A Visit to King's Chapel Cemetery
King's Chapel was founded in 1686 by the Royal Governor of the Province of New England. It was
the first Anglican Church in New England and in 1785 became the first Unitarian Church in America. It
was also the first church in America to use an organ.
The church was built on a corner of Boston's first burying ground because Boston's Puritan citizens
refused to sell any other land to Anglicans -- the people whose religious oppression they had hoped to
escape by coming to America. The Burying Ground contains some of the oldest grave stones in the city.
Almost all of the early settlers are buried there, including passengers from the Mayflower, at least
four colonial governors of Massachusetts, the patriot William Dawes, who finished Paul Revere's "midnight ride,
Elizabeth Pain, the model for the adulterous Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter.",
Mary Chilton, the first woman to step off of the Mayflower ship, and Hezekiah Usher, the colony's first printer.
In one corner also lies a monument to an unfortunate Frenchman, Chevalier de St. Sauveur. An assistant to the
French king's brother, he was killed by a Boston mob in September 1778 when he came ashore to buy food for
his shipmates.
The church and cemetery are located on the corner of School and Tremont Streets in Boston, Massachussetts.
Alphabetical Listing
- CHILTON, Mary
- DAWES, William, Jr.
- PAIN, Elizabeth
- USHER, Hezekiah
- WINTHROP, John b. January 23, 1588. d. March 26, 1649.
- WINTHROP, Robert
| 
