“It's chilly gales will rue." 14th September 1716, the first lighthouse in the American colonies is lit on Little Brewster Island in Boston Harbor. The first lighthouse keeper being George Worthylake, who also on the 3rd November 1718, became the first lighthouse keeper in the American colonies to die at his post. Worthylake drowned alongside his wife Ann and daughter Ruth, when their canoe overturned returning to the Lighthouse. George Worthylake’s body was never found, although his name appears on a headstone alongside that of his wife and daughter, in the colonial Boston cemetery of Copp's Hill Burying Ground on a unique tripe headstone. Their drowning was recorded in the ballad "The Lighthouse Tragedy", and sold on the streets of Boston by its author, a young Benjamin Franklin. Two months and two years later, on the 14th November 1718, Worthylakes’ replacements, Robert Saunders, and John Chamberlin were also drowned at the same spot when also attempting to return to the lighthouse. #bostonhistory #boston #18thcentury #lighthouses #coppshillburyingground #grave #graveyard #gravestone #gravestones #history #historical #historyfacts #historystories #macabre #historylovers #historygeek #historynerd #hiddenhistory #dark #interestingfacts #graveyards https://www.instagram.com/p/CFXA2L-AxFi/?igshid=vij25vgiikqy
