King’s Chapel is Boston Proper’s oldest burying place. Like the majority of Boston’s burying grounds, it has always been under municipal control, not affiliated with any church. The site is said to be part of Isaac Johnson’s estate, an early settler. In 1688, Royal Governor Andros seized a portion of this property to construct the town’s first Anglican church, King’s Chapel. For many years, the site was known as the Chapel Burying Ground, due to its proximity to the church.

Tradition holds that the first interment in King’s Chapel Burying Ground was that of the former owner of the property, Isaac Johnson, in 1630. Notables buried here include Massachusetts’ first governor, John Winthrop; William Dawes, Paul Revere’s compatriot on his ride to Lexington in 1775 (moved to Forest Hills Cemetery in the 19th century); the Reverend John Cotton, a powerful religious leader in seventeenth-century Boston; Hezekiah Usher, the colonies’ first printer and publisher; and Mary Chilton, who is believed to be the first woman to have stepped off the Mayflower.

Overcrowding was a problem in the burying ground as early as 1660. Although new sites like Granary Burying Ground and Copp’s Hill Burying Ground were opened to relieve this problem, burials still continued at King’s Chapel. This lack of space eventually caused gravediggers to bury bodies one on top of the other or in shallow graves. Most interments ceased in 1796, however, some burials, particularly in underground crypts (tombs), continued into the nineteenth century. A large tomb in the rear of the site, originally used to temporarily store bodies, was converted to a children’s tomb in 1838. A 1985 survey of the site identified 586 extant grave markers. Given the overcrowded conditions and the fact that many early burials went unmarked, it is believed that there are well over one thousand interments at King’s Chapel Burying Ground.

The earliest graves and tombs were scattered randomly throughout the grounds with no formal pathways. A row of underground tombs along the eastern boundary was completed in the early 1700s. Another row of tombs along Tremont Street was built around 1738. Although it is known that Black Bostonians, both free and enslaved, were buried in this site, it is not known if the burials were segregated to a specific area.

In the early nineteenth century, landscaped cemeteries outside cities became the public parks of their times and efforts were taken to beautify urban burying grounds. Pedestrian footpaths, an ornamental cast iron fence, and various plantings were all installed to enhance visitors’ experience in King’s Chapel Burying Ground. As in other burying grounds, efforts went so far as to rearrange the gravestones in straight rows, frequently not corresponding to the body buried underneath.