affrey’s
oldest cemetery
is located
just
behind the
Meetinghouse a
short distance
north of
Route 124 in Jaffrey
Center.
The original
grant of
the township—at
first called
Middle Monadnock
No. 2—was
made in
1749 and
among the
stipulations was
“that a good Convenient
Meeting
House be
Built .
. . as near the
Centerof the Town
. . . and Ten
Acres of Land
reserved for Publick Uses.”
The
Old Burying
Ground
from the
tower
of the
Meetinghouse.
(1994.
No 2398-A)
The Burying
Ground qualified
as such
a use and
so too the
Common for
military training
and reviews.
Later, a
petition
to the Township
proprietors
noted that
before incorporation
in 1773
a burying
place had
been reserved
on the Common
“ . . . and
some persons
interred there.”
The Town
History mentions Captain
John Groat who died in
1771. He is
said to have
been the first
permanent settler
in what
is now Jaffrey,
having arrived
in 1758.
According
to local
legend he
was laid
to rest
on the spot
over which
the Meetinghouse
was raised
four years
later.
The present
form of
the Burying
Ground reflects
the work
of a committee
appointed
by the Town
in 1784.
Of the four
members, three—Roger
Gilmore (A), Daniel
Emery (B)
and Adonijah
Howe (C)—are
buried within.
No trace
remains
of the earliest
gravesites,
but at least
eight marked
graves pre-date
the laying
out of 1784,
the oldest
being that of
Mrs.
Jaen Harper (D) who died
in 1777.
The claim
favoring
Captain
Groat as
the Town’s
first resident
is not without
challenge
as John
Davidson
(E) is recorded
as settling
in August
of 1753
(or 1749
if a complicated
technicality
involving
altered township
lines is
overlooked).
Certainly of
the earliest
settlers Davidson
is one of the
few who is without
question
buried here
and whose
headstone survives
to the present.
His eldest
daughter, Betsey
Davidson, is
referred to in
some sources
as the first
white child born
in Jaffrey.
On the other
hand, Simon
Stickney is sometimes
accorded similar
status,
while his
younger brother,
Moses Stickney
(F), who was
born in Boxford,
Massachusetts,
has carved
on his headstone,
He
affrey’s
oldest cemetery
is located
just
behind the
Meetinghouse a
short distance
north of
Route 124 in Jaffrey
Center.