It is the last resting place of the artist George Chinnery, missionaries Robert Morrison and Samuel Dyer (his wife Maria is buried at the Old Protestant Cemetery in Penang), Royal Navy captain Henry John Spencer-Churchill (son of the 5th Duke of Marlborough and great-great-granduncle of Winston Churchill) and US Naval Lieutenant Joseph Harod Adams (grandson of the second president of the United States, John Adams, and nephew of the sixth, John Quincy Adams).

This left the Protestant community of British, American and Northern European traders with the only option of a secret night-time burial in the land between the city walls and the barrier gate, and the risk of confrontation with Chinese should they be discovered, or worse, desecration of the grave once they had gone.

[1][3] The matter was finally resolved in 1821 after the death of Robert Morrison's wife, Mary, when the local committee of the East India Company voted to purchase a plot of land next to the Company's headquarters and resolve its legal status with the Portuguese such that the burial of British Protestants would be permitted there.

[1][3][4] The cemetery was closed in 1858 after a new plot was purchased at a public auction in response to the decision by the Portuguese authorities that all burials should take place outside the city walls.

In 1977, the ashes of Lindsay Ride, who conducted considerable research on the cemetery and its occupants, were scattered there and a memorial to him was erected.