The Old Burying Ground
One of the oldest graves in the cemetery.
HERE LYES Ye BODY OF ISAAC STON AGED 31 YEARS DECEASED 10 OF DECEMBER 1690
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The Old Burying Ground is Lexington's oldest cemetery; the earliest graves date from 1690.
The entrance the the Old Burying Ground is on the corner of Harrington Road and Massachusetts Avenue, just across the street from the Battle Green. A house shares the driveway, which is marked with a small sign and the large stone shown below.
The cemetery contains the graves of many prominent early Lexington settlers, as well as soldiers from the Revolutionary War and the Civil War - even a British soldier who was injured in the fighting on the Battle Green and died a few days later in Buckman Tavern.
The Minutemen who fell on the Battle Green were originally buried here, but were disinterred and reburied on the Battle Green. A monument just off Massachusetts Avenue marks their graves.
Captain John Parker was suffering from tuberculosis when he led the Minutemen on April 19, 1775, and he died on September 17, 1775. Many believe he is buried in the Old Burying Ground, but no gravestone has been found for him. There are, however, two memorials to him in the graveyard.
Information about the Old Burying Ground:
- Google map of cemetery location
- Old Burying Ground brochure with annotated map (pdf, prints on 11"x17" paper)
- Documents related to Lexington's cemeteries, including old maps and deeds.
- Findagrave.com information on the Old Burying Ground, including photographs of many of the gravestones
- Lexington epitaphs, a copy of epitaphs of the Old Burying-Grounds of Lexington, Massachusetts, by Francis H. Brown, M.D., published by the Lexington Historical Society in 1903. (viewable online)
- Images of the Old Burying Ground
Images above, left to right:
Stone at the entrance:
Ye Old Burying Ground, 1690
HERE LYES Ye BODY OF DANIEL TEED AGED 28 YEARS DIED NOUEMBER 29 1696
Gravestones from the 1800's along the main pathway
THE GRAVE OF A BRITISH SOLDIER, WOUNDED APRIL 19, DIED IN BUCKMAN TAVERN APRIL 22, 1775