Belmont Manor Cemetery

The cemetery at Belmont Manor and Historic Park was featured in two activities last week: a field trip for 6th graders and a lecture about the results of a recent ground penetrating radar survey done there. So - I’ve been thinking more about it.

It is a walk from the manor house - past the formal gardens to the edge of the forest. There is a fence around it although the survey found some graves outside the fence. Were they graves of slaves or was the fence built long after the grave markers deteriorated and the fence was built around the area of existing headstones? Was the very large tulip poplar just outside the fence growing before the fence was built? The fence is not a prefect rectangle; there is a jog to accommodate the tree!

There were graves found in an area within the enclosure that had not markers. Are they graves from the 1700s? The manor was finished in 1738 and the builder died in 1772. They survey detected pieces of metal probably nails, hinges and fasteners produced by the iron forges and blacksmiths at Belmont. All the markers still visible are from the 1800s or 1900s.

There is one grave that I find particularly sad  - for a 2 year old child. It is a reminder that many children did not live to adulthood in the time before vaccines and antibiotics. Prior to the survey - the headstone seemed to be all by itself in the back of the cemetery. But now the survey has revealed the other graves that were probably still marked when the little girl was buried in 1834.