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Subject: [GM-L] Watertown Grave Yards from Bond's Watertown.
Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 19:10:49 EST

Subject: Watertown Grave Yards
Source:The Early History of Watertown, Massachusetts: Including Waltham and
Weston.
Appendix I.
Source: Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of
Watertown,
Massachusetts, Includes Waltham and Weston - by Henry Bond, M.D. Boston, 1860.

p.1043

The earliest mention of a burying-place, in the town records, is July 5,
1642, when it was
"ordered that Hugh Mason, Thomas Hastings and John Sherman are appointed to
set up a suffic-
ient [fence] about The Burying Place, with a five foot pale, and two rails
well nailed, by
the 15th of 2d [? 7th] month and the town to pay for it."

The next December 20th, a rate was ordered and one item was, "for fencing the
burying-place,
6 pounds & 10 shillings." It location is not described, but it was
doubtless what is now
known as The Old Graveyard of Watertown. It is at the south east corner of
Mount Auburn
Street [Mill Street, or Cambridge Road] and Grove Street.

It is about half a mile west of Mount Auburn Cemetery. The terms of the
above order imply
that it was then in use and well-known as the burying-place, and it is
probable that it had
been used for sepulture from the first planting of the town. If any other
lot was used for
the same purpose before it, it must have fallen into disuse very soon,
leaving no vestige
or tradition of its existence.

There can be only extreme few, if any, older graveyards in New England, and
it was the only
one in the town (then including Waltham and Weston) for more than seventy
years. In it re-
pose the remains of the Puritan progenitors and kindred of hundreds of
thousands of people
not only of those who have lived or are living, in almost every town and
village of New
England, but of very many who are dispersed throughout North America. Some
evidence of this
may be found in the preceding genealogies [in this book].

The origin of the two next grave yards are of the same date. At a town
meeting, January 1,
1702/3, it was "voted that they give liberty to the Society belonging to the
Middle Meeting
House [Mr. Angier's] and the Society belonging to the Farmer's Meeting House,
to choose and
appoint some convenient place for each Society for burying places to bury
their dead in, or
for any others belonging to said town, and make return of their doings
therein. 2nd. Voted
that if the said burying place or burying places cannot be procured without
paying for them,
the inhabitants will pay for them, as they can agree, or as they shall be
valued by inde-
pendent inhabitants mutually chosen."

At a town meeting October 23, 1704, it was "voted, that the town will give
Richard Blois
three pounds in money and all the land lying between Capt. Benjamin
Garfield's field, Beaver
Brook, and the Country Road, and the road leading over Beaver Plain to be
four rods wide
through said land, the said Blois giving to the town treasurer a deed of the
land, as it is
already laid out, for the use of the town forever for a burying place for the
middle part of
the said town."

This land of Blois's was probably the four acre lot uf upland in hither
plain, granted to
his father, Edmund Blois, bounded north by the highway, west by common land
[i.e. not yet
granted]; east by John Loveran. This land* [*footnote: This lot was the
residence of the
late John Bright, Esq., and it is now occupied by his heirs], conveyed to
Blois in exchange
for the burying ground, afterwards belonged to Daniel Flagg, and at a town
meeting, March 6,
1720/1, "liberty was granted Daniel Flagg to fence in the Westerly Burying
Place in Water-
town, making a gate."

At a town meeting January 3, 1722/3, it was "voted to accept of the highway
laid out by
Daniel Flagg, near Beaver Brook, which is on the side hill, instead of going
through the
low land, where it was formerly." This is called Grove Street. This
continued to be the
only grave yard of Waltham for more than one hundred years. Other lots have
of late been
appropriated to the same use.

We find nothing further in the town records respecting the burying place of
the Farmers
(Weston); but it appears by the Middlesex Registry of Deeds, that, previous
to May 3, 1704,
Mary Sherman (widow of Rev. John S. Sherman) and James Sherman of Sudbury
(executors of
Rev. John Sherman), had sold part of a four acre lot, near the Farmer's
meeting house for
a burying place.

The second graveyard within the present limits of Watertown, is situated at
the inter-
section of Mount Auburn and Common Street, on the north side. The date of
the appropriation
of the land to this purpose has not been ascertained; but it was probably
about 1754, when
a meeting house was built there. Since this lot was opened, there have been
comparitively
few interments in the old, or lower graveyard.

Within the present century, other graveyards have been laid out, one of which
is renowned
for its extent, its natural beauties, and all the additional attractions,
which wealth and
refined taste can give it. But, although Mount Auburn Cemetery is within the
limits of
Watertown, it cannot, with propriety, be deemed one of its grave yards. It
is the burial
place of the wealthy and distinguished of the metropolis of New England, and
of a wide region
around it. It is situated in the midst of that region of small lots where
the first
planters of the town first settled, and as it contains more than 100 acres,
it probably
included a very considerable number of those ancient homestalls; but their
exact localities
are not sufficiently well ascertained to determine who were the original
grantees of the
lands. Deacon Simon Stone had a grant of 12 acres of upland, supposed to be
the southern
border of the cemetery, and previous to 1644, he had purchased several other
adjoining
lots, so that, at this date, his homestall contained fifty acres and probably
most of it
is embraced within this cemetery. Much of the land in the cemetery is not
adapted to
tillage, and it long bore the name of "Stone's Woods."

Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth

[see "Watertown Thumbnails" website below for a grand good lot of photos of
Watertown]

http://www.watertownlib.org/photos/toc-bus01.html

<A HREF="http://www.watertownlib.org/photos/toc-bus01.html">Watertown
Library Photograph Collection </A>

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