Colonial Graveyards

Colonial Graveyards Photos from my visits to primarily colonial-era graveyards in Massachusetts, New Hampshire. This is not a political or social-justice page, just history.

William Grimes died 307 years ago, June 1, 1719.At the Old Burying Ground, Lexington, Ma.According to Hudson’s History o...
06/01/2026

William Grimes died 307 years ago, June 1, 1719.
At the Old Burying Ground, Lexington, Ma.

According to Hudson’s History of Lexington, vol II, William Grimes, son of George Grimes & Elizabeth Blanchard, was born at Billerica Massachusetts November 11, 1677, and he died June 1, 1719, and in his 43rd year according to his gravestone. If Hudson is correct, then William would have been in his 41st year.

He married Mary Simonds, who was born December 15, 1684, and was the daughter of Joseph and Mary (Tidd) Simonds.

Issue of William and Mary;
1. William.
2. Sarah, d. at Bedford 22 Jan. 1749-50, in her 40th y.
3. Jonathan, bapt. 28 June 1713.
4. Joseph, bapt. 31 July 1715.
5. Mary, bapt. 26 Aug. 1716.
6. Elizabeth, bapt. 30 June 1717.
7. Ruth, bapt. 23Aug. 1719.

Thomas Greenwood, at Newton's East Parish Burying Ground, Newton, Ma.This quite interesting palimpsest (reused) stone er...
05/29/2026

Thomas Greenwood, at Newton's East Parish Burying Ground, Newton, Ma.

This quite interesting palimpsest (reused) stone erected in 1693 for Thomas Greenwood, when seen under-lit the erasures make this stone stick out from across the yard.

Thomas Greenwood, a weaver, aged 22, came from England to Boston (or possibly Weymouth) in 1665, and two years later settled in the Southeast part of Cambridge known as Cambridge Village, now Newton. Thomas Greenwood was baptized on June 4, 1643, in Heptonstall, Yorkshire, England, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Hurd) Greenwood, and the great-great-grandson of the separatist Rev. John Greenwood, the Congregational martyr, and founder of the Puritan faith who was executed for heresy at Tyburn, England on April 6th, 1593.

Thomas learned his trade in his native town of Heptonstall, where the establishment of woolen manufacture took place at a very early period. Members of the Sutcliffe family were manufacturers of cloth in the vicinity of Heptonstall as early as 1311. The old Heptonstall Cloth Hall, which stood on the North side of the church yard at Heptonstall, was long a marketplace for the sale of the product of the clothiers of the vicinity.

On June 8, 1670, he married Hannah Ward, daughter of John Ward. They had several children together before Hannah died prior to 1687. He married secondly around 1687–1689 to Abigail (surname possibly Spring, though uncertain). They had at least two sons: James (b. 1687) and William (b. 1689).

Even while still part of Cambridge, Thomas became active in community affairs. In May 1678 he was one of the key signers of the petition to the General Court requesting that Cambridge Village be set off as a separate town. He became a freeman in 1681 and continued serving the community in various roles.

His efforts helped lead to success: on December 8, 1688, Cambridge Village was incorporated as New Town (later renamed Newton). Thomas served as selectman (multiple terms), constable, justice of the peace, and as one of the town’s first officials after incorporation.

Thomas died intestate, possibly at Weymouth, Ma., Tuesday September 1st, 1693, aged 50 and was interred in the Old Burying Ground (aka East Parish B.G.) in Newton. He left an estate appraised at £481-13-6.

Sources
Greenwood genealogies, 1154-1914 : the ancestry and descendants of Thomas Greenwood, of Newton [...]
https://archive.org/details/greenwoodgenealo00gree/page/53/mode/1up
Wikipedia: John Greenwood (divine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Greenwood_(divine)
The lives of the Puritans: containing a biographical account of those divines who distinguished themselves in the cause of religious liberty, from the reformation under Queen Elizabeth, to the Act of uniformity in 1662
https://archive.org/details/livesofpuritansc02broo/page/23/mode/1up?q=Greenwood

Little Marcy Bucknam died 320 years ago today — May 27, 1706.She lies interred at Bell Rock Cemetery, Malden, Ma.The Far...
05/27/2026

Little Marcy Bucknam died 320 years ago today — May 27, 1706.
She lies interred at Bell Rock Cemetery, Malden, Ma.

