NEWPORT HISTORICAL CEMETERY #: NT003 COMMON BURIAL GROUND NEWPORT RI Location: 20 ft east of FAREWELL ST 7500 burials 500 ft x 500 ft in fair condition enclosed with a stone wall; sign in good condition NOTE: A land grant to Newport by Dr. James Clarke, 1640. Bayles' "History of Newport County," NY, 1888, describes it thus: "The "Common Ground," so called, is the oldest public cemetery in Newport. It was laid out about 1665. It remains today in all its primitive surroundings, and the quaint headstones of common slate, with their rude inscriptions, awaken a feeling of veneration which surrounds this spot with no little degree of interest. Here may be seen the graves of many of the early governors of the colony, that of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, the graves of our early merchants and clerical worthies. Many stones are dedicated the memory of old sea captains. The cemetery contains twenty stones on which armorial ensigns are cut; all of these lie flat on the surface of the ground, and of course have, like most of the early stones in this ground, suffered every sort of injury, even in a few cases, wanton mutilation. Among the stones on which family arms are cut may be mentioned the Cranstons, Sanford, Bayley, Wanton, Thurston, Chaloner, Buckmaster, Freebody, Vernon, Ellery, Sears, Gardner and Ward. One might almost write a history of Newport in this common ground, so full are the inscriptions on the stones erected here" (pp. 542-543). The Common Burial Ground was described in a general way in a speech entitled "Newport Cemeteries" by the Hon. Robert Stilman Franklin. This speech was published as a Special Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society, No. Ten, Dec. 1913, in honor of Franklin, who had just died. The article has a number of interesting if fuzzy photos. Of particular interest are the stones in the northern section for slaves and indentured servants. Most of these are marked as Section 01, although those from CETA may be Sections 1, 2, or 3, grid blocks 16 through 23. Recording the inscriptions in our database, as in other forms of African-American research, is complicated by surname issues: too few and too many. Often we find first names only, either because the person may not have used a surname, or because the parents had different surnames because they belonged to different owners and thus the correct surname is not known. The surname usually that of the owner. Notes of ownership are more common in the pre-Revolutionary period than notes on blood relationships; if both are present, the owner relationship commonly precedes the blood relationship on the stone. See James Garman's article "'Faithful and Loyal Servants': The Masking and Marking of Ethnicity in the Material Culture of Death" in "Volumes in Historical Archaeology," So. Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, Univ. of S.C., 1992 for a technical analysis of this part of the cemetery, including transcriptions in chronological order (entered as JG). Richard Youngken's "African Americans in Newport 1700-1945" treats the community as a whole with several interesting photos of stones. Various attempts to catalogue the stones have been made over the years. Henry Turner in the late 19th century included sections in his general work on Newport cemeteries (ms at NHS, typed transcripts of it there and at RIHS). These names have been entered and coded HET. In 1903 the Newport City Council passed a resolution to make a map and index under the direction of the Committee on Burial Grounds, consisting of George W. Ritchie, William S. Rogers, Joan E. Leddy, and William H. Lawton, City Engineer. The Map and Index (both the original and a reproduction) are at Redwood Library, Newport. Under the direction of Edward W. Connelly in the 1970's, volunteers including members of Naval War College History Club transcribed index cards at NHS, annotated the grid map, and noted changes since 1903. Brush clearing, resetting, and photography of stones were carried out at the same time (see Edwin Connelly, "The First Progress Report to Beautify, Restore, Catalogue the Common Burying-Ground, Farewell Street" in "Newport History, #152, Fall, 1973, 46.4, pp.96-100). Some of this information has been entered as CETA or EWC. Another, published resource is Alden G. Beaman's "Births 1590-1930 from Newport Common Burial Ground Inscriptions" in RI Vital Records, New Series, vol.II, 1985. This alphabetical list contains a useful grid map, and all stones are keyed to the map; Beaman also offers brief descriptions of plots within the cemetery. Although this material has not been completely entered in the database, his transcription of the slave/servant section (RIGR 8, #2) has been entered and is coded AGB. As of June 18, 1996 4,669 names have been entered in the database. The Common Burial Ground may be a historically and socially invaluable resource, but it has a history of erratic maintenance. Currently (1997) efforts are once again underway to catalogue all stones.