Sandwich Old Town Cemetery

Dec. 7, 2014

Photo taken June 2017

July 5, 2010

10-12-2014

10-12-2014

The Old Town Cemetery is in a beautiful settling, on a peninsula surrounded by the lower part of the Shawme Lake and opposite the Thorton Burgess Museum. Thorton's ancestors, Thomas and Dorothy Burgess, burial sites are two of the five oldest known in the cemetery.
More history- from the book, "Sandwich, A Cape Cod Town" -
Old Town Cemetery- In July 1663 the records show "The town has agreed that the little neck of land that lies against William Newland's house shall be appropriated for a burial place for the Town." Newland's house was described in the survey of properties as west of Grove Street so the word "against" here means "opposite." There was an absence on Cape Cod of slate, marble, or other sedimentary stone that could be split flat and carved for a grave marker. These had to be imported from Boston or elsewhere at great expense. Many early burials were marked by horizontal boards of hard wood such as locust supported on posts, but these deteriorated. The earliest markers in the Old Town Cemetery are: Thomas Clark, 1683: Thomas Burgess, 1685: Dorothy Burgess, 1687 (his wife): Ezra Perry, 1689: John Prince, 1689. The Senior Burgesses are said to have imported their slate burial markers from England, but these broke up and were replaced in 1917 by new slates. Ezra Perry was their son-in-law, whose wife Elizabeth (Burgess) was buried here in 1717. Young Prince was the son of Samuel Prince, who came to Sandwich in 1680. (from a descendant of the Burgesses and Perrys)

This photo shows where three of the five oldest burials are in The Old Town Cemetery, the newer stones were replacements for Thomas and Dorothy Burgess, set in 1917 to replace their originals which had weathered away. To the left of those two is Ezra Perry's original stone, probably the oldest readable stone (and the fourth oldest known burial) in the cemetery. Earlier burials may have taken place with wooden markers, long since gone. Ezra was the Burgess's son-in-law and listed as a 'son' in Thomas Burgess's will. Erza's brother was Edward and from his line came Commodores Matthew Perry and Oliver Hazard Perry. From Ezra's line came Pres.Franklin D. Roosevelt and Gen. Douglas McArthur. Thorton Burgess descended from Thomas and Dorothy Burgess.

Map of Old Town Cemetery by Bill Duffy. Keyed to an available numbered inventory

2021

2021

2021

Photo Taken 29 Jul 2021