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Plympton's Smallpox Cemetery (Cushmans), Plympton Centre, Plympton, Massachusetts
An accounting of a 1906 visit to Plympton�s Small Pox cemetery by Messrs. Stanley W. Smith, Edward H. Whorf, John W. Willard, and William J. Ham appeared in Mayflower Descendant 11:64. On October 21, 2004 a �return� visit was made to this cemetery to confirm that the cemetery still exists, nearly 100 years after that previously recorded visit; and to make, perhaps, a final accounting of the people at rest there. The seven stones found in 1906, which remain mostly extant on what is today private property and in a starkly sad manner mirror the fading away of this particular time and place in our Pilgrim history, are those members of the Thomas5 (Benjamin4, Thomas�, Thomas�, Robert�) Cushman family, thus descendants of Isaac Allerton, Francis Eaton, and Degory Priest, as well as John Howland through Thomas Cushman�s wife Anna Chipman who is one of those buried here. In 1906 the names and dates of the individuals buried here were recorded. On this �revisit�, considerable time was spent in recording how the complete epitaph�s likely read. The stones are in very bad shape, and that of daughter Elizabeth is completely indecipherable, only being identified by the E. C. on the footstone. Lieut. Zebedee Chandler, died 2 December 1777 aged 65 years wanting 34 days. Anna, widow of Thomas Cushman, died of small-pox, 4 January, 1778, in her 49th year. Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Anna Cushman died of small-pox3 December Keziah, wife of Job Cushman, died of small-pox, 13 December 1777, in her 28th year. [On stone with son Nathaniel, who was�Buried at the foot�] Nathaniel, son of Job and Keziah Cushman, died of small-pox, 24 December 1777, aged 2 years 2 months. [On his mother�s stone.] Samuel, son of Thomas and Anna Cushman, died of small-pox, 20 November 1777, in his 21st year. Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Anna Cushman, died 14 March 1779, in her 14th year, Eleazer Rickard, died 28 November 1777, in his 69th year. Thomas Cushman, though he was the first of the family to succumb to the epidemic, was reportedly buried at Plympton�s Old Burial Grounds though his stone is not to be found today. Thomas and Anna�s daughter Sarah appears to have died after the epidemic was over but she was buried here as well.
Susan Roser's article on our visit to the cemetery in October 2004 appears in the Mayflower Quarterly 71:1:35-41. There Ms. Roser gives greater genealogical detail to the Chipman--Cushman family to be found in the Plympton Smallpox cemetery than I am able to give here.
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| Lieut. Zebedee Chandler stone | Lemuel | stone |
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The Plympton/Middleboro Smallpox Cemetery |
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