USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Rehoboth > Early Rehoboth, documented historical studies of families and events in this Plymouth colony township, Volume IV > Part 5
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30
Early Rehoboth
At a town meeting held 13 Nov. 1729, Dr. Thomas Bowen re- quested that he "might have the old school house in recompense of what he had done for some of the poor of the town. Request granted" [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book II, p. 229]. At a town meeting, 23 May 1734, a committee consisting of Mr. Jathniel Peck, Capt. Daniel Carpenter, and Deacon John Willmarth, chosen 24 Sept. 1733 to take an account of what land was already laid out in the town on the school right of Commons, reported : "we searched the Town Records ... and find in ye first book of records folio 56 ye words following (viz) Schoolmaster Home Lot Six acres on ye Common about Ye Meeting house not yet laid out ... The total land laid out, including 88 acres not laid out, was 115 acres" [Ibid., Book II, p. 265].
In 1734 the town of Rehoboth petitioned the House of Representa- tives for permission to sell the divers small parcels of school land "the rent of which is very low". At a town meeting, held 27 Sept. 1734, a committee was appointed "to make sale of all the land in sd town that was laid out and due to be laid out in sd town on the right of the Commons that was first devoted for the use of a school in sd towne-for the most it will fetch-give a good deed & with the money to purchase one Intire Tract of Land to be for the use of sd school and no other agreeable to an order of the Great and Gen- eral Court held at Boston 29 May 1734" [Ibid., Book II, p. 269].
At a meeting of the Proprietors of the Common and undivided lands held 3 Apr. 1735, "Thomas Bowen Esq" DeSired Liberty of Sd Proprietors that he might Lay oute the Six acre of School Lands that he Lately PurcheSed of the Committee appointed to Sel the Scholl Lands . .. to Lay it oute adjoining on the South westerly part of the Land that he purcheSed of Mr John Greenwood and on the Northerly part of his houSe Lot and that the Swamp or pond Lyeing on the Spring Runing Down from the Meeting house Should be Contained within the Bounds of the Six acres owr and above the meaSure by ReaSon of its being of Little or no value of it Self-it was accordingly voted by Sd Proprietors that all the Said Six acres of Land be Laid oute at the Plaices DeSired and that the Swamp or pond be Excluded in the Sd Bounds owr and above the meaSure and that the Surveighr & Committee in Laying oute the Sd Six acres be Directed to procede accordingly" [Rehoboth Pro- prietors' Meetings, p. 113].
On 12 Jan. 1735/6 the town "voted to build a work house north from the meeting house where the old school formerly stood" [Reho- both Town Meetings, Book II, p. 279.]
At a town meeting, held 27 Mar. 1738, the committee empowered by the committee to sell the school lands and with the proceeds make a new purchase, reported that it "had bargained with Nathan- iel Smith for his dwelling house and land he purchased of David Saben to be for the use of the School; that they were to give him £400; and that the sale of the school lands did not amount to that sum. The town voted to draw out of treasury enough money to make up the Sum" [Ibid., Book II, p. 299].
31
The 1790 Map
From the foregoing records, it will be seen that the 11.45 acres of land shown on the 1790 map as belonging to the heirs of Thomas Bowen, Esq., consisted of three parcels of land - first, the lot purchased of Rev. John Greenwood; second, the six-acre school- master's lot adjoining on the southwest; and third, the swamp or pond (formerly on the south side of the present Newman Avenue) that was included with the schoolmaster's six-acre lot as extra measure.
Before 1860 this swamp was dammed up on its southwestern end to create a water supply pond for the Rumford Chemical Works. Some twenty years since this pond was filled in so that where there were formerly two ponds, one on each side of the present Newman Avenue, there is now only one-the so-called "Meeting house" pond.
BURYING PLACE
It has been repeatedly stated in print, but never with supporting evidence, that the first "burying place" was in the yard of the first Rehoboth meeting house which is also said to have been located on the site of the present Proprietors' Tomb, erected in 1826 and still standing a few feet south of the present north wall of the burying place (now the Newman Cemetery), and about two hundred feet west of the east stone wall on Pawtucket Avenue.
There is nothing in the Rehoboth records to indicate the exact location of either the first meeting house or the first burying place. The following study proves conclusively that they were distinct and separate and located some distance apart.
