There were but one monument in this ground before 1700, six before 1730, thirty-seven before 1750, and one hundred and seventy-four before 1800, and three hundred and four all told, down to the present time.

   This old yard has not been much used for a burial-place for the last thirty years or more, and only two interments have been made for the last ten years.   There is now in this yard one tomb on the north side of the ground called the Baxter tomb, and now owned by Withington Caldwell; and there are three tombs near the middle of the yard, belonging, one to the heirs of Benjamin B. Howard, deceased; one to the the heirs of Judge Daniel Howard, deceased; and one to the heirs of Charles Howard and Wm. Ames, deceased; all built about 1824.   None of these tombs have any occupants.

   Where were the dead buried for upward of thirty years previous to the use of this grave-yard, which was not used till after 1683?

   The first notice of any other burying-place is to be found in the Proprietors' Records, Vol. 1, at the bottom of page 248, in the hand-writing of Samuel Allen, Proprietors' Clerk, made in the year 1689, under the head of "The lands of John Field both upland and meadow land hear in the Towne of Bridgewater."   It is as follows:

   "more on acre and halfe joying to the westerly side of his land liing on the north side of Meeting House, ranging all along the side of his land, being foure pole wide in breadth bounded in the corner next the Meeting House and Thomas Snell's land by a stone pitched into the ground and so running all the length of his land to the highway as it goes to Sandy Hill with allowance for highway on line beside said four pole and the burying place 1689 for those naibors y^t have made choise of it." {1689}

   The next reference to any burying-place found in the old records, is in the first volume of the West Precinct Record, at the bottom of page 5, in the hand-writing of Nathaniel Brett, Precinct Clerk, and is as follows:

   "At a meeting of the West Precinct in Bridgewater, November 26, 1729, the Precinct past a clear vote for building a new Meeting House at the burying place to y^e northward of the center of travel."

   I have no doubt the burying-place referred to in these two records of 1689 and 1729 are one and the same place, and is where the Rev. Richard Stone in 1835, and Mr. Edward Capen in 1845, dug the cel-