The Farber collection attributes this stone to the catchall name "Cornish's Unidentified Charlestown Carver". I believe it is Lamson as that style of skull does appear on sones identified as Lamson. It features two little Imps of Death tormenting th skull with their darts of death, reminiscent of the Zechariah Long and Elias Rowe stones carved about 20 years earlier.

MARCY BUCKNAM
DAUGHTER OF
JOSSES & HANNAH
BUCKNAM AGED
7 MO & 21 DAYS
DIED MAY 27
1706

Born October 5, 1705, she lived just 7 months and 21 days. She was the seventh of twelve children of Joses Bucknam (3rd generation) and Hannah Peabody (of Boxford), who had married in Charlestown on February 24, 1690–91.

Joses was a landowner in the Malden/Charlestown area, acquiring marshland and property over the years.

President Calvin Coolidge visits graves of earliest ancestors in America.Athe the Old Burying Place, Arlington Street, W...
05/26/2026

President Calvin Coolidge visits graves of earliest ancestors in America.
Athe the Old Burying Place, Arlington Street, Watertown, Ma,

In late June 1925, during the national Sesquicentennial celebrations marking 150 years since the American Revolution, President Calvin Coolidge visited Watertown, Massachusetts. The famously reserved “Silent Cal” stopped at the Old Burying Place on Arlington Street to honor his earliest American ancestors.

John Coolidge (baptized 16 September 1604 in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England) and his wife Mary (Ravens) Coolidge (baptized 14 November 1602 in Wattisfield, Suffolk) arrived in New England in 1635 and settled in Watertown. John quickly became a respected leader in the young town:

He was admitted as a freeman on 25 May 1636.
Served multiple terms as Watertown selectman (1639–1679), constable, hogreeve, and deputy to the Massachusetts Bay General Court.

He received significant land grants, including a homestall, great dividends, meadows, and a 119-acre farm.

John died in Watertown on 7 May 1691 at age 88; Mary followed on 22 August 1691.

Besides the two original stones there ia a large stone for both John and Mary erected in 1944, carved in the style of the Lamsons

Nathaniel Peaslee Jr, and H.P. Lovecraft.At Pentucket Cemetery, Haverhill, Ma.Judging by the mixed capitalization, this ...
05/26/2026

Nathaniel Peaslee Jr, and H.P. Lovecraft.
At Pentucket Cemetery, Haverhill, Ma.

Judging by the mixed capitalization, this stone would likely be attributed to Robert Mullicken Jr.
It was surprising to find an article from WGBH in Boston about HP Lovecraft taking a Character's
name from this stone

HERE LIES INtERD ye
PRECIOUS DUST OF Mr
NAtHANAEL PEASLEE IUNr
Ye ONLY & DESIRABLE
SON OF Mr NAthlL PEASLEE
WHO WITH COMFORt tOOK
HIS YOUtHFUL FLIGHt FROM
ye PROMISING IOYS OF
EARthLY POSSESSIONS IN
HOPE OF A FAR MORE EXCEE
DING & EtERnAL WEIGht OF
GLORY - ON SEPT Ye 9 1730
AGED 23 YEARS

Nathaniel Peaslee, Jr., son of Nathaniel and Judith, married Lydia White November 10, 1727. They had a child, Abigail, born October 2, 1728, who died October 17, 1729. Vital records say: "Nath'l Peaslee, ye husband, died September 9, 1730."

H.P. Lovecraft visited Haverhill regularly to see his friend and fellow amateur press publisher C.W. Smith, whose home was on Golden Hill. At some point he walked through Pentucket Cemetery and noted the Peaslee name. When he wrote The Shadow Out of Time (1936), his protagonist became Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee — a professor from Golden Hill, Haverhill. Scholars consider Peaslee the most fully developed character Lovecraft ever created.

WGBH Article about Lovecraft and the Nathaniel Peaslee stone:
https://www.wgbh.org/culture/books/2024-10-22/how-massachusetts-inspired-some-of-h-p-lovecrafts-scary-stories

Boaz Brown, at South Burying Place, Concord Ma.Here Lyes Buriedthe Body ofMr. BOAZ BROWN;Who Decd. April ye7th 1724. in ...
05/25/2026

Boaz Brown, at South Burying Place, Concord Ma.

