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F 73 .61 .A5 M5 Copy 1
HISTORIC BURIAL-PLACES
-
OF
BOSTON AND VICINITY,
BY
JOHN M. MERRIAM.
HISTORIC BURIAL-PLACES
BOSTON AND VICINITY.
BV
JOHN M. MERRIAM.
FROM PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, OCTOBER 21, 1891.
Worcester, atlass .. I. S. a. PRESS OF CHARLES HAMILTON, 311 MAIN STREET. 1892.
F73 .61 . A5M5
HISTORIC BURIAL-PLACES OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.
EVERY student of American History will find in early Boston a favorite subject. In her history are the begin- nings of all the great social, political and religious progress- ive movements toward the present America. However great the pride of the native Bostonian, others not so fortunate must excuse and commend it. If Chief Justice Sewall, in his dream of the Saviour's visit to Boston (I. Diary, p. 115) could have looked forward a century and more, he might well have expressed even greater admiration for the "Wis- dom of Christ in coming hither and spending some part of his short life here."
Among the many objects so strongly stamped as historic by association with the men and events of early Boston, none to-day possesses keener interest to members of the American Antiquarian Society than the old graveyards. It was with great gratification, therefore, that a party of gentlemen1 many of whom are members of this Society, was permitted last May, by the invitation of Hon. George F. Hoar, to visit the more important of these ancient burial- places, and later, in July, by the courtesy of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, to visit the old burying-ground and other historic places in Quincy.
The oldest place of burial in Boston is the King's Chapel Yard on Tremont street. Long before this place was asso- ciated with King's Chapel, it was a graveyard. Tradition, coming from Judge Sewall, through Rev. Thomas Prince, has it that Isaac Johnson, one of the twelve signers of the agreement " to pass the seas (under God's protection) to
1 These gentlemen were: George F. Hoar. George E. Ellis, Edward E. Hale. Andrew P. Peabody, Nathaniel Paine. Stephen Salisbury, Samuel A. Green, Elijah B. Stoddard, Edward L. Davis, Edward H. Hall, James F. Hunnewell, Charles C. Smith, Edmund M. Barton. Thomas L. Nelson, Charles 1. Chase, Samuel S. Green, J. Evarts Greene, William W. Rice, G. Stanley Hall. Rockwood Hoar, Edward W. Doherty, and John M. Merriam. At Quincy there were in addition Charles Francis Adams and Daniel M. Wilson.
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inhabit and continue in New England," signed at Cam- bridge, August 26, 1629, by Winthrop and his followers, one of the first Assistants, and probably the second white settler on the Boston peninsula, was buried at the southwest corner of his lot, in September, 1630. His lot was the square now enclosed by Washington, School, Tremont and Court streets. According to this old tradition it was around Johnson's grave that the settlers buried their dead, and the place remained for many years the only burial- ground.1
The earliest interment that is recorded on stone is that of Governor John Winthrop in 1649.2 This old Winthrop
1 This tradition is given in Prince's Annals, Part II., Section 2, p. 2, as follows : " And the late chief Justice Samuel Sewall, Esq; informed me; That this Mr. Johnson was the principal Cause of settling the town of Boston, and so of its becoming the Metropolis and had removed hither; had chose for his Lot the great square lying between Cornhill on the S. E, Tree-mount-Street on the N. W, Queen-Street on the N. E, and School-Street on the S. W ; and on his Death-Bed desiring to be buried at the upper End of his Lot, in Faith of his rising in it. He was accordingly Buried there; which gave occasion for the first Burying Place of this Town to be laid out round about his Grave."-A Chronological History of New England in the form of Annals, by Thomas Prince, M. A. Boston, N. E., 1736.
