(Elder Faunce was the last who held the office of ruling elder in the church. He was contemporary with many of the first comers, and from him comes much of the information we possess about the localities now venerated.)
The epitaphs in old graveyards possess much interest to the lovers of the quaint and curious, and this first cemetery of New England is not without its attraction of that kind. The following are some of the most interesting:—
This stone is erected to the memory of that unbiased judge, faithful officer, sincere friend, and honest man, Col. Isaac Lothrop who resigned his life on the 26th day of April, 1750, in the forty-third year of his age.
Had Virtue’s charms the power to save
Its faithful votaries from the grave,
This stone had ne’er possessed the fame
Of being marked with Lothrop’s name.
A row of stones on the top of the hill, near the marble tablet marking the locality of the Watch Tower, is raised to the memory of the ministers of the First Parish. Back of these is the Judson lot, where the sculptor’s chisel has perpetuated the remembrance of Rev. Adoniram Judson, the celebrated missionary to Burmah, whose body was committed to the keeping of Old Ocean. On the westerly side of the hill is a monument erected by Stephen Gale of Portland, Me:—
To the memory of seventy-two seamen, who perished in Plymouth Harbor, on the 26th and 27th days of December, 1778, on board the private armed brig, General Arnold, of twenty guns, James Magee, of Boston, Commander; sixty of whom were buried in this spot.
About midway on the easterly slope a little to the north of the main path up the hill, on the stone to a child aged one month:—
He glanced into our world to see
A sample of our miserie.
On a stone a little farther north, to the memory of four children, aged respectively thirty-six, twenty-one, seventeen and two years:—
Stop traveller and shed a tear