Mention of Plymouth grave yards has been confined thus far to a
slight allusion to Cole’s Hill. Of the many within the limits of the
town two are burial places of the aborigines, Watson’s Hill and High
Cliff, and the numerous skeletons exhumed at those places from time
to time, make it conclusive that they were places set apart for the
burial of the dead. The grounds in and about the central town have
been thoroughly explored in laying out streets, in excavating cellars
and digging trenches for water, gas and sewer pipes, and not enough
Indian bones have been found to warrant the conclusion that any other
burial places were used by the Indians than those above mentioned.
The discovery of the burial ground at High Cliff was brought to my
knowledge by an incident in my own experience. I met one day in the
autumn of 1844 on Court street a little girl about six years of age,
crying and bleeding at the mouth. An older girl leading her told me
that she had a pin in her throat. I led her to her home on South
Russell street, stopping on the way at Mr. Standish’s blacksmith
shop to borrow a pair of pincers, and soon relieved her from her
suffering. The next day Mr. Orin Bosworth, learning that I was his
little daughter’s friend, gave me as a reward for my service a stone
pipe, which he said a gang of laborers, of whom he was foreman, had
found in the railroad cut at High Cliff. I visited the spot at once,
and found that seven or eight skeletons had been found, indicating
an extensive burial ground, undoubtedly antedating the days of the
Pilgrims. Some years afterwards, after the establishment of the
Agassiz Museum in Cambridge, the pipe was examined by the experts of
the Museum and pronounced of European workmanship, probably brought
over and given to the Indians, either by European fishermen, or by
one of the early adventurers like Champlain, John Smith or Thomas
Dermer. It is made of stone about eight inches long, with a bowl
about an inch square, and is in perfect order. I have quite recently
seen a drawing of a fragment of a similar pipe which was found
between the floor timbers of the Sparrow-hawk, wrecked on Cape Cod
in 1626, the timbers of which have been put together, and are now
in Pilgrim Hall. The burial ground in question owes its escape from
forgetfulness to the pin in the throat of little Hannah Elizabeth
Bosworth.
Passing by Burial Hill and Cole’s Hill to be mentioned later, there
are Oak Grove and Vine Hills cemeteries; the Catholic cemetery; two
burial grounds in Chiltonville, one at Bramhall’s corner, and one
at the Russell Mills meeting house; three at Manomet, one where the
first meeting house stood not far from the residence of the late
Horace B. Taylor, one at the present meeting house, a modern Indian
burial ground, on an Indian reservation on the westerly side of Fresh
Pond; one at South Ponds, near the Chapel; one at the head of Half
Way Ponds; one at the head of Long Pond; one near Bloody Pond, and
one at Cedarville. There are also burial places in the South part of
the town, which have been devoted to family uses and single graves
may be found near Hospital landing at Billington Sea, and on the
South Pond road, where the old pest house stood. At the last place
there is a headstone at the grave of Mary, wife of Thomas Mayhew,
who died September 3, 1776, aged 54 years. She was a daughter of
Thomas Witherell, and as her husband was one of the most prominent
men in the town, it is probable that she died of small pox, and that
the removal of her body to a grave among her deceased relatives was
thought dangerous.
I take the liberty to suggest that the selectmen set up a bronze
tablet in the Indian burial ground at Fresh Pond with the following
inscription, including an extract from a poem by the Rev. Theodore
Dwight;
“Indian Burial Ground.”
“This tablet is erected in memory of the Indian tribes whose
extinction, beginning in the Plymouth Colony, is now almost
complete.”
“Indulge my native land, indulge a tear,
That steals impassioned o’er a nation’s doom;
To me each twig from Adam’s stock is dear,
And sorrows fall on an Indian’s tomb.”
With regard to Cole’s Hill, the impression has prevailed that
burials there were confined to the winter of 1620 and 1621. After
a somewhat thorough examination of evidence and probabilities, I
have reached the conclusion that this impression is not correct.
