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	Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Newport, Rhode Island, U.S.
Area	31 acres (13 ha)
Built	1665
Architectural style	Beaux Arts, Romanesque
Website	www.islandcemeterynewport.com
NRHP reference No.	74000044
Added to NRHP	May 1, 1974

The Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery are a pair of separate cemeteries on Farewell and Warner Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Together they contain over 5,000 graves, including a colonial-era slave cemetery and Jewish graves. The pair of cemeteries was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a single listing in 1974.^[1]

History

The Common Burial Ground was established in 1665 on land given to city of Newport by John Clarke.^[2] It features what is probably the largest number of colonial era headstones in a single cemetery, including the largest number of colonial African American headstones in the United States. The predominantly African-American northern section of the cemetery is commonly referred to by local African-Americans as "God's Little Acre".

The Island Cemetery was established by the city in 1836, and transferred to the private Island Cemetery Corporation in 1848.^[2] Many members of Newport's most prominent families have been buried there over the years. Notable people buried there include Medal of Honor recipient Hazard Stevens, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, Commodore Matthew C. Perry and financier August Belmont.

Grave markers returned

In 2016, three gravestones were discovered which had been lost for years. One stone, found in Pennsylvania, was a 12 x 24 marker for a 1-year-old child. The others were 1835 stones for a Newport woman, which were found in a Newport yard during a renovation. The recovered stones were reset in the Common Burying Ground in 2016 by the Newport Historic Cemetery Advisory Commission.^[3]

In 2017, two more burial stones found in Pennsylvania, those of Violet and Duchess Quamino, were returned and restored.^[4] Duchess Quamino, a free Black woman formerly enslaved to William Ellery Channing, had been an active member of Newport's African community.^[4]

Notable burials

Prominent people buried in the Common Burial Ground

John Howard Benson - Artist and stone carver.
John Linscom Boss Jr. – United States Representative.
Christopher Champlin – First Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Rhode Island.
Christopher G. Champlin – United States Representative 1797–1801, United States Senator 1809–11.
Michele Felice Cornè – Painter.
John Cranston – Colonial Governor of Rhode Island.
Samuel Cranston – Colonial Governor of Rhode Island.
William Ellery – Signer of the Declaration of Independence and colonial Deputy Governor.
James Franklin – Printer and brother of Benjamin Franklin.
Ann Smith Franklin – Printer & publisher, wife/widow of James Franklin (1st woman U.S. newspaper editor)
Prince Greene - Enslaved African-American who served as a soldier in the American Revolution.
Ida Lewis (lighthouse keeper) – Heroine of the 19th Century. Recipient of the Gold Lifesaving Medal.
Henry Marchant – Delegate to the Continental Congress.
Dutee J. Pearce – United States Representative.
Duchess Quamino (1739–1804), a formerly enslaved woman, known as the "Pastry Queen of Rhode Island^[4]
Asher Robbins – United States Senator 1825–39.
Gilbert Stuart – Portrait artist, is not buried here, but is honored on the monument above his wife's grave. (cenotaph)
Jane Stuart - First woman portrait artist in Newport, and daughter of Gilbert Stuart. Her mother and a few of her sisters are buried there, too.
William Greene Turner – Sculptor, perhaps best known for his statue of Oliver Hazard Perry in Newport.
Frances (Latham) Vaughan – "The Mother of Governors," widow to colonial President Jeremy Clarke, and mother of colonial governor Walter Clarke.
William Vernon – Colonial era merchant.
Richard Ward – Colonial governor of Rhode Island.
Samuel Ward – Delegate to Continental Congress and colonial Governor of Rhode Island.

Prominent people buried in the Island Cemetery

Hugh D. Auchincloss – Naval officer, government official and stockbroker
Lillian Barrett (1884–1963) – novelist and playwright^[5]
Janet Lee Bouvier Auchincloss Morris – Mother of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
August Belmont – Chairman of the Democratic National Committee 1860 to 1872 and founder of the Belmont Stakes
August Belmont Jr. – Developer of the IRT Subway in New York City and the Cape Cod Canal
Perry Belmont – United States Representative and Army officer
Gunner George F. Brady, USN – Medal of Honor recipient.
Captain Kidder Breese, USN – Commander of the Naval Landing Party at the Second Battle of Fort Fisher.
Brevet Brigadier General Henry Brewerton – Superintendent of West Point Military Academy.
Melville Bull – United States Representative, 1895–1903
George Henry Calvert – Writer and Mayor of Newport
Rear Admiral Augustus Case – Career Navy officer
William Cole Cozzens – Mayor of Newport and Governor of Rhode Island, 1863
Henry Y. Cranston – United States Representative from Rhode Island and commander of the Artillery Company of Newport
Robert B. Cranston – United States Representative from Rhode Island
George T. Downing (1819–1903) – abolitionist, entrepreneur, restaurateur^[6]
Lieutenant Thomas Eadie, USN – Medal of Honor recipient (buried in Island Cemetery Annex).
William Channing Gibbs – Governor of Rhode Island, 1821–24
George Washington Greene – Historian
John N. A. Griswold – Merchant, industrialist and diplomat
Richard Morris Hunt (1827–1895) – Noted architect of Gilded Age^[6]
Charles Bird King (1785–1862) – Painter
Clarence King (1842–1901) – Geologist^[6]
George Gordon King – Congressman
Lewis Cass Ledyard – Lawyer and Commodore of the New York Yacht Club
Captain Christopher Raymond Perry – Privateer in the American Revolution and naval officer in the Quasi War
Commodore Matthew C. Perry (1794–1858) – Commander of Black Ships Expedition to Japan in 1853^[6]
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry (1785–1819) – Hero of the Battle of Lake Erie in War of 1812^[6]
Lieutenant Colonel John Hare Powel – Army officer, Mayor of Newport and commander of the Artillery Company of Newport
George L. Rives – Assistant Secretary of State
William Paine Sheffield Sr. – Congressman and United States Senator 1884–85
William Paine Sheffield Jr. – Congressman
Major General Thomas W. Sherman – Civil War general
William Watts Sherman (1842–1912) – Socialite and treasurer of the Newport Casino
Brevet Brigadier General Hazard Stevens – Medal of Honor recipient and son of Isaac Stevens
Major General Isaac Ingalls Stevens – Civil War general who was killed in action at the Battle of Chantilly
Frank K. Sturgis – President of the New York Stock Exchange
Brevet Brigadier General George Washington Tew – Civil War officer. Lieutenant Colonel of 5th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery. Commander of the Artillery Company of Newport.
Commodore Benjamin J. Totten – Career U.S. Navy officer
Charles C. Van Zandt – Governor of Rhode Island 1877–80
Major General Gouverneur K. Warren – Chief engineer of the Army of the Potomac at the Battle of Gettysburg – Commander of V Corps (1863–65)
George Peabody Wetmore – Governor of Rhode Island and United States Senator
Katherine Prescott Wormeley – Literary translator, founder of the United States Sanitary Commission during the Civil War

Images

Common Burial Ground

Original grave slab for Governor John Cranston on left, and newer slab for both him and his son, Governor Samuel Cranston, on right
Table marker for Governor Samuel Ward on left; brick vault for his father, Governor Richard Ward, on right
Enclosed plot for Deputy Governor William Ellery, signer of the Declaration of Independence
William Ellery grave inscription
Grave plaque for William Ellery
Ida Lewis monument