The Starr Burying Ground was established by Irish Quakers James and Rachel Starr after they moved from New Garden in 1731 to a farm on the Manovan Tract, in what was then Charlestown Township. Their land was located at the junction of the French Creek and the Schuylkill River. He gave an acre land on what is now the corner of Church and Main Streets in Phoenixville for a burial ground which was to be held by the Starr family for as long as it was needed by them. In 1820, Joseph Starr, in his will, devised "to [his] three daughters, Rebecca Ramsey, Ann and Amy Star, a certain lot of land, part of the premises whereon I live, containing one acre, it being the same lot of land which James Star, my grand-father, gave and devised for the use of a burying ground for the Star family, to hold the same to them, share and share alike, and to their heirs, until it shall be wanted for the purposes aforesaid."

It was thought only about 10 members of the Starr family were ever buried on a small corner of the acre lot. As the family declined with succeeding generations, the burial ground at first met with neglect, and then became a kind of unofficial potter's field, with interments being made for anyone who had no other connections in the area. In it were thought to be buried soldiers who died or were killed in the neighborhood during the Revolutionary War, immigrant workmen who died while digging the Schuylkill Navigation, and African Americans in the vicinity.

Eventually, Starr descendants moved their family members to the Maidencreek Friends Burial Ground in Bucks County. Being located in the Borough of Phoenixville, development encroached on the ground and the space became valuable for building purposes. A special act of legislature in 1868 empowered a trustee to sell the ground for development. The ground was sold and the remaining bodies were – mostly – removed to Morris Cemetery. Skeletons were found in 1872 and 1875 during building construction. Commercial buildings occupy the site today.