I have already stated that no record exists of the discovery of
the remains of white men except on Cole’s and Burial Hill. Pretty
thorough explorations beneath the surface of the ground, in or near
the main town settlement, prove with reasonable certainty that one of
these two places was during the early years of the Plymouth Colony
the place of burial. It is an interesting fact that the Pilgrims,
unlike the Puritans, followed the English custom of burying their
dead in the church yard, a spot as near as possible to their place
of worship. In Duxbury the first meeting house was built near the
shore, not far from the base of Captain’s Hill, and the first
burials were made immediately about it. In Marshfield the first
meeting house was built near the tomb of Daniel Webster, and what is
called the Winslow burial ground, which incloses that tomb, was the
church yard. There is every reason to believe that the same custom
prevailed in Plymouth. The Common house was for many years used for
public worship, except in times of impending dangers when resort was
temporarily had to the fort, on what is now Burial Hill, and Cole’s
Hill, sloping down to that house lying directly at its base was the
church yard. As long then as the Common House was the place of public
worship, I cannot doubt that Cole’s Hill was the burial place, and
that when the first meeting house was built on the North side of Town
Square, Burial Hill sloping down to its walls, became the church yard
and the place for depositing the bodies of the dead.
In this view of the case it becomes important, in deciding when
burials ceased to be made on Cole’s Hill, to ascertain when the first
meeting house proper was built. Upon this question there has been
a difference of opinion, some writers saying 1637, and some 1647.
Those fixing the time at 1647 have based their opinion, so far as I
can discover, on the historic record that the town meeting held in
May, 1649 was held in the meeting house, and on the fact that the
meeting house was then for the first time mentioned as the place for
holding town meetings. The meeting held on the 10th of July, 1638, is
recorded as having been held in the Governor’s house, and it is asked
by the advocates of the later date why should that meeting have been
held in the Governor’s house if the meeting house was built in 1637.
It must be remembered that the purpose of the meeting house was not
to furnish a place for civic meetings, but a place for religious
worship, and that only the increasing numbers of the settlement in
1649 outgrew the capacity of the Governor’s house, and rendered the
use of the meeting house at that time one of necessity. And again it
must be remembered that with the single exception of the meeting,
July 16, 1638, no meeting place is mentioned until May 17, 1649, and
for all that is known to the contrary, meeting after meeting before
1649 may have been held in the meeting house without any record of
the meeting place. Mr. Goodwin in a foot note on page 231 of the
“Pilgrim Republic,” makes it appear that the record states that the
meeting of May 17, 1649, was held in the _new_ meeting house, but
the word (new) is not in the record, and therefore adds no weight
to the argument in support of the date of 1647. The question may be
pertinently asked, “Why, if the meeting house was built in 1647 was
its occupation for town meetings delayed until May 17, 1649?” and
this question is as difficult to answer as the other, “Why was it not
earlier devoted to civic uses if it was built in 1637.”
The probabilities in favor of 1637 are too strong to be overcome.
Until 1636, after the settlement of Duxbury was made, it was a mooted
question whether the meeting house should not be built in some place
midway between the two settlements. A decision was reached in that
year, and at once the meeting house in Duxbury was built in 1637,
making it probable that Plymouth followed and built its meeting house
in the same year. It would be a severe reflection on the religious
spirit and enterprise of the Plymouth people to suppose that Duxbury
built its house of worship in 1637, and Marshfield in 1641, while
the erection of the meeting house of the parent church of which Wm.
Brewster was the Elder, was delayed ten years longer.
But we are not left alone to probabilities. In the will of William
Palmer, executed in November, 1637, and probated in the following
March, is a clause providing for the payment “of somewhat to the
meeting house in Plymouth.”
Thus then in my opinion Burial Hill became the church yard in 1637.
It retained its name of Fort Hill many years, and under that name
extended across what is now Russell street along the rear of the
estates on the west side of Court street. At a town meeting held on
the 14th of May, 1711, it was voted to sell “all the common lands
about the fort hills reserving sufficient room for a burying place.”
From that time Burial Hill has remained practically within its
present limits. But it is asked why is the headstone of Edward Gray
bearing the date of 1681 the oldest stone on the hill. The answer
is to be found first in the undoubted fact that for many years it
was not the custom to mark the graves with stones, and second, in
the depredations to which stones were subjected by neglect and rough
usage. In the early days of the Colony slate stone was not found
within accessible distances, and when they were finally imported
from England, their cost undoubtedly precluded their general use.
Many of those imported were creased and opened to the weather, and
finally were disintegrated by frost and broken up. I, myself, by the
permission of the selectmen, and of course at the cost of the town,
devised a kind of hood made of galvanized iron with which I have
protected seventy or more from both the influence of frost and the
no less destructive invasions of relic hunting vandals. So far as
neglect of the hill is concerned, I can find no suggestion in the
records of any proposition to protect the hill until 1757, when it
was voted to fence it. Nothing was done, however, until 1782, when
it was voted to permit Rev. Chandler Robbins to fence and pasture
it with the right at any time to remove the fence and possess it
as his own. Then for the first time the hill was fenced, and Mrs.
