King's Chapel Burying Ground
Encyclopedia
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
at King's Chapel
King's Chapel
King's Chapel is "an independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association" that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed in what was formerly called "Stone Chapel", an 18th century...
on Tremont Street in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the oldest cemetery in the city and is a site on the Freedom Trail
Freedom Trail
The Freedom Trail is a red path through downtown Boston, Massachusetts, that leads to 16 significant historic sites. It is a 2.5-mile walk from Boston Common to Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown. Simple ground markers explaining events, graveyards, notable churches and other buildings, and a...
.
King's Chapel Burying Ground was founded in 1630 as the first cemetery in the city of Boston. It was Boston's only burial site for 30 years (1630-1660). After being unable to locate land elsewhere, in 1686 the local Anglican congregation was allotted land in the cemetery to build King's Chapel.
Notable burials
- Charles ApthorpCharles ApthorpCharles Apthorp was a British-born merchant in 18th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He ran his import business from Merchants Row, and "in his day he was called the richest man in Boston." He acted for the British government, and supported King's Chapel.-Life and career:He was born in England in...
, merchant - Mary ChiltonMary ChiltonMary Chilton was a Pilgrim and purportedly the first European woman to step ashore at Plymouth, Massachusetts.-Biography:...
, Plymouth Pilgrim, first European woman to step ashore in New England - Captain Roger Clapp, member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of MassachusettsAncient and Honorable Artillery Company of MassachusettsThe Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts is the oldest chartered military organization in North America and the third oldest chartered military organization in the world...
, died February 2, 1691, formerly lived at Dorchester (Capt. Clapp's son Desire is also interred close by in King's Chapel Burying Ground) - John Cotton (Puritan), Puritan theologian
- John Davenport (Puritan), Puritan theologian
- William DawesWilliam DawesWilliam Dawes, Jr. was one of several men and a woman who alerted colonial minutemen of the approach of British army troops prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord at the outset of the American Revolution....
(disputed), American Revolution hero - William EmersonWilliam Emerson (minister)The Rev. William Emerson was one of Boston's leading citizens, a liberal-minded Unitarian minister, pastor to Boston's First Church and founder of its Philosophical Society, Anthology Club, and Boston Athenaeum, and father to Ralph Waldo Emerson.-Biography:Emerson was born in Concord,...
(father of Ralph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo EmersonRalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
) - Robert KeayneRobert KeayneRobert Keayne was a prominent public figure in 17th-century Boston, Massachusetts. He co-founded the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts; served as speaker of the House of the Massachusetts General Court; and worked as a tailor...
, first captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of MassachusettsAncient and Honorable Artillery Company of MassachusettsThe Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts is the oldest chartered military organization in North America and the third oldest chartered military organization in the world... - John OxenbridgeJohn OxenbridgeJohn Oxenbridge was an English Nonconformist divine, who emigrated to New England.-Life:He was born at Daventry, Northamptonshire, and was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Magdalen Hall, Oxford .As tutor of Magdalen Hall he drew up a new code of articles referring to the government of...
, Puritan theologian - Elizabeth PainElizabeth PainElizabeth Pain was a settler in colonial Boston whose gravestone some writers and popular tradition claim was the inspiration for the grave of character Hester Prynne in the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne....
, whose headstone is claimed to be the inspiration for Hester PrynneHester PrynneHester Prynne, the young protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, is a woman condemned by her Puritan neighbors. The character has been called "among the first and most important female protagonists in American literature."...
's in The Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet LetterThe Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an... - Dr. Comfort Starr, early Cambridge physician and a founder of Harvard CollegeHarvard CollegeHarvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
- John WinthropJohn WinthropJohn Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
, first Puritan governor of Massachusetts
See also
- King's ChapelKing's ChapelKing's Chapel is "an independent Christian unitarian congregation affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association" that is "unitarian Christian in theology, Anglican in worship, and congregational in governance." It is housed in what was formerly called "Stone Chapel", an 18th century...
- List of cemeteries in Boston, Massachusetts