ROWAYTON CEMETERIES
There are four historic cemeteries in our community:
Hoyt-Bouton Cemetery, Witch Lane, near Burchard Lane:
This small family plot, founded c. 1790, contains only 19 headstones, including that of fierce British Loyalist resident Captain Esaias Bouton. A listing of the interred is available through the RHS.
Old Rowayton Cemetery, today known as Brookside Cemetery, 409 Rowayton Avenue (across from #416) operational from 1724 until 1862:
Originally common ground, this land was laid out to be "a simple burial meadow near the old Norwalk Warren Corner." The families buried there are those of the area’s earliest settlers: Reeds, Richards, Hoyts, Warrens, Webbs, and Raymonds, residents of Middlesex Parrish, which included Rowayton and parts of Darien.
The most famous person buried here is the Reverend Moses Mather (1719-1806), pastor of the Middlesex Parrish Congregational Church. On Sunday afternoon, July 22, 1781, a body of English troops surrounded the church while he was holding service and took most [of] the men prisoners. They were tied in twos, marched to the shore and taken in boats to Long Island and later to prisons in New York. Reverend Mather was held captive for six months on a New York Prison Ship.
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Raymond Cemetery, 214 Rowayton Avenue:
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A private cemetery established in 1782 by the three sons of Gershom Raymond, Paul, Edward and Gershom II, for their family and friends, this is one of the oldest cemeteries in Norwalk. The first burial here was in 1783, at the end of the Revolutionary War. Among the departed are Captain William J. Craw and his wife, Josephine, many Vincents, Johnsons, Smiths, Bells, and Raymonds.
Rowayton Union Cemetery, Rowayton Avenue, founded in 1849:
Among the inhabitants of Union Cemetery are members of the Dibble family, residents of the Seeley-Dibble-Pinkney House; some of the Mills clan from Highland Avenue, Raymonds, Scofields, Crocketts, and a number of veterans and war casualties. The interred soldiers include 48 Civil War veterans (of whom one was a drummer boy), one Revolutionary War Veteran, and one Spanish-American War veteran. The first grave in the cemetery was opened for the internment of George Henry Walmsley of Darien who died on September 15th, 1849 at the age of 5 months.
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For further information on the Old Rowayton Cemetery, visit the Hale Collection.