Burial
Paine was buried near the current location of the house and monument in 1809 after dying in Greenwich Village, New York. He wanted to be buried in the Quaker cemetery but, due to his writings, he was refused. His few remaining friends walked his body to New Rochelle and buried him on his property. In 1819, the English radical William Cobbett removed Paine's remains to England to build a larger memorial, but Cobbett died before succeeding and the remains disappeared. Dr. Moncure D. Conway claimed to have recovered a portion of Paine's brain around 1905; it was subsequently buried under the monument on October 14, 1905. The search for portions of Paine's body continues; in 2001, DNA tests were proposed for a portion of what was claimed to be his skull.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Paine Cottage
Famous quotes containing the word burial:
“On the beach at night,
Stands a child with her father,
Watching the east, the autumn sky.
Up through the darkness,
While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading,
Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky,”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“How shall my animal
Whose wizard shape I trace in the cavernous skull,
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Endure burial under the spelling wall....”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“I heard the bell tolled on thy burial day,
I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away,
And, turning from my nursery window, drew
A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu!”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)