An exhaustive search of the early town and proprietors' records discloses only five references to this early burying place as follows:
18 Mar. 1668/9-At a town meeting "it was voted that Mr. Paine should Be desired to bargan and agre with an Indian and Indians to dig stones and to make fence * about the Buring place and the said Indians yt doe the worke to be paid in the Town Rate. The Towne promiseing to come in with their Carts to Cary the stones" [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book I, p. 182].
1670-Abraham Martin died at Rehoboth this year. In his will dated 9 Sept. 1669 he made numerous bequests including "£5 to improve the burial place; £1 for a bell on the church, and 10s for a bear [bier]" [N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, vol. VII, p. 235].
10 Dec. 1680-"The towne being Lawfully warned meet and chose Mr. Daniel Smith, Leftenant Peter Hunt, Ensigne Nicholas Peck, Gilbert Brooks and Anthony Perey for to Seate t the meeting house. It was also agreed that the Burrieing place should be fenced # in with a stone ffence" [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book II, p. 32].
* The Indian pay for laying this stone wall must have been very moderate, for forty-eight years later, on 14 June 1716, a committee of the Massachusetts Legislature appointed to lay out a highway at Pawtucket Falls in the village of Pawtucket, town of Rehoboth, fixed the price of a stone fence at 5 shillings per rod including the stone. This was at the rate of about 334 pence per foot for a 1676 foot rod.
t Bliss in his History of Rehoboth (1836), page 122, said that at a meeting held on 16 Dec. 1680 a committee was chosen by the town to "sell the meeting house". The meeting was held 10 Decem- ber, not the 16th, and Bliss mistakenly read "sell" for "Seate" the meeting house. At a town meeting held 17 Jan. 1678/9 it was voted to use the material in the first meeting house for finishing the second and to sell what could not be used [Rehoboth Town Meetings, Book II, p. 27].
¿ Bliss was in error when he said in his History of Rehoboth, page 121, that the town voted on 22 Oct. 1680 to fence the burying place with a stone fence. The records show that the vote was passed at the town meeting held 10 Dec. 1680.
32
Early Rehoboth
27 Feb. 1737/8-At a meeting of the Proprietors of Common and Undivided Land in Rehoboth, it was voted: Secondly for Inlargement to the Buring Place together with the PreSent Buring place to Containe the Quantity of three acres and three quarters and Twenty Eight Rods [3.93 acres]" [Rehoboth Proprietors' Meetings, p. 131].
15 Nov. 1790-At an adjourned meeting of the Proprietors of the Common and Undivided Lands in Rehoboth held at the house of Dr. James Bliss of Rehoboth, Innkeeper (see ante, page 21), it was voted to "in Larging of the Burying place to where the fence now Stands" [Ibid., p. 226]. The whole tract of land contained 4 acres and 62 rods (4.39 acres)
While these five records tell all that can be learned from the original town and proprietors' books concerning this early burying place, additional indispensable facts about its location and probable size are immediately apparent on examination and study of the ex- tant gravestones. The earliest graves are marked with rough field stones on some of which are chiseled crude initials with dates of burial. Slate gravestones were not used in this cemetery until after 1700.
Not all early interments were in this first burial ground enclosure. Many of the first settlers were buried on their farms as best exem- plified by the John Kingsley family. John's wife Alice was buried on his Mill River home lot on 14 Jan. 1673, and he himself was buried there on 6 Jan. 1678 and their graves marked by a single stone. In 1890 this gravestone was moved from its location on Roger Williams Avenue to the Newman cemetery where it was reset about twenty-three feet north of the ministers' monument [Early Rehoboth, vol. III, p. 20].
The oldest gravestone in this cemetery marks the grave of William Carpenter, Sr*, who was buried 7 Feb. 1658. It is a pointed wedge- shaped field stone measuring 4 x 6 inches at the base and projecting 21 inches out of the ground; near the top are cut the large initials "WC", under which is the date "1658". Nearby are two stones, one reading "AC" and the other "1686", which are the head and foot stones over the grave of William Carpenter's wife Abigail who was buried 27 Feb. 1686/7; also another stone, "SC 1682", marks the grave of their son Samuel Carpenter, Sr., who was buried 20 Feb. 1682/3.
