James Truslow Adams, Memorials of Old Bridgehampton (1916), pp. 312-314
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GRAVESTONES
Page 312
The following list contains every stone in the Mecox, Sagg, Poxabogue, Hayground, and the "OUT (Main Street) Burying Grounds. The stones in Edgewood Cemetery have not been included, as that cemetery is very new, the first interment having been made Aug. 17, 1894 (incorporated 1893). A very few stones have been moved there and it contains one, which curiously enough marks a grave which was there 114 years before the cemetery came to it. Lemuel Howell died of smallpox and was buried in the woods which now are included in the Burying Ground. This stone reads, "Lemuel Howell, Born Sept. 18, 1718, Died Feb. 22,1781."
Three former cemeteries have been done away with. The Scuttle Hole Cemetery was on the south side of Scuttle Hole Road, by the road side, on the present farm of Mr. Henry N. Corwith, almost opposite the present Post homestead.
Besides those moved from Scuttle Hole to the Main St. ("Old") Burying Ground, there were the following stones in the former, according to an old record, which I have not found elsewhere. Where they were moved to, I cannot tell.
"Here lies the body of Thomas Sandford Esq., who died February 23, 1787, in the 73d year of his age."
"Prudence, wife of Silas Cook, died 1754, age 36."
Page 313 MEMORIALS OF OLD BRIDGEHAMPTON
"Silas Cook, son of Silas Cook, died 1732, aged 9 years."
" Nathan Sandford died Feb. 27, 1778, aged 66 years."
"Daniel, son of Daniel & Abigail Baker, died 1760."
In Water Mill, some few hundred feet north of the old mill in an open field, are 3 stones, and probably more graves. As these may disappear in time, and as one of them is given wrongly in Howell, and another not given, and as they have reference to Bridgehampton families, I here transcribe them.
"Here lyes buried the body of Mr. David Halsey dec'd Feb. ye 18th, 1731-2, in ye 69th year of his age."
"Her e Lyes the Body of Mrs. Temperence Cook, Wife to Mr. Ellis Cook, who Died December 9th, 1725, in ye 19th year of her age."
"Here Lyes ye Body of Mrs. Temperence Ludlam Wife to Mr. Jeremiah Ludlam who Deed. April ye 21st, 1726, in the ye 29th year of her age."
The Mitchell Burying Ground was on the southwest corner of Mitchell's Lane and Scuttle Hole Road, running down the Lane rather than the Road.
The Loper Burying Ground was on "the Triangle where the roads part west and north east from the roadgoing to the farm of Theodore White."
The "Old" Cemetery next to the Presbyterian Church was incorporated in 1915 under the title of the "Old Cemetery Association of Bridgehampton," and a deed given by the Town of Southampton to the new corporation. The first annual meeting was held May 8, 1915, Wm. D. Halsey being elected President.
At the present time a movement is under way to incorporate the old Mecox Burying Ground.
In regard to the accuracy of the following inscriptions, I may say that in some cases many visits to the Burying Grounds were made in order to study some of the doubtful or difficult stones under different conditions of light, when making the field notes. These notes
Page 314
were kindly rearranged in alphabetical order and copied out fresh for me by my father, Mr. Wm. Newton Adams. This new list was then taken by us to the cemeteries and all checked off directly by a new reading of the stones, before it was given to the printer, while the printers proofs were checked as carefully as I could with this list. That there are no errors is probably too much to hope, but I believe that there are not many.