Though his stone is lost today, John Crowninshield’s family would go on to be one of the wealthiest and most powerful in Salem. Crowninshield was the firstborn son of the Leipzig-born doctor, Johannes Caspar Richter von Kronenscheldt, and Elizabeth Allen. It was John who seems to have first anglicized the name, going by Crowninshield when he married Anstis Williams in 1722. He did not follow his father into the medical field, instead making his money as a mariner and fisherman, which brought him some measure of success. Five years after his marriage he would construct a house for himself on the wharf-adjacent Union st. (The Crowninshield-Bentley House is now located on the PEM Campus).
That same year, he and his wife would have twins, Elizabeth and Anstis. Though only one would live longer than a month, they would go on to have seven more children: including George Crowninshield, who would marry Mary Derby in 1757. The family alliance with the Derby’s would be further sealed in 1761, when Elizabeth Crowninshield married Elias Hasket Derby. Through George Crowninshield and the firm of Crowninshield & Sons, the family would rise in influence, with John’s grandson Jacob being elected to public office and briefly becoming secretary of the Navy. Grandson Benjamin would follow his brother Jacob’s footsteps as well, becoming a member of Congress after Jacob’s death (partially thanks to the invention of gerrymandering). When John died in 1761, he left behind an extensive inventory. Included within that inventory were two enslaved people, husband and wife. Jack, the husband, emancipated himself during the Revolutionary War, but apparently was forced to seek paid employment with the family due to old age and financial hardship.
After the Great Salem Fire, the Crowninshield family attempted to mitigate damage done to the stones of John and his wife by encasing them in frames. While this was common in the early 20th century, it was not always effective, and only those frames (and John’s footstone) remain today.