- Source: Central Burying Ground, Boston
The Central Burying Ground is a cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was established on Boston Common in 1756. It is located on Boylston Street between Tremont Street and Charles Street.
Famous burials there include the artist Gilbert Stuart, painter of the famed portraits of George Washington and Martha Washington, and the composer William Billings, who wrote the famous colonial hymn "Chester." Also buried there are Samuel Sprague and his son, Charles Sprague, one of America's earliest poets. Samuel Sprague was a participant in the Boston Tea Party and fought in the American Revolutionary War.
When the Tremont Street subway was under construction in the 1890s, burials were discovered in the area abutting the cemetery. These were reinterred in a mass grave within the bounds of the burying ground.
Notable burials
"British soldiers who died of disease during the occupation of the city [1775–1776], and those who died of wounds received at Bunker Hill"
William Billings (1746–1800), composer
Caleb Davis (1738–1797)
Stephen Higginson (1743–1828), American politician and merchant
John Baptiste Julien (d.1805), proprietor of Julien's Restorator
Gilbert Stuart (1755–1828)
Charles Sprague (1791–1875)
See also
Funerary art in Puritan New England
List of cemeteries in Boston, Massachusetts
Image gallery
References
Further reading
Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff. "Central Burying-Ground." A topographical and historical description of Boston, Part 1, 2nd ed. Boston: Printed by request of the City Council, 1871.
External links
Official website – City of Boston
Central Burying Ground, Boston at Find a Grave
Google news archive. Articles about the Central Burying Ground