Robbins, after the death of her husband petitioned the town to buy
the fence. In 1800 it was voted to permit Rev. Dr. Kendall to pasture
the hill and build a fence on condition that no horses be permitted
within the inclosure. Before that time it is evident that horses were
permitted to pasture it, and the treatment to which the stones were
thus exposed, is easily imagined. In later times, decayed and fallen
stones have been piled up behind the hearse house, where masons in
want of covering stones have taken them at their pleasure. Of late
years, however, the hill has had better treatment, and the stones
which have fallen have been reset at the expense of the town. It is
unnecessary to say that the most vigilant care on the part of the
town should be used, for aside from all sentimental reasons, and
aside from the duty of the town to realize that it holds the hill in
trust for all our country, the hill and its stones form a commercial
asset of incalculable value. An attempt was made in 1819 to plant
ornamental trees on the hill, but either nothing was done, or the
attempt to carry out the vote of the town proved a failure. In 1843
another more successful attempt was made, and a large number of trees
were planted, and the duty of keeping them well watered was assigned
to the scholars in the High school. Many of these survived, and
others have at various times been added.
Among the conclusions to which I have been led by the foregoing
review, is this, that Elder Brewster, Governor Bradford and John
Howland, and the other Mayflower passengers who died in Plymouth
after 1637, were buried on Burial Hill. With regard to the burial of
the Elder, I am obliged to reverse the opinion heretofore expressed
by me, that he was buried in Duxbury. There are on record two
inventories of the property of Brewster, one of his house and its
contents in Duxbury, and the other of his house and its contents in
Plymouth. The contents of the former are so meagre and unimportant
as to make it certain that the Duxbury house was only an occasional
residence, while those of the latter, consisting of clothing and a
full household equipment, prove that he died in Plymouth, and that
there was his permanent home. Besides Brewster was the Elder of
Plymouth church, and of course lived among his people, and further,
Bradford says in his history, that Mrs. Brewster died before 1627,
before the Duxbury settlement began, and of course was buried in
Plymouth, near whose grave the Elder would have sought for himself a
final resting place.
The inscriptions on the gravestones, though not quaint, are
interesting to others besides the antiquary, and a few of them
I shall include in this chapter without either alphabetical or
chronological order as follows:
“Priscilla Cotton, widow of Josiah Cotton, born September 30, 1860,
died October 4, 1859.”
Mrs. Cotton lived and died in a house which was removed when
Brewster street was opened, and now stands on the North side of
that street. She told me that at the time of the Boston tea party
in 1773 she attended a boarding school a little below the Old South
Meeting house, and remembered some of the incidents attending
the destruction of the tea. A man servant brought home some of
the tea, but some of the scholars refused to drink it. After her
husband’s death in 1819, she bought an annuity at the office of the
Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company, which after forty
years of payment was terminated, much to the satisfaction of the
company.
“In memory of Samuel Davis, A. M., who died July 10, 1829.”
“From life on earth our pensive friend retires;
His dust commingling with the Pilgrim sires;
In thoughtful walk, their every path he traced;
Their toils, their tombs, his faithful page embraced;
Peaceful and pure, and innocent as they,
With them to rise to everlasting day.”
The above inscription and the following one were written by Judge
John Davis.
“In memory of George Watson, Esq., who died the 3d of December, 1800.”
“No folly wasted his paternal store,
No guilt, no sordid avarice made it more;
With honest fame, and sober plenty crowned,
He lived and spread his cheering influence round.
Pure was his walk, and peaceful was his end,
We blessed his reverent length of days,
And hailed him in the public ways
With veneration and with praise,
Our father and our friend.”
“F. W. Jackson, obit., March 23, 1799, aged one year, 7 days.”
“Heaven knows what man he might have been,
But we know he died a most rare boy.”
“In memory of Mrs. Tabitha Plasket, who died June 10, 1807, aged 64
years.”
“Adieu vain world, I have seen enough of thee,
And I am careless what thou say’st of me;
Thy smiles I wish not, nor thy frowns I fear,
I am now at rest, my head lies quiet here.”
“Died, Captain Simeon Sampson, June 22, 1789, aged 53 years.”
Capt. Sampson was an early hero of the revolution, who commanded
the Brig Independence, built in Kingston, and the first vessel
commissioned by the provincial Congress.
