Burial Hill

Last updated

Burial Hill
William bradford grave.JPG
William Bradford's monument
USA Massachusetts location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationSchool Street, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Coordinates 41°57′22″N70°39′58″W / 41.95611°N 70.66611°W / 41.95611; -70.66611
Built1620
NRHP reference No. 13000582
Added to NRHPAugust 7, 2013 [1]

Burial Hill is a historic cemetery or burying ground on School Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Established in the 17th century, it is the burial site of several Pilgrims, the founding settlers of Plymouth Colony. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013. [1]

Contents

Description

Burial Hill is located just west of Plymouth's Main Street, which parallels the shoreline of Plymouth Bay, and is at the southwest end of Leyden Street, which parallels Town Brook to the south, and was the first street laid out when the Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620. The hill rises 165 feet (50 m) above sea level, and provides commanding views over the surrounding landscape and coastline. The main entrance to the cemetery is just north of the First Parish Church in Plymouth, whose current building is the fifth to stand on the same site. A network of paved footpaths are laid out through the cemetery's 5.1 acres (2.1 ha), with stairs located along steeper sections. There are more than 2,000 marked graves, dating from 1680 to 1957. [2]

History

Burial Hill. c. 1890 Burial Hill in Plymouth MA.jpg
Burial Hill. c. 1890

The first Pilgrim burial ground was on nearby Cole's Hill in 1620-21. [3] Originally, the Pilgrims constructed a fort on top of Burial Hill in 1621-22 (a reconstruction exists in nearby Plimoth Plantation). [4] The Burial Hill fort also served as a meeting house for the colony and for the First Parish Church until 1677. [4] According to tradition, the first grave on Burial Hill was Pilgrim John Howland's. [5] However, he did not die until 1672; other people claimed to be buried there died considerably earlier. [6]

First Parish's congregation currently meets in an 1899 church building at the base of Burial Hill on the town square, near where it first met in 1621. [7]

Notable burials and cenotaphs

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plymouth Colony</span> English colonial venture in America (1620–1691)

Plymouth Colony was the first permanent English colony in New England from 1620 and the third permanent English colony in America, after Newfoundland and the Jamestown Colony. It was settled by the passengers on the Mayflower at a location that had previously been surveyed and named by Captain John Smith. The settlement served as the capital of the colony and developed as the town of Plymouth, Massachusetts. At its height, Plymouth Colony occupied most of the southeastern portion of Massachusetts. Many of the people and events surrounding Plymouth Colony have become part of American folklore, including the American tradition of Thanksgiving and the monument of Plymouth Rock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Bradford (governor)</span> English Separatist leader (1590–1657)

William Bradford was an English Puritan Separatist originally from the West Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. He moved to Leiden in Holland in order to escape persecution from King James I of England, and then emigrated to the Plymouth Colony on the Mayflower in 1620. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and went on to serve as Governor of the Plymouth Colony intermittently for about 30 years between 1621 and 1657. He served as a commissioner of the United Colonies of New England on multiple occasions and served twice as president. His journal Of Plymouth Plantation covered the years from 1620 to 1646 in Plymouth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Carver (governor)</span> Mayflower passenger and New World colonist

John Carver was one of the Pilgrims who made the Mayflower voyage in 1620 which resulted in the creation of Plymouth Colony in America. He is credited with writing the Mayflower Compact and was its first signer, and was also the first governor of Plymouth Colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Winslow</span> Governor of Plymouth Colony (1595–1655)

Edward Winslow was a Separatist and New England political leader who traveled on the Mayflower in 1620. He was one of several senior leaders on the ship and also later at Plymouth Colony. Both Edward Winslow and his brother, Gilbert Winslow signed the Mayflower Compact. In Plymouth he served in a number of governmental positions such as assistant governor, three times was governor and also was the colony's agent in London. In early 1621 he had been one of several key leaders on whom Governor Bradford depended after the death of John Carver. He was the author of several important pamphlets, including Good Newes from New England and co-wrote with William Bradford the historic Mourt's Relation, which ends with an account of the First Thanksgiving and the abundance of the New World. In 1655 he died of fever while on an English naval expedition in the Caribbean against the Spanish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plimoth Patuxet</span> Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, U.S.

Plimoth Patuxet is a complex of living history museums in Plymouth, Massachusetts founded in 1947, formerly Plimoth Plantation. It replicates the original settlement of the Plymouth Colony established in the 17th century by the English colonists who became known as the Pilgrims. They were among the first people who emigrated to America to seek religious separation from the Church of England. It is a not-for-profit museum supported by administrations, contributions, grants, and volunteers. The recreations are based upon a wide variety of first-hand and second-hand records, accounts, articles, and period paintings and artifacts, and the museum conducts ongoing research and scholarship, including historical archaeological excavation and curation locally and abroad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Degory Priest</span> Mayflower passenger

Degory Priest was a member of the Leiden contingent on the historic 1620 voyage of the ship Mayflower. He was a hat maker from London who married Sarah, sister of Pilgrim Isaac Allerton in Leiden. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact in November 1620 and died less than two months later.

