Freehold Baptist Burial Ground

Freehold Borough, Monmouth County, New Jersey

Directions: The burial ground can be reached by proceeding, from the Hall of Records in Freehold, southwesterly 0.9 miles on West Main Street (Rt. 537) to Barkalow Avenue on the left (also entrance to Rt. 9 North). The Burial ground is in Freehold Borough on the northerly side of Barkalow Avenue, about 1000 feet east of West Main Street.

Contact: Matthew J. Weismantel, Freehold, New Jersey

e-mail: [email protected]

According to Ellis' History of Monmouth County (1885), pp. 147-420, the Baptists in the vicinity of Freehold (then called Monmouth Court House) erected a meeting house about a mile south of that village in about 1765. Originally members of the Middletown (Township) Baptist Church, the Freehold Baptists became part of the Baptist Church of Upper Freehold (Township) when it was formed in May 1766. The Freehold meeting was served by ministers from Upper Freehold until after the Revolutionary War, when the meeting house gradually fell into disuse and decay. By 1820 sermons were held only monthly at Freehold, and probably were given in private houses.

In 1822 James M. Challis became the minister at Upper Freehold, and finding the congregation in a weak state he embarked on a program to strengthen his flock. He was so successful in bringing new members into the church that in 1834 ninety-two members were dismissed from Upper Freehold to form the Freehold Baptist Church. The new congregation also prospered, and in 1847 moved to the village of Freehold where it had erected a new house of worship. The burial ground alongside the original meeting house continued to be used by the congregation, and remains in place to the present day.

The earliest death date noted on the gravestones is that of Edward, son of Edward Clayton Sr., in 1774; his sister's death is noted in 1778. Two further Clayton deaths are recorded in 1802 and 1813. The earliest non-Clayton death is that of William Bennett in 1811; two Morford and one Emmons burial took place in the next few years. More than fifty deaths, many of them children, are noted in the two decades before 1840.

The records published here are a composite of a partial copy, mostly of the older stones, made by Russell B. Rankin in 14 September 1946, a complete copy by Mrs. Judith Pettie made in June-July 1956, complete recheck of both copies made by Edward J. Raser in the summer of 1967, and a recheck made by Matthew J. Weismantel in the period from the fall 1998 through the summer of 1999. By the late 1990's the conditions of the stones had declined markedly as the burial ground has often been poorly cared for, and it was very difficult to confirm many of the inscriptions marked down earlier.

During the last recheck over 114 stones were found to be "mostly unreadable", 8 stones were "broken and mostly unreadable", 11 stones were simply "broken", and 165 of the stones listed in past surveys were now unidentifiable. Past surveys have also indicated that the cemetery contained a number of fieldstone markers, some without inscriptions. A small brownstone marker, not otherwise identifiable, lies near the Peter Applegate plot and contains the inscription: "M. BDI/ AU 29 1828."

In the southwest corner of the cemetery is a memorial stone inscribed: "Site of the original First Baptist Church of Freehold, N.J. and out-growth of an Upper Freehold Township Baptist Church whose membership of 92 organized this church Nov. 28, 1834. This monument is a tribute to the memory of those who have contributed to the growth and glory of the First Baptist Church of Freehold, N.J. Dedicated Nov. 8, 1959."