I’ve been involved with local history and I write history articles for the Town of Plymouth , CT website. Follow the link below:
One of my favorite projects has been to oversee restoration and protect the Old Plymouth Burying Ground. It dates back to 1740 and possibly earlier as the original records have been lost for at least two centuries.
The two center stones are markers for two of the daughters of Rev. Samuel Todd, the first minister to Northbury, as the Town of Plymouth was then called. The center fieldstone marker was found and reset. It has been called the “Lucy Stone” as the child’s name was Lucy. Lucy led the way to finding information about her other sisters that died in infancy. Finding the graves of these babies captured our hearts and led the way to restoration efforts of the Old Plymouth Burying Ground.
Lucy was the daughter of Rev. Samuel and Mrs. Mercy (Evans) Todd. Rev. Todd married, Mercy Evans, daughter of Rev. Peter Evans, of Northfield, Massachusetts on August 3, 1739. Rev. Todd graduated from Yale College in 1734 was ordained in Northbury May 7, 1740, as the first minister of the Northbury Parish (Northbury later became Plymouth). Changes had taken place in church doctrine and religious philosophies. Rev. Todd was dismissed August 1764 and the Todd’s left Northbury. He and his remaining family settled in Adams, Massachusetts where he organized a Church of which he was pastor until 1776. After a brief stint as Chaplin in the Continental Army, the Todd’s moved to Orford, NH (about 1782). Rev. Todd died June 10, 1789. Mrs. Todd seems to have disappeared off the records. It is believed that Rev. Todd took his original church records with him when he left Northbury.
The Todd’s first child was discovered while I was researching the Todd family. Alathea born December 7, 1740 and drowned in a spring at Rev. Todd’s property located somewhere near the present day Terryville Fairgrounds in 1741–no other information has been found, but it is speculated by the Francis Atwater in his History of Plymouth published in 1895 that Alathea is buried next to little Lucy. Lucy (2), a twin to Chloe born August 7, 1756, Lucy’s (2) death is listed as January 9, 1757. Lucy (2) was 6 months old at the time of her death.
The Old Burying Ground is located next to the First Congregational Church of Plymouth and Plymouth Green and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Plymouth Green was created in 1747 of approximately four acres of land transferred through Caleb Humaston to the Society of Northbury by the Town of Waterbury to be used as a Parade and Burial Ground. The first recorded burial is Lettice Curtis. Mrs. Curtis was one of the many deaths from an influenza-like epidemic in 1749. It is believed that as many as 30 or possibly more deaths that were not recorded occurred that year in the fledgling community.
The Old Plymouth Burying Ground contains approximately 600 markers and it is the final resting place of thirty-eight Plymouth Revolutionary War soldiers as well as three veterans of the French and Indian War, and two veterans of the War of 1812. It is the final resting place of many signers of Plymouth’s incorporation papers, judges, lawyers, doctors, ministers, wives, children and infants.
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Books and Art by Judy Giguere 