Monteath Tomb Restoration

	Robert Monteath died in 1778, two years prior to Robert Erskine (1780). Erskine probably chose the location and stone for Monteath and Elizabeth Erskine probably chose the location for Erskine's tomb next to Monteath. This tomb restoration was begun in 2001 and completed in 2002.
	The tomb of Monteath had been deteriorating gradually for many years. The North Jersey Highlands Historical Society had fixed Robert Erskine's tomb in the 1980s and now decided to fix Monteath's.
	Monteath's tombstone was made during the Revolutionary war. Although the script has deteriorated, the viewer can get a sense of how different stonecarving was in those days - almost like handwriting. You can imagine the stonecarver, during the War, hurridly spelling out the words with a chisel on the stone.
	The first step was to carefully remove the historic tombstone and transport it to storage. Our plan was to recreate the original style of stonecarving (handwriting) on a new, granite tombstone that would last through at least a century of acid rain.
	Originally the stones were lying on the ground. In the 19th century, the Hewitt family had brick bases built and replaced Erskine's tombstone with a more modern version (for those times). Erskine's tombstone was restored again in 1985 by the North Jersey Highlands Historical Society. It now has a granite slab stone with standard font face letters, similar to the restoration completed by the Hewitts.
	The next step was to replace the brick base and cement grounding. The base had to be solid to withstand freezing and thawing and support the slab stone. Here the masons are using a mixture of used bricks, original bricks and cement to create a solid base. The bricks all had their own markings, and I know they came from brick companies in the area, but I don't know enough about them to date or identify them.
	In an attempt to preserve the style of 18th century tombstone engraving, we copied the old-style lettering, mistakes and all. Since the stone is over 200 years old, we scrubbed the surface to see the lettering that was covered by lichens. At first, we were only looking for the dots to the "i"s, but instead we found whole words that were buried by the centuries.
	When the restoration was complete, I took this picture. The attempt to re-capture the 18th century gravestone engraving had mixed results. Our processes are too different. Nevertheless the tomb is repaired.