's ground-penetrating radar that goes 2 1/2 to 3 feet into the earth that would tell us whether there are other markers buried here," Smith said. "It's a magical repository of Philadelphia history."