James Foster 1698-1763, stone carver
no. 23776
Three generations of stone carvers, named James Foster, worked in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The elder James Foster is credited with a number of the oldest tombstones in many Boston-area burial grounds. James Foster II lived from 1698 to 1763. The third James foster was born in 1732 and died in 1771. Although their work is sometimes indistinguishable, James II dared to inaugurate a radical change in the well-established death symbol by placing eyeballs in the empty sockets. Source: Historic Gravestone Art of Charlestown, South Carolina, 1695-1802.
Forbes described the Foster stylde as having “a certain definiteness of line, as if he always kept his tools well-sharpened, a broad, flat manner of portraing scrolls, and deeply incised rosettes.”
“There was much talent n the Foster family, and they all seemed to do some kind of handiwork,” Forebes writes. “the ost intereting work of this first James was his very original anc complicated scrolls,” and “the second James followed so closely n his fahter’s foot steps that is inot possible to differentiate their work.”
But it was the second James foster “who dared to inaugurate a radical change in the well-established death symbol, by placing eyeballs in the empty sockets,” Forbes say of Foster’s skull designs. “It gives you a curious feeling, accoustomed as you are to theese hollow-eyed, impassive heads, to catch sight oof one which is looking at you with a semblace of life and interest.”
James’ own grave marker is a portrait stone, and unless he carved his own stone before his death, it is likely that his son, James III, was the carver.