William Carpenter's gravestone is located almost in the exact center of the burying place shown on the 1790 map. The stone is 215 feet west of the Pawtucket Avenue stone wall, halfway between the east and west walls, and 216 feet south of the north wall on New- man Avenue. Two ancient flat tombs each measuring 3 feet 4 inches wide by 5 feet 10 inches long, covered with rough uninscribed mica-flecked slabs placed together head to head at right angles forming the letter "L", are located 38 feet west of the William Car- penter stone. Why with plenty of land two early tombs should have been built close together at right angles is an unsolved mys-
* Amos Carpenter in his Carpenter Genealogy (1898), page 49, said that in visits to this cemetery in 1844, 1845, and 1893, he spent considerable time in an unsuccessful attempt to find the grave of the first William Carpenter, Sr. That he could not find the stone marking the grave is no proof, however, that none existed, for on 24 Oct. 1931 the writer found the stone, which is still (1948) standing.
33
The 1790 Map
tery. It would seem more than probable that these two tombs mark the graves of some prominent early inhabitants.
It is rather remarkable that the location of Mr. Samuel Newman's grave * is unknown, for it would be expected that the grave of a man of his importance would be marked by a tomb. As he died in 1663, the land area between the 1658 William Carpenter stone and these "L" tombs would seem to be ample to take care of the burials in the intervening five-year period.
Still farther to the west, 55 feet from the two "L" shaped tombs and 93 feet from the William Carpenter stone, is another tomb with a flat top inscribed "Ephraim Harmon t Dyed August 26 1683". Above the name are the large capitals "NC", the meaning of which is unknown to the writer.
To the northeast of the Harmon tomb and 96 feet northwest of the William Carpenter stone is the grave of Philip Walker, marked "PW 1679". The Ministers' monument, a nine-foot high white marble shaft on a granite base, "erected by the descendants of Rehoboth, 31 July 1863", is located 24 feet northeast of the Walker stone, and 75 feet north of the William Carpenter stone.
Lying embedded in the grass in the ministers' monument lot is the blue slate top of the tomb of "ye Revd Mr. Thomas Greenwood Late Pastor of the Church of Christ in Rehoboth, died 8 Sept. 1720." Beside this is a light-colored sandstone tomb top inscribed to the memory of his son "Revd John Greenwood who after continuing a Faithful Pastor of the Church of Christ in Rehoboth 46 years de- parted this life Decr 1st 1766 in the 70th Year of his Age".
Eight or ten feet northwest of the Greenwood stones, just outside of the ministers' lot, are two blue slate flat tomb tops, one marking the grave of "Daniel Smith, Esq Decd March ye 31st 1724 in ye
* Writing in 1836 (History of Rehoboth, p. 58), Bliss said that a few rods south of the Proprietors' Tomb [1826] there were two gravestones of an early date bearing inscriptions to two females of the name of Newman; one standing erect (name not stated) and the other lying in a horizontal position, supported by four perpendicular stones, and inscribed "Mrs. Basheba Newman, deceased August 8, 1687, the wife of Deacon Samuel Newman". Bliss further stated that "beside these are two heaps of stones raised apparently to support flat stones upon the top, a fragment or two only of which remain. Here it is conjectured, repose the ashes of the first two [first and fourth] ministers of Rehoboth, Rev. Samuel and Rev. Noah Newman". These stones are not extant in 1948.
Samuel1 Newman's son Dea. Samuel2 Newman, who married Basheba Chickering, died 14 Dec. 1711. Although the location of his grave is unknown, he was undoubtedly buried beside his wife. The gravestones of his son Dea. Samuel3 Newman, who died 25 June 1747 in his 85th year, and his wife Hannah, who died 20 Sept. 1752 in her 85th year, are still standing 60 feet east of the Ministers' monument and about nine rods (140 feet) south of the north cemetery wall where the Proprietors' Tomb is located.
t Ephraim Harmon, the son of Nathaniel Harmon and Mary Bliss, daughter of Thomas Bliss of Rehoboth, was born at Braintree 30 Oct. 1656. As a young man he made a trip to England and before his return to New England made his will in London on 31 Mar. 1683. He died in Rehoboth five months later at the age of 27. His will was proved in England the following year before Sir Leoline Jenkins in the Prerogative Court at Doctors Commons and sent to New England the year following for ancillary administration by his brother Richard Ford, the executor, who made Joseph Torrey, John Dassett, and Jonathan Bliss his attorneys in New England. [Savage, Gen. Dict., vol. I, p. 200; vol. II, p. 357.] James Savage did not know about this Rehoboth connection.
