Born on December 29, 1788 to Joseph and Mary (Andrew) Hodges, Priscilla Jayne lived a brief life in Salem. Few references to her can be found beyond her birth and death, although we do know that she married Marbleheader John Jayne in 1809 at the age of 20. John ran a shop in Salem where he sold navigational instruments such as compasses, sextants, and many other tools that the mariners of Salem would require. Their marriage would be short-lived and 22 year old Priscilla would die only a few years later in 1810. Her death seems to have hit John hard, as her epitaph indicates, but he would not need to live long without her: John Jayne died of consumption in Marblehead just three years later.
Many of the epitaphs in Charter Street (and others) tend to follow certain popular patterns and phrases, but Priscilla’s seems to have been written specifically for her, reading-
How oft I gaz’d prophetically sad
How oft I saw her dead while yet in smiles
In smiles she sunk her grief, to lessen mine
She spoke me comfort and increased my pain
When such friends part
Tis the survivor dies