2 The funeral of Governor Winthrop has been so beautifully portrayed by his worthy descendant, the Honorable Robert C. Winthrop, that his associates in this society will gladly pardon me if I panse a moment to repeat his de- scription :- " That 13th of April, 1649, must have witnessed a memorable gath- erig on the spot which these windows of ours now look ont upon. It re- quires no stretch of imagination to depiet the scene when the old father of the town and colony, who had brought over the Charter of Massachusetts, as the first full Governor, nineteen years before, and who had held the office of Governor, with the exception of four or five years, during the whole period, was borne at last, as Governor, to his grave. Dudley, then deputy Governor. Endicott, Bellingham, and Bradstreet must certainly have been there. John Cotton, John Wilson, Thomas Shepard, and the revered John Eliot, among the clergy, could not fail to have been present; and the latter may have been attended by a group of the Indians, to whom he was the apostle, and whom Winthrop had uniformly befriended during his life. There is an old family record of one of the Pequod Sagamores coming to Boston at the time, and exclaiming, . He is alive, he is alive' on seeing the Governor's portrait in the parlor. Increase Nowell, the old sceretary, and John Clark were doubtless there, with Winthrop the younger, from Connectient. Possibly Bradford or some of the Pilgrims may have come from Plymouth, and may have given Morton his account of the . great solemnity and honor' of the occasion. The artillery officers, probably what is now known as the Ancient and Honor-
tomb is within a rod or two of Tremont street, and the building of the Massachusetts Historical Society.1 Margaret, the devoted wife of Governor Winthrop, was undoubtedly buried in the same place in 1647. The Winthrop tomb has an especial interest for Connecticut as well as Massachusetts, for here, too, is buried her first Governor, John Winthrop, Jr.2 A third Governor, Fitz-JJohn Winthrop, was buried here in 1707.3
able Artillery Company, whose charter had been signed by Winthrop in 1638, are recorded as having been present, and as having taken the responsibility of using a barrel and a half of the colony powder, withont leave, for funeral salutes; for which the colony indemnitied them at the next meeting of the General Court. There were no religions services or ser- mons at funerals at that period of our colonial history. No ro- ligious exercises were needed, however, to make the occasion a solemn one. Hutchinson, who had access to all the contemporary records, speaks of the general grief through the colony'; and it is easy to picture to ourselves the authorities and the people of the town and the neighborhood assembling at the 'Governor's house, and following the corpse, borne by loving hands. for there were no hearses in those days. to the tomb or grave, which it is new proposed in some quarters to desecrate and do away." (XVII. Proceedings Mass. Hist. Soc., 129.)
I The horizontal stone slab is inscribed as follows :
JOHN WINTHROP, Governor of Massachusetts, died 1649. Major General WAIT STILL WINTHROP died Sept, 7th, 1517 Aged 76 Year -. ANN WINTHROP SEARS the Wife of David Sears. died Octr. 24 1789 Aged 33 Years.
2 Sewall records his death and burial as follows: " April 5 (1676) Wednes- day. Governor Winthrop dyes. Interred old Burying place Monday follow- ing." (I. Diary, p. 12.)
3 There are two references to the funeral in Sewall's Diary. The first is in the list of funerals at which Sewall was a bearer. It is as follows: "69 Deer. 4, 1707 The Ilonble. F. J. Winthrop. Governor of Connecticut. Scarf. Ring. Gloves, Esenteheon. Gov. W. Tomb." (11, Diary, p. II.) In the body of the Diary is a fuller account. " Dec. 4. Mr. C. Mather preaches a very good funeral sermon. Govr. Winthrop is buried from the Council Chamber, Foot Companies in Arms, and Two Troops. Armor carried, a Led Horse. Bear- ers. Govr., Mr. Russell; Mr. Cooke. Major Brown; Col. Hutchinson, Sewall; Mr. Secratary, Mr. Sergeant. Father, Son and Grandson ly together in one Tomb in the old burying place. Was a vast concourse of people." (II. Diary, p. 204.)
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Again, in 1717, "the regiment attended in arms" at this same tomb at the funeral of Chief Justice and Major-Gen- eral Wait Still Winthrop, "excellent for Parentage, Piety, Prudence, Philosophy, Love to New England Ways and people very Eminent." 1
Probably there is no tomb in New England that contains the dust of four men who had so much to do with the plant- ing of States as did Governor John Winthrop, his son John, and his grandsons Fitz-John and Wait Still.