An obelisk over the supposed grave of Governor William Bradford
contains among other inscriptions a Hebrew sentence which translated
is “Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance.”
“Here lyeth buried the body of that precious servant of God, Mr.
Thomas Cushman, who after he had served his generation according to
the will of God, particularly the Church of Plymouth for many years
in the office of ruling elder, fell asleep in Jesus, December, ye 10,
1691, & in ye 84 year of his age.”
Elder Cushman was brought to Plymouth in the Fortune, fourteen years
of age, by his father, Robert Cushman, and was the second elder of
the church.
“Here lyes ye body of Mr. Thomas Clark, aged 98 years, departed this
life March ye 24, 1697.”
The mate of the Mayflower was John Clark, and not the above Thomas. A
part of the colony grant of land in Chiltonville to Thomas Clark was
called by him Saltash. An outlying suburb of old Plymouth is called
Saltash, and the name of Clark is common there.
“Here lyeth ye body of Edward Gray, aged about 52 years, & departed
this life ye last of June, 1681.”
The stone bearing the above inscription is the oldest stone on Burial
Hill. Mr. Gray became a prominent business man and owned lands in
Rocky Nook, some of which is still owned by his descendants.
“Here lyes the body of Mr. Thomas Faunce, ruling Elder of the First
Church of Christ in Plymouth, deceased February 27. An: Dom, 1745-6,
in the 99th year of his age.”
“The fathers where are they:
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”
“Ruth D., wife of Edward Southworth, died May 8, 1879, aged 101 yrs.,
10 mos., 13 days.”
Mrs. Southworth’s maiden name was Ozier, and she came from Duxbury.
She lived all through my boyhood on the slope of Cole’s Hill. I
called on her on her hundredth birthday, and she told me that she had
not worn spectacles for twenty years. Her son, Jacob William, is now
living in Plymouth.
“Here lyes the body of Mr. Francis Le Barran, phytician, who departed
this life August ye 18th, 1704, in ye 36 year of his age.”
The above Francis LeBarran is the hero in the “Nameless Nobleman.”
“In memory of James Thacher, M. D., a surgeon in the army during
the war of the Revolution; afterwards for many years a practising
physician in the county of Plymouth; the author of several historical
and scientific works; esteemed of all men for piety and benevolence,
public spirit and private kindness. Born February 14, 1754. Died May
26, 1844.”
“Gen. James Warren died November 28, 1808, aged 82.”
General Warren succeeded Dr. Joseph Warren as President of Provincial
Congress, and married Mercy, sister of the so-called patriot, James
Otis.
There are also on the hill stones at the heads of the graves of James
H. Bugbee, pastor of the Universalist Society who died May 10, 1834,
aged 31 years; of James Kendall, who died March 17, 1859, aged 89
years, after sixty years’ service as pastor of the First Church; of
Ephriam Little, pastor of the First Church, who died Nov. 24, 1723,
aged 47 years, two months and three days; and of Chandler Robbins,
pastor of the First Church, who died June 30, 1799, at the age of
sixty-one.
It may not be out of place to present to my readers by way of
contrast with the foregoing somewhat sombre inscriptions a few of a
quaint character to be found in grave yards in other towns. Omitting
names of persons and places and dates, I give merely the inscriptions
as follows:
Accidentally shot, as a mark of affection by his brother.
Beneath this stone our baby lays,
He neither cries nor hollers.
He lived just one and twenty days,
And cost us forty dollars.
She lived with her husband fifty years, and died in the confident
hope of a better life.
Under this stone lie three children dear;
Two are buried in Taunton, and one lies here.
Here lies the body of Dr. Ransom, a man who never voted. Of such is
the kingdom of heaven.
Underneath this pile of stones
Lies all that’s left of Sally Jones.
Her name was Lord; it was not Jones,
But Jones is used to rhyme with stones.
He did his damnedest. Angels can do no more.
Wife, I’m waiting for you.
Husband, I’m here.
Stranger pause and shed a tear,
For Mary Jane lies buried here.
Mingled in a most surprising manner
With Susan, Maria, and portions of Hannah.
My father and mother were both insane.
I inherited the terrible stain.
My grandfather, grandmother, aunts and uncles,
Were lunatics all, and yet died of carbuncles.
Within this grave do lie,
Back to back my wife and I.
When the last trump the air shall fill—
If she gets up, I’ll just lie still.