The non-sectarian lot-owner owned cemetery comprises 10.5 acres (4.2 ha) near Union Avenue and Lyons Avenue; the Elizabeth River lies at its western boundary.

At the time Irvington was beginning to form as Camptown, an unincorporated village in the no-longer extant Clinton Township.

[1][2] An 1889 report of the Department of Health of the State of New Jersey found with respect to the township of Clinton: "There are two cemeteries, or burial-places, in the township – Clinton cemetery, in the village and upon the banks of Elizabeth river, and Newark potter's field, down in the salt meadow section".

[3] Purchases of ground between 1856 and 1928 expanded the cemetery to its present size.

[4] In 2010, Clinton Cemetery was the site of two sexual assaults conducted by the same man several months apart; the offender was captured by police in the cemetery on the second occasion.