Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register

[233] in Cambridge. It was used for that purpose as early as January, 4, 1635-6, when it was “ordered, that the burying-place shall be paled in; whereof John Taylcot is to do 2 rod, Georg Steele 3 rod and a gate, Thomas Hosmer 3 rod, Mathew Allen 1 rod, and Andrew Warner appointed to get the remainder done at a public charge; and he is to have IIIs. a rod.” But at an earlier date, April 7, 1634, we find this record: “Granted John Pratt two acres by the old burying-place, without the common pales.” This evidently refers to some spot devoted to the burial of the dead, earlier than the one then in use. Its location is not certainly known, yet it is indicated with some degree of probability by two circumstances: (1.) The lot owned by John Pratt in 1635, was situated on the southerly side of Brattle Street, and on both sides of Hilliard Street. (2.) The “common pales” are supposed to denote the stockade which was erected in 1632, nearly, if not precisely in the line of the present Ash Street, and of which Dr. Holmes says traces existed when he wrote his History in 1800. It is not unreasonable then to suppose that “the old burying-place without the common pales” may have been at or near the westerly corner of Brattle and Ash streets, in the grounds now owned by Samuel Batchelder, Esq.

A hundred years after the second burial-place was ordered to be “paled in,” the town enclosed it by a substantial stone wall, instead of the old wooden fence, or pales. The corporation of Harvard College contributed one sixth part of the expense, as appears by their Records under date of Oct. 20, 1735: “Whereas there is a good stone wall erected and erecting round the burying-place in Cambridge, which will come to about £ 150, and whereas there has been a considerable regard had to the College in building so good and handsome a wall in the front; and the College has used, and expects to make use of the burying-place as Providence gives occasion for it; therefore, Voted, that as soon as the said stone wall shall be completed, the Treasurer pay the sum of twenty-five pounds to Samuel Danforth, William Brattle and Andrew Bordman, Esq., a committee for the town to take care of the said fence.” After another hundred years, in his Preface to “Epitaphs from the old burying-ground in Cambridge,” 1845, Mr. William Thaddeus Harris says, “It is rather surprising, that, in this age of improvement, Cambridge should fall behind her neighbors, and suffer her ancient graveyard to lie neglected. Interesting as it is from containing within its limits the ‘tombs of the prophets,’ the spot is often visited by ”