Old Village Cemetery

[1][2] The first portion of the cemetery was set apart at the first recorded meeting of the settlers of Dedham on August 18, 1636, with land taken from Nicholas Phillips and Joseph Kingsbury.

[4] Many of the early ministers and founders of the town are buried there, including John Allen, Joseph Belcher, Samuel Dexter, Edward Alleyn, and Eleazer Lusher.

[3] John Fisher's was the first recorded death in Dedham on the "5th of ye 5 mo 1637," but the oldest gravestone still standing is from Hannah Dyar, who died September 15, 1678.

"[9] It was erected to mark the remains of the Bonnemort family but, in effect, it also greets those who will spend eternity within the cemetery.

[9] Few tombs exist in the cemetery: one built by Timothy Dwight around 1700,[a] one by Daniel Fisher, one by Samuel Dexter after the death of his father, the minister of the same name, and Edward Dowse.