Burying Grounds, Graveyards, & Cemeteries
(under construction)
"I told you I was sick" -epitaph
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"You're standing on my face." -epitaph​
Our sleeping ancestors still tell stories, it's just a matter of tuning our ears in order to hear them! Indeed, they're begging us to remember - why else would they leave so many stones etched with ancient text, marking those who once lived and loved? Early gravestones, called "ideo-technic artifacts" by specialists, both commemorate the dead and admonish the living, and serve as this country's first public art. Some crudely carved, others professionally crafted, they leave discernible clues about those who lay below.
This page will explore Sherborn's graveyards and spotlight certain examples to help us sharpen the listening skills required to hear yesteryear's whispers.
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**Shoutout to Susan Tyler for doing so much work to document Sherborn graves for Findagrave.com
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From Central Burial Ground:
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Under this Stone there lies ye dust
of THOMAZIN COLLICUTT & just
Besides her her Granddaughter dear
BETHIAH GOOKIN lieth here
To threescore years and fourteen more
The one attains, or seventy four
August ye 22nd 1693/4
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The other near thrice seven weeks
Beholds the light, the Grave then seeks
March ye 1st, 1693/4​
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Sherborn has nine burying grounds, graveyards, and cemeteries, the very first of which is Old South Burial Ground (close to the Medfield line), followed by what was once just called "The Farms", which was largely abandoned for a number of decades before being re-cleared, and Central Burial Ground. Each of these dates to the 17th century, many years of mouldering! ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Regarding the three most ancient & sacred places, the town's first historian, William Biglow, says in his 1830 History of Sherburne, and Deborah Perry Dowse Coolidge reports in her 1918 The Story of Sherborn:
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Distances were greater in the days of muscle power alone, so graveyards were spinkled around town much in the same way that schoolhouses once were. In the 19th century, it was a pretty big commitment to harness up and trek from the town's edges to its center, especially with a never-ending list of farmstead demands!
In addition to the first three graveyards mentioned above, Sherborn has at least six other burying grounds, including The Plain, Brush Hill, West, New South, Clara Barton, and Pine Hill Cemeteries.
The Sherborn Historical Society's 1966 The Century Turns (the 2nd clip) and Anne Shaughnessy's 1974 History of Sherborn describe these places (the other 3 screenshots).​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
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A few images from Central Burying Ground (10/2024)
Pine Hill is Sherborn's prized Rural Garden Cemetery, the hilltop neighborhoods where our local predecessors rest. Here's a handful of October '24 shots that show some of the grounds & stones - much more soon! (some of the caption info comes from Merkle Monuments, Maryland)
