Friends' (Quaker) Graveyard

Friends' (Quaker) Graveyard - Quakertown, Franklin Township

Source:  By J. E. Stout and K. Myers - 1994. Courtesy of Mrs. Joyce C. Leaver Carraway.

The oldest place of public burial in Franklin Township is the Friend's burying ground at Quakertown. Here repose the ashes of many of the earliest settlers. Unfortunately, there was among Friends an early aversion to the erection of tombstones with commemorative inscriptions. The records of burial do not date back to 1761, hence it is impossible to give any account of the earliest interments. The first burials recorded are:

"A memorial of the time of death and burial of Joseph King Senior, departed this life the 10th day of the 12th month, 1761, in the seventy-eighth year of his age."

"Our antient Friend, Samuel Willson, died the nineteenth day of the twelfth month, 1761, and was intered in Friends burying ground at Kingwood the twenty-second day of the same month, about the eightieth year of his age."

"This is our antient Friend, Samuel Large, departed this life at his house in Kingwood, the 9th day of the 6th month, 1765, and was decently intered in Friend's burying place there."

(From "History of Hunterdon and Somerset Counties New Jersey"; J. P. Snell -1881)


***** SOME ADDITIONS BY BEVERLY G. KIRBY-MCDONOUGH, NOVEMBER 13, 2004 *****"