Near this tomb which recalls so much of the carly politi- cal history of New England, is another which brings before us with equal vividness the history of the Puritan Church.2
John Cotton came to New England in 1633, having with difficulty escaped the High Commission, and having been censured by Archbishop Laud because he would not kneel at the sacrament. His own meeting-house has now wholly disappeared, having stood on the site of Brazer's building on State street, and his tomb is included within the limits of a burial-place generally known as the King's Chapel Yard. These early ministers, with the exception of
1 " The streets were crowded with people; was laid in Gov. Winthrop tomb in Old Burying Place." (III. Sewall's Diary, p. 146.)
2 The inscription is as follows :
Here Lyes Intombed the Bodyes of the Famous, Reverend and Learned Paftors of the Firft Church of CIIRIST in BOSTON: viz. Mr. JOHN COTTON. Aged 67 Years; Deed. Decmbr. the 23rd, 1652.
Mr. JOHN DAVENPORT, Aged 72 Years; Deed. March the 15th, 1670.
Mr. JOHN OXONBRIDGE, Aged 66 Years; Decd. Deembr the 28th, 1674.
Mr. THOMAS BRIDGE, Aged 58 Years ; Deed. September the 26th, 1715.
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Thomas Bridge,1 were all buried before King's Chapel was thought of, and their tomb alone should serve most emphati- cally to disconnect the history of that church with the his- tory of the adjoining graveyard.
I have been unable thus far to learn the burial-place of John Wilson, the first pastor of the first church, although there is a Wilson tomb in the King's Chapel Yard referred to by Sewall (II. Diary, p. 411), in which a son of Thomas Fitch was buried. He died in 1667, possibly before the ministers' tomb was built. Sewall, in his letter to his son written 1720 to give him an account of the Sewall family, states that "in the year 1667 my father brought me " (to Cambridge) "to be admitted, by which means I heard Mr. Richard Mather of Dorchester, preach Mr. Wilson's funeral sermon, 'your fathers, where are they ?'" (I. Diary, xiii. )
Governor JJohn Leverett is intombed in the King's Chapel Yard. Sewall refers to his death and burial, but only by a brief entry in his almanac, as follows : "1678-9 March 16, 1. Governour Leverett dieth. 25, 3 Is buried." (I. Diary, p. 48.) He states, however, Vol. III., p. 50, that Mrs. Cooke, Leverett's daughter Elizabeth, was interred July 23, 1715, " In Govr. Leverett's Tomb in Old burying place."
It is recorded on the bronze tablet2 at this gate of the King's Chapel Yard that Governor John Endecott was
I Thomas Bridge was a friend of Judge Sewall, who records on the day of his death. 1715, " Tr. 26 Between 11 and 12 Mr. Bridge expires; with him much primitive Christianity is gone, the Old Church, the Town, the Prov- inee have a great loss." The bearers at the funeral were all ministers and represented the Old North, the Roxbury, the Brattle street, the Ohl South and the New North Churches; Dr. Increase Mather, Dr. Cotton Mather; Mr. Walter. Mr. Coleman; Mr. JJ. Sewall, Mr. Jno. Webb. (III. Sewall's Diary, 59.60.)
2 In order more permanently to mark the burial-places of the early leaders, bronze tablets have been placed on the gates of the old graveyards of Boston. These tablets were suggested by Hon. Robt. C. Winthrop and the inscriptions were written by Dr. Samuel A. Green. Those on the gates at King's Chapel are inseribed as follows ;-
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buried within its limits.1 The funeral of Lady Andros occurred Friday, February 10, 1687-8. Judge Sewall
KING'S CHAPEL BURIAL GROUND 1630.
Here were buried GOVERNORS OF MASSACHUSETTS. John Winthrop 1649, John Endecott 1665, John Leverett 1679, William Shirley 1771; LIEUT. GOVERNORS OF MASSACHUSETTS. William Phillips 1827, Thomas Lindall Winthrop 1841 ; GOVERNORS OF CONNECTICUT. John Winthrop 1676, Fitz-John Winthrop 1707; JUDGES OF MASSACHUSETTS. Wait Still Winthrop 1717, Adam Winthrop 1743, Oliver Wendell 1818, Thomas Dawes 1825; MINISTERS OF BOSTON John Cotton 1652, John Davenport 1670. John Oxenbridge 1674, Thomas Bridge 1715.
