Old Burying Ground (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Historic cemetery in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, U.S.

Old Burying Ground

The cemetery in 2018

Details
Established| 1635
Location|

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Country| United States
Coordinates| 42°22′30″N 71°07′11″W﻿ / ﻿42.3750137°N 71.1198088°W﻿ / 42.3750137; -71.1198088
Find a Grave| Old Burying Ground
The cemetery in 1889

The Old Burying Ground, or Old Burial Ground,[1] is a historic cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, located just outside Harvard Square.[2] The cemetery opened in 1635.[1]

## Notable burials

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* Washington Allston – painter and poet[3][4][5]
* Nathaniel Appleton – minister[2][5]
* Jonathan Belcher – colonial American merchant, businessman, and politician (Governor of Massachusetts Bay)[4][5][6]
* Rev. William Brattle – cleric, father of William Brattle[2][5]
* Elijah Corlet – educator, schoolmaster of the Cambridge Grammar School[5]
* Samuel McChord Crothers – minister with The First Parish in Cambridge[2]
* Edmund Trowbridge Dana – jurist and author[4]
* Francis Dana – Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, and statesman[4]
* Richard Henry Dana Sr. – poet, critic, and lawyer[4]
* Stephen Daye – first printer in colonial America[5]
* Daniel Gookin – early settler and worker with Native Americans[5]
* Jonathan Remington – colonial American jurist (associate justice Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court)[4][5][6]
* Thomas Shepard – minister[5]
* Edmund Trowbridge – colonial American jurist (associate justice Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court)[4][5]
* Edward Wigglesworth – Colonial clergyman, teacher and theologian[2][5]
* Cicely – enslaved servant of a Harvard tutor (the oldest surviving gravestone of a Black person in the Americas)[2][7]

Several Presidents of Harvard College are buried here[8] including:

* Charles Chauncy – second President of Harvard, 1654 to 1672[2][5]
* Henry Dunster – first President of Harvard, 1640 to 1654[2][5]
* Edward Holyoke – President of Harvard from 1737 to 1769[2][5]
* John Leverett – President of Harvard from 1708 to 1724[2][5]
* Urian Oakes – President of Harvard from 1675 to 1680[2][5]
* John Rogers – President of Harvard from 1682 to 1684[2]
* Benjamin Wadsworth – clergyman and educator, minister of the First Church in Boston and President of Harvard from 1725 to 1737[2][5]
* Joseph Willard – clergyman and academic, president of Harvard from 1781 to 1804[2][5]

Cato Stedman and Neptune Frost black soldiers of the Continental Army 1775.[9] Commemorated on a blue sign on the fence of The Old Burying Ground, Sage Street.

## References

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1. ^ a b "Cambridge Cemetery". www.cambridgema.gov. Archived from the original on 2019-11-17. Retrieved 2020-03-10.
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Neal, Jeff (October 28, 2015). "Amid the Old Burying Ground". The Harvard Gazette. Harvard University. Archived from the original on October 27, 2023.
3. ^ Poupore, Joshua (November 1, 2007). "Washington Allston, a name to remember". The Harvard Gazette. Harvard University.
4. ^ a b c d e f g An Historic Guide to Cambridge. Cambridge (Mass.). 1907.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Harris, William Thaddeus (1845). Epitaphs from the Old Burying-Ground in Cambridge. Cambridge: John Owen, Metcalf and Company. Archived from the original on 2024-03-07. Retrieved 2024-03-07 – via Google Books.
6. ^ a b "Find Tomb Believed Jonathan Belcher's". The Lewiston Daily Sun. 22 July 1937.
7. ^ Maskiell, Nicole S (2 December 2020). "Cicely was young, Black and enslaved – her death during an epidemic in 1714 has lessons that resonate in today's pandemic". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 2 December 2020. Retrieved 2 December 2020.
8. ^ "Old Burying Ground | Cambridge Office of Tourism". www.cambridgeusa.org. Archived from the original on 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
9. ^ Sparling, Georgia (Jun 5, 2018). "Historian seeks to honor forgotten black soldiers". Lesley University. Lesley University. Archived from the original on 15 September 2022. Retrieved 14 September 2022.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Old Burying Ground (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

* Old Burying Ground at Find a Grave
* U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Old Burying Ground