Here Lyes Buried
the Body of
Mr. BOAZ BROWN;
Who Decd. April ye
7th 1724. in ye 83d
Year of His Age

Boaz Brown, born February 14, 1641/2 at Concord, Massachusetts, was the son of Thomas and Bridget Browne. He married Mary Winship, daughter of Lt. Edward Winship, on November 8, 1664.
Concord vitals record: "Boaz Brown and mary Winchat maryed : 8 nomʳ 1664"

Issue of Boaz and Mary:
Boaz, born 1665, d. 1711.
Thomas, born 12 May, 1667.
Mary, born Oct. 31, 1670, died young.
Edward, born Mar. 20, 1672/3.
Mary, born May 3, 1678.
Mercy, no record of birth.
Jane, born in Stow, Sept. 4, 1684.

Mary died before 1695 as that year Boaz remarried to Mary Richards, widow of John Richards of Dedham where they apparently lived as Boaz's name appears in records up until Mary's death there in 1715. The next year Boaz married again, in Concord, to Abigail Wheat, daughter of William Ballard of Andover, and the widow of Samuel Wheat of Concord.

When Boaz and Mary Richards wed in 1695, he was referred to as "from Stow" as he was one of several men who established the town of Stow.

Lt, Edward and Elizabeth (Park) Winship.Interred together at the Old Burying Ground, Cambridge, Ma.Undoubtedly carved by...
05/25/2026

Lt, Edward and Elizabeth (Park) Winship.
Interred together at the Old Burying Ground, Cambridge, Ma.

Undoubtedly carved by Joseph Lamson, it is unique in that it may be the only one to bear a saber and lance.

HERE LYES Ye BODY OF LIEUT.
EDWARD WINSHIO WHO
DIED DECEMBER THE 2 1688
& IN THE 76 YEAR OF HIS AGE

ALSO Ye BODY OF ELIZABETH
HIS WIFE WHO DIED THE
19 OF SEPTEMER 1690
& IN THE 58 YEAR OF
HER AGE
THE MEMORY OF Ye JUST IS BLESSED

Edward Winship was born March 13, 1612 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England. By March 4, 1634/5 he was in New Towne, Massachusette, and had been admitted to the Church, for on that day he had taken the oath and been made a freeman. His name being recorded as "Edw. Winshipp."

By 1638 he was married to his first wife, Jane Wilkinson and they had their first of five children, a daughter named Sarah. That same year New Towne is renamed Cambridge, and Winship purchases nearly three acres at the corner of Brattle and Mason Streets, extending to the Common. He also joins the newly chartered Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, and was elected selectman for the first time. The Great Migration Project notes that in early 1639 a letter surfaces in Newcastle during the examination of a suspected Puritan named Giles Bittleston, addressed to "Thomas Cheasman or Edward Winshop" and closing with greetings to Winshop by name. He had been gone from England for years, but the Puritan connection was noted.
In 1652 Jane Winship dies and Edward remarries to Elizabeth Park, daughter of Richard Park of Cambridge, and they would have seven children together.

Over the course of his life Winship accumulated extensive landholdings stretching from Cambridge's Pine Swamp and Fresh Pond northwest to Alewife Meadow, Spy Pond, and into Cambridge Farms (present-day Lexington), where he builds what is reportedly the first sawmill in that township on Mill Creek.

From 1642 to 1660 Edward rises through the militia ranks: He was a Sergeant in 1642, made an Ensign in 1647, and was a Lieutenant by 1660. He served ten terms as deputy to the Massachusetts Bay General Court between the years 1663 through 1686. He also serves thirteen times as selectman, twice as constable, and at least ten times as fenceviewer between 1637 and 1684.

In 1685 he writes his will at his home in Menotomy (present-day Arlington). He bequeaths his house and 25 acres to son Edward, with a provision that his unmarried daughter Joanna shall have a room "for a bed and chest, so long as she lives, if she do not marry." Joanna had served for years as the Cambridge schoolmistress; her gravestone would read: "This good dame no longer school must keep, which given us cause or children's sake to weep."
On December 2, 1688 — he dies at Cambridge, aged about 76. His estate inventories at £640 12s. 9d., with £546 in real estate. On September 19, 1690 —Elizabeth dies, at the age of 57. Both had been literate; both signed their own wills. Her inventory includes books valued at £5.

