Parting Words

The tombstone of James Leeson (1756-1794) in New York’s Trinity Churchyard bears a curious inscription.

It remained a local puzzle until 1889, when the Trinity Record discovered its meaning.

Can you unriddle the cipher?

	Select Click for Answer
Leeson had used a “pigpen” cipher popular among Freemasons in the 18th century: The wrinkle is that J is omitted, because in colonial orthography it was identical with I. Add one dot to each cell in the first group and two dots to each in the second, and each symbol in Leeson’s message can be recognized: REMEMBER DEATH