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Rummaging through my transcriptions yesterday I thought this item might
interest you. My ancestor John Prescott found Lancaster, Massachussetts
in 1655 having arived in Boston 1640. I must visit his monument in
Lancaster next time I travel to Lancaster from my place in Rhode Island.
Subject: Grave of David Steuart Robertson
Source: Birth, Marriage, and Death Register, Church Records and
Epitaphs of Lancaster, MA 1643-1850 by Henry S. Nourse, A.M. 1890
THE OLD COMMON BURIAL GROUND
Lancaster, Mass.
Tombstone
p.414
In Memory of David Steuart Robertson, Second son of the late John
Robertson, Esq. of Foveran House, Aberdeenshire. Born in Scotland,
Educated at Rugby in England, And at Glessen in Germany, in which country
as well as in Sicily, he spent several years. At the age of twenty-three
He came to America. Having, after various ex- periences of the Old World,
Acquired an Ardent love for the New. He settled in this town of Lancaster
And became a citizen of the United States. Deceased on the
twenty first of July A. D. MDCCXLIX. In the thirtieth year of his age.
Here Steuart sleeps and should some brother Scot
Wander this way, and pause upon the spot,
He need not ask, now life's poor show is o'er.
What arms he carried or what plaid he wore,
So small the value of illustrious birth,
Brought to this solemn, last essay of earth;
Yet unreproved, his epitaph may say,
A royal soul was rapt in Steuart's clay.
And generous actions consecrate his mount.
More than all titles, though of kingly sound.
Subject: David Steuart Robertson
Source: History of Lancaster, Massachusetts by Rev. Abijah P. Marvin,
Lancaster, 1879
p.672
Mr. David Steuart Robertson was not only prized by his friends but he
earned the respect of the public by his taste and generous spirit. His
death was sudden, by a violent fever. He owned the property east of the
cemetery, which he left to a female friend living in Boston, who might
have borne his name if death had not parted them. It is several years
since she followed him into the land of the unseen.
p.741
The late Henry Wilder was an intelligent and honorable man but when his
mind was made up he could not be driven from his purpose. The house
passed from the Wilders into the hands of David Stewart and intelligent
but eccentric Scotchman and a friend of Dr. Steuart Robertson.
p.747
The house numbered 11, and lately occupied by Rev. Marcus Ames was
formerly the Safford house where lived Thomas Safford, grandfather of
Charles Safford. He was a man of respectability, but was subject to fits
of mental aberration. Subsequently the house passed into the possession of
David Steuart Robertson, whose remarkable monument and epitaph are noticed
in a previous chapter (see above). Mr. Robertson was a scholar, of
gentlemanly manners and tastes. He was an ardent admirer of our republican
institutions from principle, and his preference for them was, perhaps,
increased by the fact that the law of entail in the old country gave the
bulk of the family estate to his older brother. He inherited only from his
mother. Though formed for society, and genial with particular friends,
yet he lived a retired life. He had however a peculiar fondness for the
company of young people and delighted to form a party of boys and girls
for a walk or a picnic. It is about thirty years since his sudden death,
but he is often mentioned kindly by surviving friends.
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