Week 40 - Cemetery - Dillingham

In 1632 Edward Dillingham immigrated into Massachusetts from Cottsbach, Leicestershire, England and settled in the town of Lynn.  In 1637, Edward was one of ten men who were sent by the King of England to found the town of Sandwich, the first English town on Cape Cod. All ten men received land grants for their work. Initially a Puritan, Edward later embraced Quaker beliefs. He played an active role in the community's civic affairs.

Edward had married Ursula Carter in 1614, and they had a total of seven children. I descent through their son Henry and his wife Hannah (Perry). Edward was my 8x great grandfather on my paternal side. (My grandma Porter was a Dillingham).

The oldest of my ancestor's burials in America would be that of Edward who was born 6 December 1594/1595 and died 1 May 1667 in Sandwich, Barnstable, Massachusetts.  The original headstone for Edward has disappeared, though he shows on the cemetery map as being buried in plot #264.

Old Town Cemetery in Sandwich is also known as Old Burial Ground cemetery. It is the oldest cemetery that I have ever been in. There are over 40 Dillingham's buried in this cemetery. A treasure map of my ancestors!

At some point a memorial marker was made for Edward and also for Elder William Brewster.  It is said to be in Old Town Cemetery, but on Find A Grave it shows that it is located in Auburn, Maine.  That would be over 191 miles away from the town that he died in. Obviously, there is some research to be done. 



In 2008, my husband Dan and myself along with my sister Carolyn and her husband Ken took a trip to Boston. We rented a car and traveled to the Old Town Cemetery in Sandwich. Of course, we also toured Boston, Salem and drove the Lexington to Concord Road. With a stop to tour the replica of the Mayflower, see Plymouth Rock, and a nighttime visit to a cemetery in Salem it made for an awesome trip.




We had a memorable trip and hopefully, there will be many more cemetery visits for us. But it was very meaningful to be able to pay our respects to the first of the Dillingham's to travel to the New World.

Barbie





Comments

  1. Marian B. WoodOctober 2, 2025 at 9:31 AM

    Sounds like your trip was fun as well as great for your genealogy research!

    ReplyDelete

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