# The Ministers' monument lists the "pastors of the 1st Congregational Church of Rehoboth". The first is "Samuel Newman, from 1639 to 1663". The starting date of this record is incorrect by four years and should read 1643-the year the Seekonk settlement was established. The second in the list of pastors is "Noah Newman from 1668 to 1678". According to this monument list the church was without a pastor for five years, which of course is not true, for during that period there were at least two ministers, Zachary Symes, who served as teacher for about three years, and Mr. Buckley for about a year, so that Noah Newman was the fourth minister and not the second.
34
Early Rehoboth
52ª year of his Age", and the other marking the grave of his wife "Abigail Smith ... Deceased November ye 9th A.D. 1732 in the 59th year of her Age".
In addition to the land records and the extant gravestones, the records of Rehoboth deaths and burials must not be overlooked, for a study of these helps considerably in determining the probable size of the early burying place and of its subsequent enlargements.
When William Carpenter was buried in 1658 Rehoboth had been settled fifteen years, during which period the vital records register fifteen deaths. This list is undoubtedly not complete, for it does not commence until 1647 and there are no death nor burial records for the years 1643, 1644, 1645, 1646, 1648, 1651, 1652, 1655, and 1656. There were probably not too many deaths in those missing years, for there were very few old persons in the settlement. During these early years most of those who died were undoubtedly buried in the old part of this cemetery near the William Carpenter grave.
For the ten years, from 1658 to 1668 inclusive, the records show a total of 28 deaths, or an average of two and eight tenths for each year. In the next six years, to 1674 inclusive, 28 deaths are re- corded bringing the total for the twenty-eight year period to 71, or an average of about three for each year.
During King Philip's War, 1675 and 1676, there were 54 town (resident) deaths recorded which number is equal to 76 per centum of all the recorded deaths for the previous twenty-eight years. From 1677 to 1680 inclusive, there were 21 recorded deaths, or an average of about five for each year. This is a total of 146 recorded deaths in the thirty-four years from 1647 to 1680, an average of about four for each year.
The old graves were placed close together in rows with little of the waste of land found in today's family lot system with the numerous paths and avenues connected. Allowing a space of four by ten feet, or 40 square feet for each grave, would seem to be a reasonable figure for the space required for one burial.
We now have before us probably all the data on this early burial . place that will ever be found. These prove conclusively that the first burial space was not a church cemetery as we understand the term today, but was a central town burying place at some distance from and distinct and separate from the meeting house. The fol- lowing brief summary presents a very clear picture of this first ceme- tery and its subsequent three additions.
Standing at the William Carpenter 1658 gravestone and looking around at the other early gravestones in this cemetery, one is im- pressed with the fact that this point must be about the center of the original first burying place. Radiating from this Carpenter stone like ripples in a pond-east, south, west, and northwest are stones dated in the late 1600's and early 1700's. Today there are no grave- stones in the north area between this Carpenter stone and the Minis- ters' monument although fifty years ago there were many .*
* The writer remembers that around the turn of the century there were at least two or three times as many of these old field stone markers in this cemetery as there are today-some had in-
35
' The 1790 Map
From the dates of the extant stones, the location of the small plot of ground ordered fenced in with a stone wall in 1668 can be easily visualized. The 1658 Carpenter stone would appear to stand nearly in the center of this plot; its west and north lines are fixed by the dates of the gravestones, and its size appears to have been about four rods long east and west by three rods wide north and south, with a content of about twelve square rods. On the basis of forty square feet for each grave, this small plot would accommodate 83 graves.
In 1668 Rehoboth had been settled twenty-five years, during which time the incomplete records show that there had been 43 deaths. If this first burying place contained twelve square rods of land, then on the basis of the recorded deaths it was about half full of graves, but the fact that it was necessary to enlarge the en- closure proves that it must have been pretty well filled.
The first addition to the original burying spot was made in 1680 when a town meeting voted that the "Burrieing place should be fenced in with a stone fence". Only a brief survey of the extant gravestones is necessary to show that this town order meant a con- siderable enlargement of the original 1668 burying place which appears to have been filled with graves and over-flowing several years before 1680.
The limits of this first addition are pretty well defined by the 1683 Harmon gravestone on the west, the 1679 Philip Walker grave- stone on the northwest, and the fringe of later gravestones which limit the original 1668 burying place on the east and south.
