Hub needs help with grave concerns
City looks to reunite colonial gravestones with resting places
City Hall is asking for some unusual assistance: Archeologists need help returning 11 fully intact gravestones dating back to colonial times to their proper resting places around the Hub.
“They were placed by people just like you and me, just centuries earlier,” said Kelly Thomas, project manager of the Historic Burial Ground Initiative.
Some of the gravestones were unearthed during roadwork downtown and handed over to the Bostonian Society. Now the city has them.
The headstones range in date from 1684 to 1762, according to inscriptions. That means their rightful owners died while Massachusetts remained under British rule.
So how did they end up buried in the street? Thomas says headstones, being made of durable materials, were often stolen and used in construction projects around the city.
“There are stories of them being used as sewer covers. I’ve heard a story of one being used in a pizza oven,” she said.
Thomas seeks “historians, researchers, and genealogists who may have records” about where the gravestones’ owners are buried. Clues could be in old diaries, family records and other colonial artifacts, she said.
The mysterious gravestones are under the care of the city’s Historic Burying Grounds Initiative, which maintains sixteen graveyards around town. The headstones sit among 500 pieces of grave markers in the city’s archives, collected and managed by Thomas.
She told the Herald she feels a moral obligation to return the intact gravestones to their proper graves.
“I feel like it’s the right thing to do,” she said.
Here’s the full list of the gravestones, including names and inscriptions:
•Ralph Hewes, aged 62 years, November 3, 1692
•Edward Lillie, Sr., aged 60 years, December 27, 1688
•Andrew Tyler, son of William and Sarah Tyler, died February 15, 1726-7. He was born in Boston and baptized in the Old South Church.
•James Beighton, son of James and Elizabeth Beighton, aged 16 months, died November 14, 1726. Clue: There are two people with the last name Beighton in Dorchester North Burying Ground.
•James Hatch, son of James and Mary Hatch, aged 18 months, died October 30, 1753. He was born in Boston and baptized in the Old South Church.
•Elizabeth Harlow, daughter of Eleazer and Elizabeth Harlow, died April 6, 1762.
•Abigail Keech, daughter to John and Abigail Keech, aged 10 weeks, died August 26, 1684. She was born in Boston.
•Lydia Story, wife of Elisha Story, aged 31 years, died July 21, 1713. Clue: her husband had a Charlestown connection.
•Edward Buckby, son to Edward and Sarah, died Sep. 26, 1717. His parents were married in Boston in July 1714.