KING'S CHAPEL BURIAL GROUND. 1630
Here were buried Jacob Sheafe 1658, John Winslow 1674, Mary Chilton 1679, A passenger in the Mayflower and wife of John Winslow, Major Thomas Savage 1682, Lady Andros 1688, Captain Roger Clap 1690, Thomas Brattle 1713, Professor John Winthrop 1776, James Lloyd 1831, Charles Bulfinch 1844.
1 Without attempting from my present investigation to throw doubt upon the accuracy of the statement on the above tablet that Governor John Endecott is buried in the King's Chapel Burial Ground, I must refer to evi- dence which unexplained would show that he was buried in the Granary Burial Ground. There is the following extraet from the Records of the Select- men of Boston to be found in Document 47, 1879, of the City of Boston, p. 4: . P. 185. 1721 March 5. Upon a petition of Mr. John Edwards of Boston, shewing, that whereas there is a tomb in the South Burying place belonging to the Late Governour Endicot, which has been unimproved for many years, and there being no family in said town nearer related to the said Governour Endicot's family than his, desires he may have liberty granted him to make use of it for his family. Granted that the said John Edwards has liberty to improve the said Tomb until a person of better right to it appears to elaim it." There is no stone in either ground to mark the tomb, and I have found no reference to either Endicott or Edwards,'that would identify it.
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attended it " having been invited by the clark of the South Company." 1
The monument of Thomas Dawes is prominent in this burial-ground. Major Dawes was the architect of the first Brattle-street church. He was an earnest patriot, his name being often associated with the leaders of the Revo- lution.2
The tomb of Oliver Wendell is number one and is in the extreme corner on Tremont street, and next to the building of the Massachusetts Historical Society. In this tomb are the remains of the maternal ancestors for two generations of Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many of his family connec- tions. (Document 96, 1879, City of Boston, p. 56.)
Near the King's Chapel Yard and on the opposite side of Tremont street is a larger burying-ground, called at first the South Burying-ground, and later, the Granary.3 This
1 She was buried in the tomb of Benjamin Church. There is the following reference to her burial in Bridgman, p. 318: a slab on the bottom of the Church tomb states " here lies the bones of Lady Anne Andros." (Bridgman's King's Chapel Inscriptions, p. 318.)
2 His epitaph is as follows:
THOMAS DAWES A. A. S. Born Angt. 5, 1731, Died Jany. 2, 1809, Æt. 78. Of bis taste for the Grecian simplicity In ARCHITECTURE there are many monuments Which he raised when that art was new to us. The records of Massachusetts shew That he was one of her active LEGISLATORS From the year 1776, until he was 70 years ohl ; When he retired. with faculties unimpaired. To the fiseal concerns of this Metropolis, To its literary and other Institutions, Hle was a zealous friend. He was an ELECTOR At the three first elections of President of the U. S. and discharged various trusts To his own honor and the public weal.
8 The tablets on the gates are as follows :-
GRANARY BURIAL GROUND 1660
Within this ground are buried John Hancock, Samuel Adams
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name was taken from the old public granary which stood on the site now occupied by the Park-street Church. This building was used as a large storehouse for grain, at which the poorer people could purchase at a slight advance of cost, and would seem to be an old precedent for the muni- cipal coal-yard, of which much is heard to-day.
The earliest date associated with this old graveyard is 1660. If Governor Endicott was buried there, his must have been among the early interments, as he died in 1665. Dr. Samuel A. Green thinks that at first the Granary and King's Chapel grounds were united and became distinct only as Tremont street assumed more importance than a country lane.1 A distinct name, however, seems very early to have
and Robert Treat Paine, Signers of the Declaration of Independence; GOVERNORS Richard Bellingham, William Dummer, James Bowdoin. Increase Sumner, James Sullivan and Christopher Gore ; Lieut. Governor Thomas Cushing : Chief Justice Sammel Sewall : Ministers John Baily, Samuel Willard,
Jeremy Belknap and John Lathrop.
