Dorchester Illustration 2680
Oliver and Royall Tomb, Dorchester Old North Burying Ground
Dorchester Illustration 2680
The monument for the Isaac Royall family marksthe largest tomb in the Dorchester Old North Burying Ground.
The picture at the top of today’s illustration comes from a 1904 report from the Boston Parks Department. The bottom image is how the monument looks today.
Isaac Royall was born in Maine in 1672, the son of William and Mary Royall, his parents were of modest means. Royall moved with his family to Dorchester, when he was three years old. He became a merchant mariner and at 28, established a sugar cane plantation on the West Indies island of Antigua. He married Elizabeth Elliott on July 7, 1697 in Charlestown. He later purchased the property now known as the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford.
Robert Oliver married a step-daughter of Isaac Royall. He is described in Robert Tracy Jackson. “History of the Oliver, Vassall and Royall Houses in Dorchester, Cambridge and Medford.” The Genealogical Magazine, January, 1907, Vol. II, No. 1.1907.
“About 1737, Robert Oliver, a wealthy planter from Antigua [West Indies], settled in Dorchester. … Robert bought a number of pieces of land [in Dorchester], of which 30 acres had been the property of Comfort Foster; and on this homestead lot, he built in 1745, a fine mansion which took the place of a more modest house.” …
“Tradition records that he brought many black slaves with him. … Three of his slaves, named Ann, Cambridge and Betty, are buried in the old North Cemetery in Dorchester.”
The Oliver house was later the birthplace of Edward Everett at Five Corners, now Edward Everett Square.
“The graves of these slaves are in the northwestern portion of the cemetery, near to what is now Columbia Road, formerly Boston Street. Their positions are close together and are marked by three small slate head-stones. The epitaphs are worth recording as I believe they have not been previously published.
“ANN A NEGRO CHILD
BELONGING TO Mr.
ROBERT OLIVER, & DAUGr. TO HIS
NEGRO NIMBO; AGED 2 Yrs.
DIED JUNE 1743.
“CAMBRIDGE A NEGRO
BOY BELONGING TO
ROBERT OLIVER Esqr.
AGED 3 YEARS HE
DIED DECr. Ye 14, 1 1747
“BETTY A NEGRO
SERVANT OF COL.
ROBERT OLIVER
DIED FEBy Ye 19, 1748. AGED
ABOUT 25 YEARS.”