The fieldstone markers of Taunton Massachusetts.

Both colonial cemeteries in Taunton contain fieldstone markers made of a thin, conglomeratic quartzite. A carver could not ask for a better material than this tightly indurated, strong rock that appears to have started out as a 2 - 3 cm sand layer between two layers of mud and eventually broke out into wide slabs with smooth surfaces. All of these markers have the irregular edges of found stones and some are nearly 1 meter across.

The carver (or carvers - there's a 50-year span of dates) was most likely a literate, phonetic speller. His random use of capitol letters suggests he may not have been a regular reader. The grooves are not "V" shaped like grooves in slate. The rock is very hard being composed of quartz and feldspar grains cemented by silica rather than calcite.

Samuel Pratt 1728	Patience Pratt 173?	Allas Andrews 1735	Jonathan Deen 1750	Edmund Andrews 1750	Joseph Porter 1750
Hannah Deen 1750	Deborah Jones 1767	Peter Pratt 1760	Susanna Andrews 1770	Washington Jones 1780	Charity Jones 1781

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