The Shockoe Hill Cemetery is a historic cemetery located on Shockoe Hill

Shockoe Hill

Shockoe Hill is one of several hills on which much of the oldest portion of the City of Richmond, Virginia, U.S., was built. It extends from the downtown area, including where the state capitol complex sits, north almost a mile to a point where the hill falls off sharply to the winding path of...

 in Richmond, Virginia

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

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History

Established in 1820, with the initial burial in 1822, Shockoe Hill Cemetery was the first city-owned municipal burial ground in Richmond. The cemetery expanded in 1833, 1850, and 1870, but now is open only to burials of family members in existing family plots. Shockoe Hill Cemetery is on the Virginia Landmarks Register

Virginia Landmarks Register

The Virginia Landmarks Register is a list of historic properties in the state of Virginia. The state's official list of important historic sites, it was created in 1966. The Register serves the same purpose as the National Register of Historic Places...

 and National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

About five hundred Union Army POWs had been buried just outside the east cemetery wall from 1861 to 1863, but their remains were moved to Richmond National Cemetery

Richmond National Cemetery

Richmond National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located three miles east of the city of Richmond in Henrico County, Virginia. It encompasses , and as of the end of 2005, had 9,322 internments. It is currently closed to new interments...

, three miles to the east, in 1866-67. Two markers, one placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1938, and the other by the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States

Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States

The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, also known by its acronym MOLLUS or simply as the Loyal Legion, is a United States patriotic order, organized April 15, 1865, by officers of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United States who "had aided in maintaining the honor,...

 (a/k/a MOLLUS) http://www.suvcw.org/mollus.htm, in 2002, memorialize those soldier burials. See: The Soldiers of Shockoe Hill (Union soldier burials) http://soldiersofshockoehill.com

The City of Richmond owns and maintains the cemetery. The Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery http://www.rrpfoundation.org/foshc/, a volunteer group formed in 2007, is steward of the cemetery.

Shockoe Hill Cemetery is across the street from the Hebrew Cemetery of Richmond

Hebrew Cemetery of Richmond

The Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, also known as Hebrew Burying Ground, dates from 1816. This Jewish cemetery, one of the oldest in the United States, was founded in 1816 as successor to the 1789 Franklin Street Burial Grounds of 1789. Among those interred here are Josephine Cohen Joel,...

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Notable burials

The cemetery holds the graves of U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall

John Marshall

John Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches...

, attorney John Wickham

John Wickham (1763)

John Wickham was an American Loyalist and attorney. He was one of the very few Loyalists to achieve any sort of national prominence in the United States after the American Revolution, and is best remembered for his role in the treason trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr in...

, Revolutionary War hero Peter Francisco

Peter Francisco

Peter Francisco , known variously as the "Virginia Giant" or the "Giant of the Revolution" , was an American patriot and soldier in the American Revolutionary War. The cover page of a 2006 issue of Military History suggested he may have been the greatest soldier in American history...

, famed Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew

Elizabeth Van Lew

Elizabeth Van Lew was a well-born Richmond, Virginia resident who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the United States during the American Civil War.-Early life:...

, Virginia Governors William H. Cabell

William H. Cabell

William H. Cabell was a Virginia politician and Democratic-Republican. He served as Member of the Assembly, as Governor of Virginia, and as judge...

 and John M. Patton

John M. Patton

John Mercer Patton was a nineteenth century politician and lawyer from Virginia.Born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Patton attended Princeton University and graduated from the medical department at the University of Pennsylvania in 1818. He studied law and was admitted to the bar, commencing...

 (General George S. Patton

George S. Patton

George Smith Patton, Jr. was a United States Army officer best known for his leadership while commanding corps and armies as a general during World War II. He was also well known for his eccentricity and controversial outspokenness.Patton was commissioned in the U.S. Army after his graduation from...

's great-grandfather), United States Senators Powhatan Ellis

Powhatan Ellis

Powhatan Ellis was a United States Senator from Mississippi and a United States federal judge.Born at "Red Hill" in Amherst County, Virginia, he graduated from Washington Academy in 1809, attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1809 and 1810, receiving an A.B., and studied law at...

 and Benjamin W. Leigh

Benjamin W. Leigh

Benjamin Watkins Leigh was an American lawyer and politician from Richmond, Virginia. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates and represented Virginia in the United States Senate. Benjamin Watkins Leigh was born in Chesterfield County on June 18, 1781, the son of the Reverend William Leigh...

, and dozens of Confederate soldiers. Frances K. Allan, beloved foster-mother of writer Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...

, is buried here, as are perhaps the great love of Poe's life, Sarah Elmira Royster

Sarah Elmira Royster

Sarah Elmira Royster Shelton was an adolescent sweetheart of Edgar Allan Poe who became engaged to him shortly before his death in 1849....

 Shelton, and Jane Stanard, inspiration for his poem "To Helen

To Helen

"To Helen" is the first of two poems to carry that name written by Edgar Allan Poe. The 15-line poem was written in honor of Jane Stanard, the mother of a childhood friend. It was first published in 1831 collection Poems of Edgar A. Poe then reprinted in 1836 in the Southern Literary...

".

External links

• Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery