The Jonathan Purdy Family (Thebaud Place) Cemetery is on the west side of Mamaroneck Avenue between Saxon Woods Park Drive and Hunting Ridge Road. There is a gravel drive immediately north of Amodio's Garden Center which is the right of way for the cemetery. The cemetery is 1/4 of an acre on the south side of that gravel drive. Approximately 30 descendants of Jonathan Purdy have give the White Plains Historical Society permission to act on their behalf to restore the site. Thanks to the White Plains Historical Society, clearing of the site and some stone restoration have been completed.
The cemetery is protected by covenants and deed notations dating from at least 1828 and include wording reserving the corner of the property "used as a burying place for the issue, descendants and family connections of Jonathan Purdy, Esquire, deceased"; and granting access to "those who may have occasion of any necessary intercourse with said burying ground."
Thanks to Mr. Hock of the White Plains Historical Society, Ms. Corbeil, and the City of White Plains for their efforts in preserving this historical cemetery. Further information may be found at
http://genforum.genealogy.com/purdy/messages/2098.html and the White Plains Historical Society (http://69.126.201.176:4380/whiteplainshistory/).
The 66 stones recorded herein are from a copy of the Eardeley and Miller Survey received from the White Plains Historical Society. [Any newer comments are enclosed by brackets.] Stones found and legible during my 10 September 2010 visit have a photograph attached to the description by Mr. Eardeley. Mr. Eardeley introduced his survey with the following.
"White Plains, Westchester County, New York : Cemetery on Mamaroneck Avenue, between Mamaroneck, New York, and White Plains, New York : 1760 – 1864 : 66 stones : on the top of a hill on the west side of the road, not far from the road where the trolley runs from Mamaroneck to White Plains : a fine location : many rough stones here, illegible : copied Tuesday 2 April 1907 by William A. Eardeley, Post Office Box 91, Brooklyn, New York : a copy was made, at an earlier date, by the late Mr. Robert Brown Miller, of Brooklyn, New York, but he made no attempt to raise several stones that were sunken below the surface : the two copies have also a few differences which are here noted : the following arrangement is by Mr. Miller."
"The oldest stone is # 59. Christopher Purdy 3 April 1760. The latest stone is # 49. Maria Purdy 25 March 1864."
The Westchester County Historical Society has a record of this cemetery under the name of the Thebaud Place, Transcription Book 17. According to a copy of this record received from the Society, it was completed 28 March 1913. This record contains inscriptions from only 53 headstones. (The Eardeley record appears to be the more accurate.) The information from this record is included under the individual gravestones and {enclosed in curly brackets for identification.} This record starts as follows. "White Plains, N.Y. On Thebaud Place, about 1/8 miles n. of Rosedale Ave., near Mamaroneck Ave."