Scientists find new piece in puzzle of America's oldest tombstone

The United States’ oldest known surviving tombstone from 17th century Jamestown has been identified as black limestone from Belgium. (Courtesy Marcus Key, Dickinson College Geosciences Professor via CNN Newsource)

The oldest known surviving tombstone in the United States is an elaborate display of wealth — an intricately carved slab of black limestone initially laid in the floor of the second church of Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent British settlement in North America.

Often referred to as the “Knight’s Tombstone” due to the carvings of a knight and shield on its surface, the mysterious marker’s placement in the church dates back to 1627, but for years little else was known. Now, researchers have found a new piece of the puzzle about the gravestone’s origins, painting a fuller picture of the prominent person to whom it likely belonged.

By analyzing microfossils — fossils about the size of a thumbnail — within the limestone, researchers found that the tiny ancient organisms preserved in the stone were from Europe, according to a study published September 4 in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology. Historical evidence then pointed the study authors to a Belgian tombstone export business thriving at the time, where they theorize the tombstone began its journey.

“These stones are quite heavy, and the most expensive part of the stone is not the stone itself, but the transportation costs. … To me, that was surprising, that there was somebody that was affluent enough to want to exhibit their wealth and memorialize themselves with such an expensive proposition,” said lead study author Marcus Key, a geoscientist and the Joseph Priestley Professor of Natural Philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The heavy stone departed from Belgium to London to be carved before being transported across the Atlantic Ocean to its final resting place in Jamestown, likely a yearlong journey, according to Key.

The tombstone is believed to belong to Sir George Yeardley, a colonial governor of the earliest English settlement and one of America’s first slaveholders, who was knighted in 1618. The death of the early leader likely would have called for an elaborate burial and tombstone, which has survived for nearly four centuries.

“This guy was the governor of the colony, so he was a pretty big wig himself. He had the family resources to do that,” Key added. “A lot of people there were probably dying with just wooden tombstones that were carved there on site, and those obviously don’t survive for 400 years. … This is more of the history of our nation’s past and our colonial relationship with mother England.”

The new origin story of the grave marker highlights Jamestown’s position in global transatlantic trade and sheds light on the early colonists’ burial procedures, experts said.

A tale of an early Jamestown tombstone

A 2021 study also led by Key confirmed the grave marker to be the oldest known surviving tombstone in the United States. His latest study set out to find the origin of the tombstone.

The stone contained four species of ancient foraminiferans — single-celled organisms — only found in what is now Europe, mostly in Belgium and Ireland. Based on when the species of the microfossils existed, the limestone is likely 340 million to 336 million years old, according to the study.

In the early 17th century, Virginia colonists did not have access to stone suitable for elaborate grave slabs — those were carved in England and transported to North America — so it’s not surprising to find out that the limestone came from Belgium, said Mary Anna Hartley, a senior staff archeologist with Jamestown Rediscovered, an archeological project that studies and preserves the remains of the original English settlement. Hartley was not involved with the study.

But the extra effort to cross the Atlantic for the stone does highlight the societal status of the person to whom it belonged, she said in an email. “Acquiring this permanent memorial would have been a very expensive undertaking and cost-prohibitive to everyone except the most affluent of the day,” she said.

Early 17th century graves at Jamestown are traditionally unmarked, so the discovery of the tombstone — engraved to commemorate a knighthood and once decorated with brass inlays — is rare for this period, Hartley added.

This detail and the prestige needed for such a prominent grave location within the church led archeologists to believe the tombstone is Yeardley’s, as did a reference to a broken tomb with a crest made by his step-grandson in the 1680s. Burial within a church was typically saved for high-status individuals and clergy, and Yeardley was one of two knights to die while the Jamestown church was in use, according to Jamestown Rediscovery.

In the colony’s earliest days, Yeardley led the General Assembly, the first representative governing body in North America, which gathered in the second church in 1619. Weeks later, he purchased several slaves after the arrival of the first enslaved Africans on American soil.

Window into America’s first English settlement

Measuring nearly 6 feet long (less than 2 metres) and 3 feet wide (less than 1 metre), the tombstone was discovered in 1901 inside the entrance of a third Jamestown church that was built around the second church in the 1640s. The nearly 1,000-pound (454-kilogram) marker is believed to have been moved during construction, so its original location is not known.

When archeologists discovered the tombstone in its new location, they did not find any remains underneath the slab. However, a 2018 excavation of the only grave within the second church’s chancel, the space just before the altar, uncovered remains that archeologists theorize to be Yeardley’s based on the location and estimated age of the person at death. Yeardley was about 40 when he died.

A DNA analysis on the bones and teeth is underway, which researchers hope will give a more concrete answer by next summer, Hartley said.

Hartley estimated there to be around 40 burials within the footprint of the second and third churches. While a majority of the adjacent churchyard has not been excavated, it could contain hundreds of burials, she added.

Colonial period cemeteries have suffered neglect and vandalism, with the Knight’s Tombstone likely surviving for as long as it did because vegetation concealed it, she added.

“Jamestown is a unique place. The people who lived, died, and interacted here — not just the English but other Europeans, First Peoples, and Africans — laid the groundwork for modern America,” Hartley said. “I think Jamestown is fascinating because it represents the very earliest seed of American culture.”

Key pointed out similarities between the Jamestown gravesite and Queen Elizabeth II’s final resting place. The British monarch, who died in September 2022, was buried under a black marble ledger stone that resembles the 400-year-old Knight’s Tombstone. Elizabeth’s stone was set into the floor of the King George VI Memorial Chapel in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

“The way we relate to death hasn’t really changed much. It seems to be pretty inherent there in nature, but most (colonists) didn’t have the resources to import a nice carved stone,” Key said.

“They had a really high mortality rate in Jamestown at that time,” he added. “There were a lot of people being buried in the church, but only one of them had a big old black (limestone) tombstone from Belgium.”