From the location of these stones, the 1680 burying place area appears to have been about five rods wide on a north and south line; eight rods long on an east and west line, and to have contained about 40 square rods, or a quarter of an acre of land, including the twelve rod area of 1668. The north side of this quarter-acre tract was about 160 feet south of the present north wall of the cemetery at the Slack Tomb; the east side about 190 feet west of the present east wall on Pawtucket Avenue; the south side about 190 feet north of the north line of the six-acre pastor's lot; and the west side about 110 feet east of the present west cemetery wall. See map, page 39.
Allowing forty square feet for each grave, one-quarter acre of land would accomodate 273 graves, including the 83 in the 1668 area. When the burying place was for the second time ordered en- closed with a stone wall in 1680, Rehoboth had then been settled thirty-seven years, during which period the incomplete records show that there had been 146 deaths, or four for each year. The estimated capacity of the 1680 enlargement was 190 graves.
The second addition to the burying place was made in 1737/8, when land was added on the east, south, west, and north, by ex- tending north the east and west lines of the narrow 24-rod width
scriptions and others had none. Each year a few stones disappeared; many went into the founda- tions of modern monuments, and others into the cemetery wall. A long line of cemetery superin- tendents aided and abetted in every way the removal of these old stones in order to make it easier to cut the cemetery grass. At least three times in the last forty years, this promiscuous up-rooting of old gravestones reached such heights that the Providence Journal printed long articles of protest with pictures of large heaps of these "pulled up" stones.
1149672
36
Early Rehoboth
of the pastor's lot on the south. On the east side, the new line extended straight to the new north line; on the west side, the new line extended straight to within 712 rods of the later 1790 north line; thence northeasterly to the north line by means of two additional courses representing the hypothenuse of a triangle of which the west and north sides were about 107 feet. This angle is important for it undoubtedly has a bearing on the location of the first meeting-house, as only some obstruction to be avoided, such as meeting house horse sheds, would explain the offset. The cemetery now had an area of 3.93 acres including the land occupied by the combined 1668 and 1680 burying place which was located a little north and west of the middle of the enlarged cemetery.
The third addition to the burying place was made in 1790 when it was again enlarged "to where the fence now stands" (as shown on the 1790 map). The addition consisted of three pieces of land: the small triangle in the northwestern corner; a long narrow triangle in the northeastern corner; and a long narrow strip on the western side. This 1790 addition, final to the present day, added approxi- mately one-half acre of land to the 1737/8 area of 3.93 acres, making the size of the 1790 burying place 4.49 acres.
There are no seventeenth and only a few eighteenth century gravestones between the Ministers' monument and the present north wall of the cemetery. The addition of the two triangles of land on the north was apparently made for the sole purpose of straightening out the north line. The present tombs were built on or near these two parcels of land.
The Slack tomb *, "Erected to the memory of Col. Eliphalet Slack and Family, 1825" stands about one hundred feet from the west end of this north stone wall and close to the south side. One hundred feet farther to the east and close to the south side of this north wall, is the "Proprietors' Tomb erected 1826". For some reason most of the burials were to the west of the original burying place, and the long narrow strip of land was added to the west to take care of this expansion.
On the 1790 map, the length of the north end of the "Burying Yard" wall, south of what is now Newman Avenue, is shown as 25 rods, or 41212 feet. On the "Plan of Land Scituated in Seekonk and Owned by the Towns of Seekonk and Rehoboth,t by J. N.
* When the writer was a boy there was a story current that when the body of the last member of the Slack family was placed in this tomb, the original iron door was locked and the key thrown into the nearby Meeting House pond. The writer has a pencil sketch which he made of this tomb in 1890 before the iron door had rusted off and the opening closed with the present brick wall; also, a sketch of the bas-relief on a blue slate stone showing an old woman sitting in a chair and smoking a corn-cob pipe. In later years some vandal obliterated this figure, and today the stone has dis- appeared. Unfortunately, the name of the deceased does not appear on the sketch.
t In 1853 the towns of Seekonk and Rehoboth applied to the Massachusetts Legislature for per- mission to sell the common and undivided lands in the old town of Rehoboth. On 8 Apr. 1853, the legislature passed an act authorizing the towns of Rehoboth and Seekonk to sell all public lands belonging to them jointly, the proceeds of the sales to be apportioned to the support of the schools respectively. The towns were authorized to appropriate any part of the lands for a cemetery upon such terms and conditions and for such sums of money as could be agreed upon before sales were made. [Private and Special Statutes of Mass. (1849-1853), Boston 1860, p. 638.]
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