GRANARY BURIAL GROUND 1660
Within this ground are buried The victims of the Boston Massaere, March 5, 1770.
Josiah Franklin and wife, (Parents of Benjamin Franklin) Peter Faneuil, Paul Revere; and John Phillips, First Mayor of Boston.
See Publie Document of City of Boston, 1879. No. 96, p. 47.
" I cannot tell what has become of the fee of the land, but I have an opinion, based upon something I have seen, that these two graveyards were originally one. King's Chapel Graveyard, the oldest in the city, was probably a traet in the outskirts of the village, and undoubtedly interments were made in a part of it which we now eall the Granary Burial-ground. Afterwards, when Tremont street was laid out, they found a part of the tract of land that had not been used for burial, and straightened the street and carried it through, making two sepa- rate burial-grounds. I have no doubt that at one time in the early history of Boston, the two graveyards were spoken of as the same, but the street having been laid out, they have practically become two distinct grounds."
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been applied to the King's Chapel Yard. In 1675, Judge Sewall writes that Governor Winthrop was buried in the "Old Burying place." Again, in 1685, he records that Father Gamaliel Wait and Father John Odlin were buried in the "First Burying place," and in the March following that "Father Porter was laid in the Old Cemetery." These adjectives may have served to distinguish the King's Chapel Yard from the North or Copp's Hill Burying-place, but there seems to be ground to hold that they refer, also, to the South Yard or Granary, which contained Sewall's own tomb, and to which he does not as a rule apply any word of description, although in January, 1701, he records the burial of " Mrs Thair, in the new burying-place close to the alms house ground." (II. Diary, 29.) When the Granary and Copp's Hill yards were first used in 1660, an order was passed by the selectmen, November 5th, direct- ing that "the old burial place shall be wholly deserted for some convenient season and the new places appointed for burial only made use of." This order has been supposed to refer only to the Copp's Hill ground, and the word "places" has been quoted as " place." The original record, however, shows that the word used was "places." It probably re- ferred to both Copp's Hill and the Granary. It would seem to be, therefore, strong evidence that even in November, 1660, the ground now known as the Granary and the "old burial ground " were distinct.
The earliest tombs were arranged without much order. They are scattered throughout the yard, usually marked with a large horizontal slab. There are rows of tombs on the four sides, in all two hundred and three.
One of the oldest tombs is that of Governor Richard Bellingham, who died in 1672. Governor Bellingham's family seems wholly to have disappeared in a few years, and in 1810, we find Gov. James Sullivan interested in re- pairing and enlarging this tomb. (City Doc. 47, 1879, p. 11.) Here Governor Bellingham was carried on his death
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in 1672. There are two slabs over this tomb. The first is almost level with the ground, the second is supported above it.1
Another tomb of the same period as that of Governor Bellingham is the Hull or Sewall tomb. In this were placed the remains of Capt. John Hull, the old treasurer and mint master of Boston, his wife, and their daughter
1 The inscriptions are as follows : ~
IIERE LIES RICHARD BELLINGHAM, ESQUIRE. LATE GOVERNOR IN THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE ON THE 7 DAY OF DECEMBER, 1672, THE EIGHTY-FIRST YEAR OF HIS AGE.
VIRTUE'S FAST FRIEND WITHIN THIS TOMB DOTH LYE, A FOE TO BRIBES, BUT RICH IN CHARITY.
The Bellingham family being extinct, The Selectmen of Boston in the year 1782 assigned this Tomb to JAMES SULLIVAN, ESQ. The remains of Governor Bellingham are here preserved, And the above inscription is restored from the ancient Monument.
The family tomb of JAMES SULLIVAN, ESQ., Late Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. who departed this life on the 10th day of Decr. A. D. 1808,-aged 64 years. His remains are here deposited
During a life of remarkable Industry, activity and usefulness, amidst public and private contemporaneous avocations, uncommonly various, he was distinguished for zeal, intelligence and fidelity. Public-spirited, benevolent and social. he was eminently beloved as a man, eminently esteemed as a citizen, and eminently respected as a magistrate. Huie versatile ingenium Sic pariter ad omnia fuit, ut, ad id umum diceres quod cum que ageret.