Christopher Martin (<i>Mayflower</i> passenger)

Christopher Martin and his family embarked on the historic 1620 voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower on its journey to the New World. He was initially the governor of passengers on the ship Speedwell until that ship was found to be unseaworthy, and later on the Mayflower, until replaced by John Carver. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact. He and his family all perished in the first winter at Plymouth Colony.

Robert Cushman (1577–1625) was an important leader and organiser of the Mayflower voyage in 1620, serving as chief agent in London for the Leiden Separatist contingent from 1617 to 1620 and later for Plymouth Colony until his death in 1625 in England. His historically famous booklet titled "Cry of a Stone" was written about 1619 and posthumously published in 1642. The work is an important pre-sailing Pilgrim account of the Leiden group's religious lives.

John Howland was an English indentured servant who accompanied the English Separatists and other passengers when they left England on the Mayflower to settle in Plymouth Colony. In later years, he was an executive assistant and personal secretary to Governor John Carver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Tilley</span> Early English colonist in North America

Elizabeth Tilley was one of the passengers on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower and a participant in the first Thanksgiving in the New World. She was the daughter of Mayflower passenger John Tilley and his wife Joan Hurst and, although she was their youngest child, appears to be the only one who survived the voyage. She went on to marry fellow Mayflower passenger John Howland, with whom she had ten children and 88 grandchildren. Because of their great progeny, she and her husband have millions of living descendants today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Tinker</span> Early English colonist in North America

Thomas Tinker and his family, comprising his wife and son, came in 1620 as English Separatists from Holland on the historic voyage of the Pilgrim Ship Mayflower. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact but he and his family all perished in the winter of 1620/1621, described by Bradford as having died in "the first sickness."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Doty</span> Early English colonist in North America

Edward Doty was a passenger on the 1620 voyage of the Mayflower to North America; he was one of the signers of the Mayflower Compact.

Francis Eaton (<i>Mayflower</i> passenger) Mayflower passenger and New World colonist (1596–1633)

Francis Eaton was born ca. 1596 in Bristol, England, and died in the autumn of 1633 in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He, with his wife and son, were passengers on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower. His signature appears on the Mayflower Compact.

John Tilley (<i>Mayflower</i> passenger) Mayflower passenger

John Tilley and his family were passengers on the historic 1620 voyage of the Mayflower. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact, and died with his wife in the first Pilgrim winter in the New World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cole's Hill</span> Historic cemetery in Massachusetts, United States

Cole's Hill is a National Historic Landmark containing the first cemetery used by the Mayflower Pilgrims in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620. The hill is located on Carver Street near the foot of Leyden Street and across the street from Plymouth Rock. Owned since 1820 by the preservationist Pilgrim Society, it is now a public park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Parish Church in Plymouth</span> Historic church in Massachusetts, United States

First Parish Church in Plymouth is a historic Unitarian Universalist church at the base of Burial Hill on the town square off Leyden Street in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The congregation was founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims in Plymouth. The current building was constructed in 1899.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leyden Street</span>

Leyden Street is a street in Plymouth, Massachusetts that was created in 1620 by the Pilgrims, and claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited street in the Thirteen Colonies of British America. It was originally named First Street; afterward in the Records it was called Great and Broad Street. It was named Leyden Street in 1823, but it is also known as Leiden Street or The Street.

John Turner (<i>Mayflower</i> passenger)

John Turner was a passenger, along with his two sons, on the 1620 voyage of the historic Pilgrim ship the Mayflower. He was a signatory to the Mayflower Compact and perished with his sons that first winter.

Thomas Cushman (1607/08–1691) was a leader in Plymouth Colony, New England.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
  2. "NRHP nomination for Burial Hill". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved November 20, 2017.
  3. Frank Herman Perkins, Handbook of old Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its history, its famous dead, and its quaint epitaphs (A.S. Burbank, 1896), pg. 11
  4. 1 2 Frank Herman Perkins, Handbook of old Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its history, its famous dead, and its quaint epitaphs (A.S. Burbank, 1896), pg. 8-10
  5. Frank Herman Perkins, Handbook of old Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its history, its famous dead, and its quaint epitaphs (A.S. Burbank, 1896), pg. 13
  6. E.g., Squanto.
  7. Frank Herman Perkins, Handbook of old Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts: Its history, its famous dead, and its quaint epitaphs (A.S. Burbank, 1896), pg. 7