The map location is approximate.



Beginning in 1753, settlers who chose the first lots in Rockingham had an immediate obligation "to provide a burying-ground also in that immediate vicinity. It was located on the extreme southerly point of the high land which divides the valleys of the Williams and Connecticut rivers, and which is now [as of 1907] covered by a thick growth of timber. A lot was set apart for the purpose on the majestic bluff which runs to a point just back of what is known as the 'Lucius Bancroft' House," later owned by the estate of George Evans. "This formed the only burying-ground in the town from 1753 until about 1782, when the new cemetery in Rockingham village was opened. Only a few interments, perhaps a dozen, were made in the first burying-ground. The place was much neglected after the new cemetery was started." ("First Burying-Grounds" in History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermont, 1753-1907, Lyman Simpson Hayes, pp 116-117)

Many of those who died in Rockingham before 1782 now have markers at Rockingham Meeting House Cemetery. Possibly some families removed their loved ones from First Burying Ground (and other sites) after the newer cemetery was founded.

Sources:

"First Burying-Grounds" in History of the Town of Rockingham, Vermont, 1753-1907, Lyman Simpson Hayes, pp 116-117.

The Old Rockingham Meeting House, Erected 1787, and the First Church in Rockingham, Vermont, 1773-1840, Lyman Simpson Hayes and William D. Hayes, esp. p 1.

Vermont, Vital Records, 1720-1908, database on Ancestry.com: records of Rockingham, transcribed in 1919. The Rockingham Meeting House Cemetery is described as "Rockingham Old Town" on these records.

Inscriptions from Old Burial Ground (Rockingham Meeting House Cemetery) at Rockingham, Vermont, in the Cemetery Transcriptions from the NEHGS Manuscript Collections database, at AmericanAncestors.org, website of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.