The history of the town of Dorchester, Massachusetts, By a committee of the Dorchester antiquarian and historical society ...

HISTORY OF DORCHESTER. 655
David Price, who died about 1653, left a large portion of his to the same. Most of the donors to the
Church have been dead upwards of a hundred years.
BURIAL-GROUNDS.
The first burial-ground in Dorchester is supposed
to have been situated around the first meeting-house
of the settlers, near the present corner of Pleasant
and Cottage Streets.
The ground now designated as the " Old BuryingGround," and situated at the corner of Boston and
Stoughton Streets, was agreed upon in November,
1633; and on March 3, 1634, the town voted to lay
it out five rods square. This has been enlarged,
from time to time, until it now contains not far from
three acres. This is one of the most interesting
burial-grounds in the country, having been used as
such for two centuries and a quarter, and furnished
a final resting-place during that time for the bodies
of no less than six thousand persons. Many of the
descendants of the first settlers, fiom far and near,
visit this sacred spot. Some " Old Mortality" might
here find objects of interest and occupation for many
a day. Like other burial-grounds in our country,
it was a neglected enclosure until a comparatively
recent period. About twenty-five years since, the
late Samuel Downer, a man of leisure and great
taste, devoted much time to its improvement, by setting out and cultivating within its borders a variety
of ornamental trees and flowers. It is believed that
no burial-ground in the United States has inscriptions so ancient as some here found, excepting per