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New Haven · Inscription transcriptions

New Haven tombstone inscriptions erected before 1800 · scan page 7

Uncorrected OCR. Name spellings, dates, symbols and column order may be wrong. Verify against the original scan. Dexter’s historical transcription covers legible pre-1800 stones in the crypt, the Green and Grove Street Cemetery. Bold type identifies crypt entries; OCR does not preserve that distinction reliably. Historical stone locations are not modern grave coordinates. Read with the 1914 corrections.

Searchable source text

FFkom  the  Papers  of  the  N.  H.  Colony  Hist.  Soc,  Vol.  III.  1883.]
INSCmi^TTONS
ON
TOMBSTONES  IN  NEW  HAVEN.
ERECTED  PRIOR   TO    1800.
From  the  settlement  of  the  town,  in  1638,  the  central  upper  part  of  the
present  City  Green  was  used  as  the  common  place  of  burial ;  the  latest
interment  being  (it  is  believed)  that  of  Mrs.  Martha  Whittelsey,  who  was
buried  by  the  side  of  her  husband,  the  Rev.  Chauncey  Whittelsey,  in  Oc-
tober, 1813.  In  1797  the  Grove  Street  Cemetery  began  to  be  used,  the
first  interment  being  that  of  Mrs.  Martha  Townsend.
In  1813  the  present  Center  Church  was  placed  on  the  Green,  over  the
tombstones  of  about  one  hundred  and  forty  persons,  whose  names
are  engraved  on  tablets  in  the  vestibule.  Between  1795  and  1831  most
of  the  monuments  on  the  Green  were  removed  to  the  Gr6ve  Street
Cemetery,  where  they  now  are,  some  of  them  in  private  lots,  and  the  re-
mainder (about  four  hundred  and  seventy)  ranged  in  approximately
alphabetical  order  against  the  west  and  north  walls  of  the  enclosure.
The  oldest  stone  thus  removed,  which  is  now  legible,  is  that  erected  in
memory  of  Samuel  Hodshon  (or  Hudson),  who  died  August. 36,  1673.
being, No.  403  in  the  following  list;  the  only  stone  older  than  this,
remaining  in  its  original  location  on  the  Green,  is  that  inscribed
E.  W..  and  numbered  936  in  the  following  enumeration.
These  pages  include  copies  of  all  the  legible  inscriptions  prior  to  1800,
now  to  be  found  in  the  Grove  Street  Cemetery,  in  the  crypt  under  the
Center  Church,  and  on  the  neighboring  Green.  For  the  sake  of  easy
reference  the  inscriptions  from  the  crypt  are  printed  in  heavier  type.
The  ari'angement  of  the  names  is  alphabetical,  with  the  partial  excep-
tion that  parents  and  minor  children  are  grouped  together  under  the
father's  name.  Prefixed  to  each  inscription  is  an  indication  [within
brackets]  of  the  location  of  the  original  stone.  The  annotations  are
numbered  according  to  the  inscriptions  to  which  they  refer.
The  editor's  task  has  been  essentially  lightened  by  the  permission  to
make  use  of  a  careful  and  elegant  transcript  of  the  epitaphs  in  the
Center  Church  crypt,  made  two  years  ago  by  Mr.  Henry  Trowbridge,  Jr.
Franklin  B.  Dexter,
November,  1883.

Cite this page

Silent Grounds Collective, Church Burial & Death Records, CH-P009-0007. New Haven tombstone inscriptions erected before 1800, printed page not verified, PDF page 7. [Dexter, Franklin Bowditch], 1842- [from old catalog] ed; digitized copy contributed by The Library of Congress https://archive.org/details/inscriptionsonto00dext/page/n7/mode/1up Accessed September 8, 2026.

Historic U.S. publication before 1931; public-domain assessment based on publication date. Internet Archive does not necessarily provide an explicit license. Preserve publication and digitizing credits.