Issue of Edward and Jane:
1. Sarah, b. Apr. 1638; m. 29 Sep. 1659 James Hubbard.
2. Mary, b. 2 July 1641; m. Concord 8 Nov. 1664 Boaz Brown.
3. Ephraim, b. 29 Jun. 1643; m. (1) 7 Apr. 1670 Hannah Reyner, dau. of Samuel Reyner; m. (2) 9 Nov. 1675 Elizabeth Kendall, dau. of Francis Kendall.
4. Joanna, b. 1 Aug. 1645; d. 19 Nov. 1707, "aged 62 years," unm. (She was for many years the Cambridge schoolmistress)
5. Edward, b. 8 Jun. 1648 and bur. there the same day.

Issue of Edward and Elizabeth:
6. Elizabeth, b. 15 April 1652 [year date published as 1662]; m. Watertown 18 November 1673 Joseph Sherman, son of JOHN SHERMAN.
7. Edward, b. Cambridge 3 March 1654[/5?]; m. 14 May 1683 Rebecca Barsham.
8. ABIGAIL, b. 13 Feb. 1656[/7?]; m. 18 Mar. 1682/3 William Russell.
9. SAMUEL, b. 24 Oct. 1658; m. 12 Apr. 1687 Mary Poulter.
10. JOSEPH, b. 21 June 1661; m. Watertown 24 Nov. 1687 Sarah Harrington.
11. Margery, b. 10 Dec. 1664; m. 12 May 1687 John Dixon.
12. Mehitable, b. 14 Nov. 1667; living on 18 Oct. 1689 when she was named in her mother's will; no further record.

Little Deborah Perry died 290 years ago, on May 22, 1736.Her mortal remains lie interr'd at The Old Burying Ground, Lexi...
05/23/2026

Little Deborah Perry died 290 years ago, on May 22, 1736.
Her mortal remains lie interr'd at The Old Burying Ground, Lexington, Ma,

Deborah Perry
Dautr. of Mr. John
& Mrs. Deborah
Perry Died May
22nd: 1736. Aged
3 Years & 4
Months

Baptized at Lexington March 4, 1733, Deborah was the eighth of 10 children born to John Perry and his wife Deborah (Wilson), daughter of Andrew and Hannah Wilson of Cambridge.

James Trowbridge, at East Parish Burying Ground, Newton, Ma.James' probate records funeral expenses paid to a Mrs Hawksw...
05/21/2026

James Trowbridge, at East Parish Burying Ground, Newton, Ma.

James' probate records funeral expenses paid to a Mrs Hawksworth of Boston for the gravestones, a coffin, and digging the grave. She may have been the widow of Peter Hawkesworth of Boston carrying on his business.

HERE LYES Ye BODY
OF JAMES TROWBRIDGE
DECD. MAY Ye 21ST
1714 IN Ye
32D YEAR OF
HIS AGE

James Trowbridge, son of Deacon James and Margaret Jackson*, was born in Newton on September 20th, 1682. He married Hannah Bacon, January 6th, 1709, and they had Margaret on October 29th, 1709, and Daniel, on April 6th, 1711. Hannah died in 1712, and James Married second in 1712 to his first cousin, Hannah Jackson, daughter of Abraham Jackson. James and Hannah had Hannah in 1713, and Jemima was born in 1715, after James’ death.

James died May 21st, 1714, at the age of 32.

*This Jackson line is from Deacon John Jackson, he was the first settler in Cambridge Village who remained there for the rest of his life. They are unrelated to the Edward Jackson line.

05/20/2026

Planning a trip to Phipps Street — or other Boston burying Ground?
Find the location of your ancestors' graves ahead of time.
Search Gravestones in Boston. This is the easier search to use.
https://www.cityofboston.gov/Parks/HBGI/search.asp

Phipps Street Map
https://www.boston.gov/sites/default/files/embed/p/phipps_street_burying_ground.pdf

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