Granary Burying Ground

9W4Q+X8 Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Massachusetts

state

MA - Boston

county

MA - Boston

city

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The Granary Burying Ground in Massachusetts is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery, founded in 1660 and located on Tremont Street. It is the burial location of Revolutionary War-era patriots, including Paul Revere, the five victims of the Boston Massacre, and three signers of the Declaration of Independence: Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine. The cemetery has 2,345 grave-markers, but historians estimate that as many as 5,000 people are buried in it. It is a site on Boston's Freedom Trail.

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The Burying Ground was the third cemetery established in the city of Boston and dates to 1660. The need for the site arose because the land set aside for the city's first cemetery—King's Chapel Burying Ground, located a block east—was insufficient to meet the city's growing population. The area was known as the South Burying Ground until 1737, at which point it took on the name of the granary building which stood on the site of the present-day Park Street Church. In May 1830, trees were planted in the area and an attempt was made to change the name to "Franklin Cemetery" to honor the family of Benjamin Franklin, but the effort failed.

GRAVE

EST. 1660

Peter Boylston Adams (1738-1823)
Samuel Adams (1722–1803)
Crispus Attucks (1723–1770) African-American victim of the Boston Massacre, in a common grave with the other four victims and Seider.
Christopher Seider (sometimes Snider, 1758–1770), a boy killed 11 days before.
James Bowdoin (1726–1790), prominent merchant, 2nd Governor of Massachusetts
Rev Mather Byles (1706–1788), prominent minister and loyalist
John Endecott (c. 1588–1665), First Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony
Peter Faneuil (1700–1743), benefactor of Faneuil Hall
Josiah Franklin (1657–1745) and Abiah Folger (1667–1752), the parents of Benjamin Franklin, along with other members of the Franklin family.
Jeremiah Gridley (1702–1767), lawyer, defender of writs of assistance in 1761
John Hancock (1737–1793)
James Otis Jr. (1725–1783), lawyer, Revolutionary War Patriot
Robert Treat Paine (1731–1814), signer of the Declaration of Independence
Paul Revere (1735–1818), silversmith, Revolutionary War Patriot
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730) Salem witch trials judge