It contains the gravestones of people who have played an important part in the history of East Providence and other American societies.

The oldest recorded burial is that of John Brown, Jr. (who died 1662), son of the man who purchased Wannamoisett from the Wampanoag Indians.

She died at the Swansea, Massachusetts farm of her daughter and son-in-law and was buried near there at Little Neck.

Today her grave is marked by a finely carved slate marker put up in 1946 by the Howland Family Association.

The Willett plot, surrounded by a stone-post and iron rail fence, is now marked by a large boulder put down by the City Club of New York and that also contains the original stones marking the graves of Willett and his wife, Mary, who died in 1669.