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Hannah, her husband Judge Sewall and their children, and many descendants. There are many references to this tomb in Sewall's diary.
December 25, 1696, Sewall visits the tomb, at the funeral of his daughter Sarah, and makes an entry in his diary descriptive of the tomb and also characteristic of the writer. He writes, ""Twas wholly dry and I went at noon to see in what order things were set; and then I was entertained with a view of, and converse with, the Coffins of my dear Father Hull, Mother Hull, Cousin Quinsey, and my six children : for the little posthumous was now took up and set upon that that stands on John's ; so are three, one upon another twice, on the bench at the end. My Mother ly's on a lower bench, at the end, with head to her husband's head ; and I ordered little Sarah to be set on her grand- mother's feet. 'Twas an awfull yet pleasing Treat ; Having said, The Lord knows who shall be brought hither next, I came away."1 (I. Diary, p. 443.)
The body of Rev. Samuel Willard, Sewall's pastor at the Old South Church, and Vice-President of Harvard College, was placed temporarily in the Hull-Sewall tomb, September 15, 1707, and was removed to the "new tomb built by the South Congregation," July 31, 1712.
Samuel Sewall of Burlington, Mass., in a letter to Thomas Bridgman, September 21, 1853, states that forty persons in all were buried in this tomb before the Revolu- tion. The more prominent of these persons, in addition to
1 The slab is inscribed : -
Hon! JUDGE SEWALL'S Tomb. Now the property of his Heirs. PHILIP R. RIDGWAY 1810. RALPH HUNTINGTON. 1812 Nº 185 Ralph Huntington.
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the names already given, were Rev. Joshua Moodey, first pastor of the Church at Portsmouth, Rev. William Cooper of the Brattle-street Church, who married Judge Sewall's daughter Judith, and Dr. Joseph Sewall, pastor of the Old South Church.
The tomb of Lieutenant-Governor Dummer is near the centre of the rear of the ground. It is marked by a monument inseribed as follows :-
This TOMB of the DUMMER and POWELL Family's was repaired by WILLIAM POWELL, Octr 1786.
The next tomb in order of date, that I care to mention, is that of Peter Faneuil, the richest Bostonian of his day, and the donor of Faneuil Hall. This tomb is near the southwest corner of the yard. The first publie oration in Faneuil Hall, his gift to Boston, was in eulogy of the donor, who had but recently died.1
The Granary Yard contains the bodies of many of the leaders of the Revolution, the more prominent being John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine and Paul Revere.
The Hancock tomb is on the south side. On a small slate stone are the words : -
No. 16. TOMB OF HANCOCK.
1 The inscription is below : At the foot of the slab is the first inscription, which can now be faintly traced.
PETER FANEUIL. MARCH 3, 1743,
JONES. DAVENPORT. FETTE.
P. Funal. 1743
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This Hancock tomb at first stood in the name of Mr. John Hill, but to the list of the Selectmen's office at the end of the volume of records from 1715 to 1729 is added in dif- ferent ink "Now Thomas Hancock."
Thomas Hancock, the uncle of Governor Hancock, died 1764. The body of Governor Hancock was placed in his uncle's tomb. The funeral was attended by troops and crowds of people, and even the venerable Samuel Adams followed the body to the grave, so long as his strength would permit.
Samuel Adams is buried in the Checkley tomb, which is partly under the sidewalk on Tremont street, and about midway between the gateway and the Tremont House. The small stone is so near the sidewalk that the inscription can easily be read through the fence. At the top is the Checkley Coat of Arms and below the inscription. Adams married for his first wife Elizabeth Checkley, daughter of Rev. Samuel Checkley, and in this way became connected with this old family. The tomb is number sixty-eight. It is the first of thirteen tombs confirmed to the builders, their heirs and assigns, by the selectmen of Boston, March 23, 1736-7 and was then recorded in the name of Mr. Richard Checkley.1
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