Catharine Andrews

Tucked away next to the gate connecting the Salem Witch Trials Memorial and the Charter Street Cemetery, you will find a small, unassuming stone marked "Catharine Andrews."  There is some simple braidwork decorating the edge of the stone, and that’s all.

Because it is so isolated and has nothing on it aside from her name, I admit I have occasionally passed by her stone with a tour and quipped, “I guess nobody liked Catharine.”  And that’s just a dumb thing to say, especially when walking over someone’s grave, and she deserves better.  So I decided to take a closer look and try to puzzle out her story in an effort to make it up to her.

The lack of info made me think that maybe this was in fact a footstone.  For those of you who are not familiar with footstones, the footstone is a small, plainer stone placed roughly six feet behind the headstone.  People often say that they want to read the inscription on a headstone and admire the carvings, but they feel disrespectful standing on someone’s grave.  But traditionally, in older New England cemeteries, the body is buried on the side opposite the carving, so that you can read the stone without standing on the grave itself.  Next time you are reading a headstone, look over the top and you will often see a small stone some feet behind it, sometimes plain and sometimes with initials or the name; that’s the footstone.               

Turning once again to William Carlson’s “Charter Street Cemetery Burial Records, Salem, Massachusetts, Genealogical and Historical,” my suspicion was confirmed – “her headstone is missing, only the footstone survives,” he tell us.  He also thanks an Andrews descendant for helping him with the family history.   

Catharine was the daughter of Captain Nehemiah Andrews and Catherine Seamore.  Nehemia was master of a schooner, Thomas.  In 1794 Nehemiah and the schooner were “detained under embargo at Bordeaux.”  I am not entirely clear on the story, but he ended up filing a claim with the US Treasury for his detention. 

Their daughter Catharine was born on October 21, 1772.  The couple also had a son they named Nehemiah; the son would go on to marry an Elizabeth Ledbeter, and they would have a daughter they likewise named Catherine.  I am not a professional genealogist, or even an amateur one, and recycling given names makes tracking family history tricky.  (And seeming to switch freely back and forth between "Catherine" and "Catharine," and "Andrew" and "Andrews" isn't a real help, either.) 

“Our” Catharine evidently never married, and died too young at age 25.  Carlson’s book says that the inscription on her now-missing headstone read, “In Memory of Catherine Andrew, daughter of Captain Nehemiah Andrews obt July 5 1797,” and included a short verse:

Farewell my friends,

Dry up your tears,

I must be here

Until Christ appears.

My apologies, Catharine.  I will never again make a stupid quip at your expense.  May you rest in peace.