Town's Heritage on View in Byram's Gamecock Cemetery (Old Burying Ground at Byram)

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead
Greenwich Time: July 4, 1989

An old burying ground can be a delightful and fascinating place to ponder the secrets of the past.

One such site is not far from the Byram waterfront, where large homes on shoreline estates overlook the calm waters of Long Island Sound. This burying ground is Gamecock Cemetery*, according to Town Historian William Finch, Jr.,  and is on the corner of Byram Shore Road and Byram Dock Street. 

It is one of the oldest historically significant cemetery sites in all of Greenwich. (*Author's note and correction: After the publishing of this piece Bill corrected himself and said that the name 'Gamecock Cemetery' was not correct. A monument stone near the entrance now accurately states this as the Old Burying Ground at Byram). 

Gamecock Cemetery, a community burial site for the early settlers, occupies about a half-acre of land on the south side of Byram Shore Road. Under the shade of some large sassafras trees are numerous gravestones. Most are quite simple in style and small in size. The majority of these are mere fieldstone markers anonymously concealing the identities of those buried below.

There are a number of sandstone, granite and marble markers, the most elaborate of these are located in the Lyon plot located next to the main part of the cemetery. Many of the marble markers have been worn away due to the exposure to natural and man-made elements, the most well-known being acid rain and air pollution. Some grave markers are broken or lying flat, and, regrettably, some stones appear to be missing.

Jeffrey Bingham Mead (r) with Greenwich Preservation Trust Chairman Jo Conboy in front of the Thomas Lyon House. 

It is said that Thomas Lyon, Sr, the original settler of Byram, was buried somewhere in the cemetery in 1690, perhaps marked by one of the many fieldstone markers found here. His homestead still stands today on the south side of the Boston Post Road, where it was moved to in 1927. Built around 1670, this central chimney saltbox is possibly one of the oldest, if not the oldest, house in Greenwich and sits as a landmark at this gateway to New England. Other Lyon family members are buried here as well as members of the Banks, Sherwood, Mead, Peck and Merritt families, among others.

It is said that in the extreme eastern corner of the cemetery, where the elevation declines, slaves of the old farming families of Byram are interred.

According to an article published in a 1931 addition of the Greenwich Graphic, the oldest dated gravestone in Gamecock Cemetery is supposedly on a stone that reads "M.B. 1717 Sept. 18." 

My survey of Gamecock Cemetery, as part of the townwide project recording gravestone information for the Historical Society Archives, has turned up a small fieldstone boulder that upon first glance appears insignificant. A closer inspection indicates a crude inscription barely legible. If this marker is the one belonging to "M.B.," who I assume is of the Banks family, this would be the oldest inscribed grave marker in the town, aside from the intricately designed gravestone of Gershom Lockwood at Tomac Cemetery, who died on March 12, 1718, aged 77 years. A fieldstone marker at the opposite end of the cemetery reads B.A.L. 1761, who is probably of the Lyon family.

A few grave markers are inscribed with epitaph poems of loss and lament. One found at some cemeteries is on the gravestone of Martha, wife of Michael Clear, who died Oct. 26, 1850, age 64 years, 6 months, and 18 days. She apparently had been ill at the time of her death, for as her epitaph indicates:

Afflictions sore long time she bore 

Physicians skill was vain 

Till God did please to give her ease 

And free her from her pain.

On the gravestone of Daniel Banks, died Sept. 13, 1832, not long after his 30th birthday, is an epitaph that conveys both goodness and didactic wisdom when he informs the reader that:

Once I was a blooming youth 

And always gave each man the truth 

But mouth and virtue cannot save 

But fit us for a peaceful grave.

The epitaph of Mary Ann Merritt, who died in 1831 at the age of 22 years, 3 months and 29 days, keenly expresses the sense of pain and loss felt by her parents upon her death:

She has lost! The rose that was with us 

Tis but transplanted to her native sky 

When thou shalt mingle with departed clay 

And thy freed spirit seek the realms of day.

Two Revolutionary War veterans are buried in Gamecock Cemetery. Daniel Lyon was a sergeant and Captain Abraham Mead's Company, 9th regiment. He and his fellow patriots were stationed at the Westchester border and placed under the command of Gen. Wooster from October 1776 to January 1777 after the Battle of White Plains on Oct. 28, 1776. He died August 29, 1817, at age 60. 

Daniel Sherwood of the 4th Company, 7th Continental Regiment, is buried here as well. He died on June 1, 1826, at age 70. The 4th Company was under the command of Captain Abraham Mead, and it is possible that this group saw combat in the Battle of Long Island Sound as well as the Battle of White Plains, according to Historian Spencer P. Mead's history of Greenwich.

Some of the older noteworthies at Gamecock Cemetery include Michael Clear, U.S. Navy, died March 28, 1858. Nancy, wife of Daniel Coley, died August 13, 1833, and whose stone features a carved willow tree motif, signifying morning. Benjamin Fairchild, died Aug. 31, 1866, is said to have been a blockade runner during the Civil War and may have lost his citizenship as a result.

This is one of the best maintained burying grounds of historic nature in the town of Greenwich. Preservation of the site began in 1931, when four men were put to work under the Great Depression-era Town Employment Emergency Fund. A number of trees were removed, rubbish was cleared, the grass was cut and gravestones were straightened. The grass is now cut by the town at taxpayer expense.

As recently as last autumn, students and faculty from Western Junior High School adopted the cemetery as an ongoing project. Spearheaded by the Student Council Government and their dedicated advisor, Patricia Ryan, and working in liaison with the Historical Society, the students and adults supervisors accomplished a successful cleanup of the site, with plans for planting flowers and straightening stones in the future. 

The active participation of people of all ages and walks of life preserving such places is valuable to say the least. One of my hopes is to see this site and others like it around town preserved by interested citizens of the community through "friends" associations, or a burying ground preservation association for the site, to protect and conserve the gravestones and the grounds as well, which would save money for taxpayers.

Gamecock Cemetery is a valuable historical treasure in Byram, an artifact of the past heritage of Greenwich and its early families. Further restoration and enhanced efforts by diligent citizens to preserve this and other sites are worthwhile and important to maintaining the continuity of our heritage.

Jeffrey Mead, who lives in Greenwich, is a direct descendent of one of the founding families of the town. He is a freelance writer and a member of the Greenwich Historical Society.