Jeanette Thurlow Corbett

Editor’s note: Additional documentation may be needed to confirm that Jeanette Thurlow Corbett, is indeed the first wife of my great grandfather, Tristram Thurlow Corbett; however, according to a membership application to the Daughters of the American Revolution completed by grandmother – Eugenie Abigail Corbett Dunn – Clara Lavinia Willeby Corbett is listed as a second wife “(2)” of Captain Tristram Thurlow Corbett. The marriage date is listed as 1876, which further corroborates with Jeanette Corbett’s 1873 date of death.

Strange Burial

“Jeanette, Wife of Capt. Tristram Thurlow Corbett, died in Aransas [Matanzas], Cuba 1873.”

Hidden, almost forgotten, in this record on a gravestone in the old Cutler cemetery, is one of the strangest and most touching events in Cutler’s history.

It was one of those typical summer days, clear and sunny over the harbor but with the fog blowing on a southwest wind and obscuring the ocean beyond the mouth of the harbor. Suddenly, like an apparition rising from the mists of the swamp, first the sails and then the hull of a three-masted vessel emerged from the fog bank and proceeded to beat its way up the harbor.

Most Cutlerites kept their eyes turned to the ocean back in the old sailing ship days, since so much of their lives were so closely related to everything maritime. Those who happened to be looking seaward at this time soon recognized the approaching ship as the “Lena Thurlow” skippered by Capt. Tristram Thurlow Corbett. Several months ago, accompanied by his wife, Jeanette, he had taken a load of local products to the West Indies. There he would load rum, sugar and other products and unload them at points along the New England coast.

As the ship approached anchorage, it was noticed that a pennant was flying from the masthead that signified death on board. This immediately caused much concern and speculation among the onlookers as to what had happened, especially since all the crew were Cutler men. So much could happen on a long voyage and especially to the tropics.

Soon the ship was anchored the sails lowered and all secured. Then a large tender was lowered into the water and the crew climbed aboard. It was at this point that those watching from the shore realized that they had seen no sign of the captain’s wife. Could it be that something had happened to her?

The many onlookers, whose numbers had now increased greatly and among who were Captain and Mrs. Sam Blunt, parents of Captain Thurlow’s wife, didn’t have long to wait to find the answer. When the captain and his crew had climbed up on the deck, they told how the captain’s wife, Jeanette, had been taken from him by a tropical malady while in port at Aransas [Matanzas] on the north coast of Cuba. No way he would leave his young wife buried at that place so far from home; so he came up with the only idea possible for bringing her body the long trip back to Cutler. Her body was placed in a cask of rum. The cask was headed up tightly and placed in the hole of the ship. In this manner was she brought back home, that she might have a decent burial among friends and family.

After hearing this account, the townspeople gathered on the wharf, many of them with tears in their eyes, offered their heartfelt condolences, spoke of their happiness at seeing the Captain and his crew safely home anyway, and then went their way considering this very unusual thing.

Well, it was decided that for health reasons, as well as for other reasons, the body should not be removed from the cask and that this should be her coffin. So, in a few days, on a bright sunny afternoon, a full burial sermon was preached at the graveside. Just about every resident of Cutler who could make it, where present for the service. Thus it was that this young Cutler woman who died on her husband’s ship so far from home, and was brought back in so unusual a way, was finally laid to rest in the family burial plot.

Source: Cates, Jasper, and Arlene Dennison. A Brief History of Cutler And Some Interesting Incidents. 1976

Corbett, Jeanette Thurlow, was buried in a wine keg. Mrs. Corbett went to sea with her husband. She made him promise, should she die away from home, that she would be brought home and buried with her family. There was no way other than to entomb her body in a wine barrel. She is reported to be buried as she was brought. The wine barrel being her casket.

Source: Unknown.