A Landmark in Round Hill (Burying Hill)

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead

Greenwich Time Greenwich, Connecticut

November 23, 1990

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When I was growing up in backcountry Greenwich years ago I would sometimes pass the old cemetery at Burying Hill. This site, encompassing about one-third of an acre, was overgrown and neglected then as it is for the most part today. The taller tombstones nearer the roadside seemed to struggle for recognition above the weeds and overgrowth. I did not realize it in my teenage and college years not so long ago that I'd be back to Burying Hill to explore its mysteries and solicit volunteers to clean up the cemetery.

This historic burying ground is the oldest graveyard in Round Hill. It is at the top of a very steep hill known to us more for its notorious reputation as a traffic hazard in the winter snow than for its enigmatic legends in local history. In our times the cemetery is surrounded by estates in one of the towns most exclusive areas. Two hundred years ago, most all of this land was either wooded or sparsely settled farmland. As a community burying ground this plot was set aside by the early settlers for common use, and it is here that they sleep forever.

The earliest carved gravestone here is a small fieldstone marker with the date 1762 May 3 A. D. The identity of the soul underneath is unknown and likely to stay that way. This is the case with most of the gravemarkers here, which are uncarved.

Amongst a number of the other gravestones is the tall marble gravestone belonging to Nehemiah and Sophia Brown, who died in 1810 and 1796 respectively. It is in the shape usually called a round top with shoulders, almost like a gateway to heaven above. A faded urn is carved on the top front face.

Nearby is the marble memorial still home to Jonathan Knapp, who died on June 8, 1796 at the age of 44 years. His epitaph reads: 

Tho all created light decay 

And death close up on our eyes 

Thy presence makes eternal day 

Where clouds can never rise.

The grave marker of Rachel, wife of Phineas Rundle, lies broken and leaning on the nearby stonewall with a call to the reader: 

Hark from the tomb a doleful sound.

The Rundles, like the Knapps, Browns and other families, were and old family in Greenwich, especially in the northern areas of the town. One of their homesteads is nestled at the corner of Lake Avenue and Lower Cross Road. It is probable that some of those buried at Burying Hill lived here and it other such homesteads in the Round Hill area.

Proper spelling and sentence structure were not among the finer skills of those who carved many of the earliest tombstones at Burying Hill or elsewhere. The word "deceased" on the field stone marker of I. K. (Perhaps of the Knapps) who died on "June ye 3 AD 1766," where the letter "D" is backward.

One stone that intrigued me concerned the inscription on the simple fieldstone marker of Amy Palmer, who died in 1801. The carver, apparently forgetting to properly lineup the name and date on separate lines, simply carved the inscription in a run-on fashion so that it appears as

AMYPAL

MERDECEAST

1801

44YEARS

Also distinctive is the marker that says "Here lyes the body of William Rundel" who died November 1788. This marker is again of local fieldstone carved to resemble a round top with shoulders.

Almost all of the fieldstone gravestones in the center area of Burying Hill have no inscriptions, and the fieldstones hide forever the identities of those buried, shrouded in mystery forever. I recall from an earlier cleanup sponsored by the Historical Society a tale passed down from the Revolution which may unlock the mystery of these rows of plain fieldstones. 

History records an incident in which the notorious British General Tarleton and soldiers under his command were returning from a raid. They were ambushed in the area of John Street by the local citizenry, and many of the British soldiers were killed or wounded. 

As Historian Spencer P. Mead wrote earlier in the century: 

"...the whole populace around collected in front of the enemy to attack and worry on their return. An ambuscade was formed at a defile at Round Hill, where the road passes through steep rocks overgrown with thick laurel. At other places on the return the British and tories were sorely pressed, but here are a deadly fire poured in upon them killing and wounding the great numbers." 

It is probable then that these soldiers and Tories in this battle in the heart of historic Round Hill were interred at Burying Hill, as it was the only such cemetery in that area, and this explains the rows of fieldstone markers.

Burying Hill will no doubt continue to intrigue and fascinate others now and in the future who may come to ponder the secrets of this historic site. The mysteries of Burying Hill will forever be hidden, yet my hope for the future of the site in its needed preservation will not be as elusive. The Historical Society in liaison with some fine young people have from time to time cleaned up this site. Surely an association or "Friends of Burying Hill" involving local residents and descendants could work cooperatively to care for, restore and preserve this hallowed place, one of Round Hill's oldest and most unique historic sites.