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This project is for those who are buried in the Old Burying Ground, located on 7 Springs Road, Bedford, Massachusetts.
Bedford's Old Burying Ground was laid out on October 23, 1729, the same year as the incorporation of the town. Israel Putnam, first deacon of the new church on the Common, who lived across the road, donated the one-acre site. The Burying Ground is located in the center of the town, and was open for burials until 1849 when the new Shawsheen Cemetery opened. The Old Burying Ground is the resting place of earliest settlers of Bedford, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
According to the Massachusetts Historic Commission in 2008 the Old Burying Ground contained 386 headstones, 284 footstones, 6 monuments and 14 mound tombs which record the names of approximately 496 individuals. It is estimated that approximately 1,400 people were buried there between 1731 and 1894 which is based upon a local historian's account in 1890.
Individuals buried here include Bedford Minutemen and Militiamen who fought at Concord and along Battle Road on April 19, 1775 and Black Revolutionary soldiers.
The Massachusetts Historical Commission refers to this cemetery in MACRIS as BED.800 Old Burying Ground.