Death Caused by a Pea

Death is never humorous but one has to wonder about the circumstances that led to Mrs. Mary McHard's demise. The following is a tombstone inscription found in Newburyport, Massachusetts:

Sacred to the Memory

of Mrs. Mary McHard

the virtuous & amiable Consort of

Capt. William McHard

of Newbury Port, who amidst the

laudable exertions of a very useful

& desirable life, in which her

Christian Profession was well adorned

and a fair copy of every social virtue

displayed, was in a state of

health suddenly summoned to

the Skies & snatched from ye eager

embraces of her friends, (and the

throbbing hearts of her disconso

late family confessed their fairest

prospects of sublunary bless were,

in one moment dashed) by swal-

lowing a Pea at her own table;

whence in a few hours she sweetly

breathed her Soul away into her

SAVIOURS arms on the 8th day

of March A.D. 1780 Æt. tis 47