| Cemetery Number | SK100 |
| Town | SOUTH KINGSTOWN |
| Cemetery Name | JOSHUA TEFFT LOT |
| Find A Grave (Opens in New Tab) |
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| Graves List | Display Graves List |
| Location | BERRY HILL LANE |
| State | RI |
| Direction | SW |
| Pole Number | |
| Distance | 950 |
| Map Number | |
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| Deed Page | |
| Size in Feet | 55 |
| Size in Feet | 70 |
| Inscriptions | 0 |
| Fieldstones | 50 |
| Tombs | |
| Exist? | YES |
| Last seen date? | 2002 |
| Newest | |
| Oldest | |
| Vandalism | N |
| Veteran | |
| Pole | G |
| Comment | This cemetery is located 950 feet southwest of Berry Hill Lane. It is 2275 feet east of Ministerial Road at telephone pole #9243 and about 185 feet east of the bike path (Narragansett Pier Railroad bed). It is 55 feet x 70 feet, in poor condition, with no enclosure; the recently replaced historical cemetery sign is in good condition. It contains about fifty burials all marked with fieldstones, a count that comes from Arnold’s visit in 1880.
James N. Arnold visited this lot Feb. 25, 1880, his #26. Of it he says “South of this yard [SK017] a few rods is another in which we find 36 full and 14 smaller graves marked with rude stones only. We are informed several of these were Oatleys, some Lillibridge and Tefft, has been used some as a public yard.” When John Sterling first visited this lot in 1992, a hiking path cut through the center of the cemetery. Most hikers did not even realize they were walking on a cemetery and tramping down the fieldstone markers. When the bike path was constructed on the old Narragansett Pier Railroad bed about 1998, public access was brought even closer to this cemetery. The Tefft family association erected a no trespassing sign to keep people away from the gravestones, but when James Wheaton visited this lot in 2002, only eighteen fieldstone-marked graves could be identified. Because of this loss of gravestones, no map of this cemetery will be attempted.
In 1999 an extensive archaeological survey, including 135 shovel test pits, was conducted in preparation for the proposed Blueberry Hill development. The boundaries of this cemetery, SK100, were established through the use of machine excavation, and the dimensions were found to be 55 feet by 70 feet. Ninety unmarked tabular, granite head and footstones were identified. These would have marked 45 graves, a number very close to the fifty seen by James N. Arnold in 1880. For more information on this survey see Phase 1C Archaeological Survey of the Proposed Blueberry Hill Development in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, by Cultural Resource Specialists of New England, Sept. 1999 under RIHPHC permit number 99-2. This report is on file at the Rhode Island Historic Preservation Commission office in Providence. Below is a plan showing the historical features in the project area.
One reason for the unusual interest in this cemetery is its supposed connection with Joshua Tefft who was executed by the colony of Rhode Island for his alleged support of the Indian cause during King Philip’s War. Arnold repeated the then common belief: “Note, it was in this sequestered place that the celebrated Joshua Tefft was captured and afterwards taken to Wickford where he was drawn and quartered [1676], the only execution of the kind in Rhode Island so far as we know.” Joshua was actually captured at Providence where he had gone with a raiding party of 41 Narragansett Indians who burned Capt. Fenner’s house. He was interrogated by Capt. Fenner and other officers while Roger Williams recorded the proceedings on Jan. 14, 1676 in a letter to Governor John Leverett of Massachusetts. Two days later on Jan. 16, 1676 Joshua was taken from Providence to Wickford where he was turned over to the colonial troops. Two days later, after a brief military trial, he was hanged and quartered.
Joshua’s wife Sara Tefft is buried in Warwick historical cemetery #51. She died soon after giving birth to their son Peter in 1672. There is more information on this interesting couple in the Warwick historical cemeteries book.
Registered by Edwin Connelly in 1976. |
| Condition | fair |
| Enclosure | no enclosure |
| Gate | no gate |
| Growth | overgrown-weeds |
| Terrain | hilly moderate |
| Cemetery Location |
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| Cemetery Burial Map |
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