Cemetery Details

NT003 — COMMON BURIAL GROUND

FEATURED CEMETERY PHOTO COMMON BURIAL GROUND

Photo/Image Courtesy of Rhode Island Historic Cemetery Volunteers

Cemetery Number	NT003
Town	NEWPORT
Cemetery Name	COMMON BURIAL GROUND
Find A Grave	Go to Find a Grave
Graves List	Display Graves List
Location	FAREWELL ST
State	RI
Direction	E
Pole Number
Distance	20
Map Number
Page Number
Plat Number
Deed Book
Deed Page
Size in Feet	600
Size in Feet	1000
Inscriptions	7000
Fieldstones
Tombs
Exist?	YES
Last seen date?	2019
Oldest	1660
Newest	2004
Enclosure	stone wall
Gate	iron gate
Terrain	hilly moderate
Comment	A land grant to Newport by Dr. John 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 while most were originally box tombs, and of course have, like most of the early stones in this ground, suffered every sort of injury, even in a fewcases, mutilation. Among the stones on which family arms are cut may be mentione 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).
Cemetery Location
Cemetery Burial Map	Click Cemetery Map for Enlarged Version. Enlarged map will open in New Window.