Copp's Hill Burying Ground
Copp's Hill Burying Ground is Boston's second oldest burying ground, located on Hull Street in the North End neighborhood. Established in the colonial era, the site serves as the final resting place for merchants, tradespeople, and some of the most consequential figures in early New England history. Its weathered gravestones narrate the story of a city in formation, recording the lives of Puritan clergy, African American residents, and the ordinary working people who built Boston's earliest neighborhoods. Today it forms part of the Freedom Trail, the celebrated walking route that connects sixteen of Boston's most significant historic landmarks.
History and Origins
The burying ground takes its name from William Copp, a shoemaker who once owned the land on which the cemetery was established.[1] As Boston's population grew through the seventeenth century, the city required additional space beyond its first burying ground, King's Chapel Burying Ground, which had been established on Tremont Street. Copp's Hill answered that need, growing into a community of the dead that mirrored the living community of the North End in its diversity and social character.
The gravestones found throughout the cemetery reflect the range of people who inhabited colonial Boston. Unlike some burial sites that catered primarily to the wealthy or politically powerful, Copp's Hill became the resting place for common tradespeople alongside distinguished clergymen.[2] This social breadth makes the site an unusually complete historical record of North End life during the colonial period.
Notable Burials
The Mather Family
Among the most prominent families interred at Copp's Hill are three generations of the Mather family, the influential Puritan clergy whose theological and civic influence shaped Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Mathers — dour and civic-minded in equal measure — are buried among what period records describe as Indian converts and other members of the colonial community.[3] Their presence at Copp's Hill underscores the site's role as a gathering place for those who defined early New England's religious and intellectual character.
The Mather name carried enormous weight in colonial Boston. Increase Mather and his son Cotton Mather were among the most powerful religious figures of their era, wielding influence over matters of faith, governance, and public morality. Their burials at Copp's Hill have made the site a place of particular interest for scholars and visitors seeking to understand the Puritan foundations of American civic culture.
Merchants and Tradespeople
Beyond the Mather family, the cemetery holds the remains of numerous merchants who formed the commercial backbone of early Boston.[4] These were the men and women who ran shops, worked the docks, and kept the economic life of the North End functioning through periods of colonial hardship and revolutionary upheaval. Their gravestones, many still legible, offer names, dates, and occasionally epitaphs that give texture to lives otherwise lost to history.
The African American Section
Copp's Hill Burying Ground includes a substantial African American section, making it a significant site in the history of Boston's Black community.[5] This portion of the cemetery is among the earliest formal burial spaces for African Americans in New England. The presence of this section reflects the demographics of the North End during the colonial period, when a significant number of free and enslaved Black residents lived and worked in the neighborhood. The graves here represent lives that were often underdocumented in the written records of the time, lending the physical space of the cemetery an added historical weight.
Role in Colonial and Revolutionary Boston
Copp's Hill Burying Ground occupies elevated ground in the North End, a position that made it strategically significant during the American Revolution. The hill offered commanding views over the Charles River and the surrounding waterways, and British forces made use of the terrain during the conflict. Cannonballs were reportedly fired from the hill's heights during the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the cemetery itself shows physical evidence of this period, with some gravestones bearing marks left by musket-ball target practice attributed to British soldiers.
The proximity of the burying ground to other key Revolutionary sites reinforces its importance on the Freedom Trail. Visitors who follow the trail through the North End typically pass Copp's Hill before crossing the bridge over the Charles River to reach the USS Constitution, the historic warship known as "Old Ironsides."[6] This sequence places the burying ground within a broader narrative arc that moves from colonial settlement through revolution and into the early republic.
The Gravestones as Historical Documents
The gravestones at Copp's Hill Burying Ground function as primary historical documents, recording the population of the North End across the colonial period.[7] Early New England gravestone carving developed a distinctive visual vocabulary during this era, featuring winged death's-heads, hourglasses, and other symbols that marked the Puritan understanding of mortality and the afterlife. Later stones from the eighteenth century show a gradual shift toward cherubs and then toward classical urns and willows, reflecting broader changes in religious and aesthetic sensibility.
The stones vary considerably in their preservation. Some remain in excellent condition, their inscriptions clear despite centuries of exposure to the harsh New England climate. Others have suffered significant erosion, with text and imagery fading to the point of illegibility. This physical deterioration is an ongoing concern for historic preservation advocates who work to document and maintain the site.
Incidents and Preservation Challenges
The Stolen Headstone
The burying ground has not been immune to theft and vandalism over the course of its history. In one documented case, a sailor who was twenty years old at the time removed a three-hundred-year-old tombstone from a tool shed at Copp's Hill Burying Ground in 1955, taking it back with him after his visit.[8] The headstone was eventually returned, illustrating both the vulnerability of historic cemetery artifacts and the enduring sense of obligation that can attach to objects of such historical significance.
Tree Fall of 2024
In April 2024, an ash tree measuring forty inches in diameter fell within Copp's Hill Burying Ground at approximately 2:30 in the morning, causing damage to the historic site.[9] The incident was reported by the Boston Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees the management of the burying ground. The fall of a tree of that size within an active historic cemetery raises particular concerns, given the potential for damage to irreplaceable gravestones and the subsurface archaeological record that the grounds contain.
Events of this kind highlight the ongoing maintenance challenges that come with managing an outdoor historic site that is centuries old. Trees planted in or around old cemeteries can eventually pose risks to the very monuments they were intended to complement, and the management of aging vegetation is a recurring issue for those responsible for historic burying grounds across New England.
The Freedom Trail Connection
Copp's Hill Burying Ground is a designated stop on the Freedom Trail, the 2.5-mile walking route through downtown Boston and the North End that connects sixteen historic sites associated with the colonial and Revolutionary periods.[10] The trail is marked by a red stripe on the sidewalk and draws visitors from around the world who walk its full length, moving from Boston Common through a sequence of sites that includes the Park Street Church, the Granary Burying Ground, King's Chapel, the Old South Meeting House, the Old State House, Faneuil Hall, and eventually the North End's Paul Revere House and Copp's Hill.
The placement of Copp's Hill near the end of the trail's North End segment means that visitors encounter it after engaging with several other major sites. Coming off the energy of the Paul Revere House and the surrounding neighborhood, the quiet of the burying ground offers a contemplative counterpoint. The elevated position of the site also provides views that help visitors orient themselves within the broader geography of Boston Harbor and the Charles River.
Visiting
Copp's Hill Burying Ground is open to the public and located on Hull Street in the North End, a neighborhood that is also home to numerous restaurants, cafes, and the Old North Church.[11] The site is accessible on foot from other Freedom Trail landmarks and is a short walk from North Station and the waterfront. As with all historic burying grounds in Boston, visitors are asked to treat the site respectfully, refraining from rubbing or otherwise touching the gravestones, a practice that accelerates erosion.
The surrounding North End neighborhood provides ample context for understanding the community that Copp's Hill served. The streets around Hull Street retain much of their historic character, with narrow lanes and brick architecture that evoke the scale and texture of colonial Boston. For those completing the Freedom Trail, the visit to Copp's Hill flows naturally into the short walk to the Charlestown waterfront and the USS Constitution, rounding out the trail's narrative of Boston's foundational history.