Old Common Cemetery
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Old Common Cemetery

Marlborough, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA

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Traditionally called the "Old Common" Cemetery for its location adjacent to the original Town Common, this graveyard was the second to be laid out in Marlborough. (Spring Hill was the first.) In 1706, foreseeing the need for a second burial ground, and the desirability of having one nearer to the center of religious activity, the town proprietors voted and acquired a parcel of the former Planting Field land here behind the meetinghouse from John Parry. In exchange, Parry was given land in the "cow common" outside of the town center. The former Parry land was to have dual uses, "as a Trayning Place, and a Burying Place forever." Its 2 1/2 acres included this cemetery, and probably the property the high school was built, as well as about half the common that stretched from the high school south to Main Street.

It is possible that the first burials here were unmarked, had wooden markers, or have lost their stones. The earliest marker is for Elizabeth Rice, who died in 1729 at the age of 37. The latest is the monument to Winslow and Herbert Arnold, of 1884.

The cemetery sits on about 1.3 acres. There are approximately 400 headstones, the earliest marked stone is ca. 1729, while the latest is 1884.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission refers to this cemetery in MACRIS as MAB.805 Old Common Cemetery.

This cemetery is referred to as GR2 High School or Old Common Cemetery in the "Vital Records of Marlboro Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849."







Traditionally called the "Old Common" Cemetery for its location adjacent to the original Town Common, this graveyard was the second to be laid out in Marlborough. (Spring Hill was the first.) In 1706, foreseeing the need for a second burial ground, and the desirability of having one nearer to the center of religious activity, the town proprietors voted and acquired a parcel of the former Planting Field land here behind the meetinghouse from John Parry. In exchange, Parry was given land in the "cow common" outside of the town center. The former Parry land was to have dual uses, "as a Trayning Place, and a Burying Place forever." Its 2 1/2 acres included this cemetery, and probably the property the high school was built, as well as about half the common that stretched from the high school south to Main Street.

It is possible that the first burials here were unmarked, had wooden markers, or have lost their stones. The earliest marker is for Elizabeth Rice, who died in 1729 at the age of 37. The latest is the monument to Winslow and Herbert Arnold, of 1884.

The cemetery sits on about 1.3 acres. There are approximately 400 headstones, the earliest marked stone is ca. 1729, while the latest is 1884.

The Massachusetts Historical Commission refers to this cemetery in MACRIS as MAB.805 Old Common Cemetery.

This cemetery is referred to as GR2 High School or Old Common Cemetery in the "Vital Records of Marlboro Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849."







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  • Added: 19 Nov 2004
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2098797