Kensington Burial Ground a.k.a. Palmer Cemetery
The Kensington Burial Ground, also known as Palmer Cemetery, is perhaps one of the oldest free neighborhood burial grounds in the nation. The cemetery has the remains of a number of well known persons in Kensington history; members of the Cramp shipbuilding family, members of lumber merchant & education advocate Alexander Adair's family, Revolutionary War Hero and first calico printer in America, John Hewson, as well as many of the early families of fishermen and shipbuilders that made Kensington and Fishtown so famous (an ancestor of baseball man Benjamin Shibe, of Shibe Park fame was one of these fishermen). The cemetery also includes a number of soldiers from the Revolutionary War and Civil War. It is also alleged that a Leni Lenape tribal chief is buried on the hill at Memphis & Montgomery, however this has never been proven.
The cemetery is located in the oldest section of Kensington, now called Fishtown, and contains the block that is bounded by current day Belgrade, Palmer, Memphis, and Montgomery Streets. This area of Kensington was originally laid out by Kensington’s founder, Anthony Palmer (c1663-1749) in the early 1730’s. Palmer was a wealthy English merchant who came to Philadelphia by way of Barbados. Palmer’s intention was to create a burial ground for the Kensington community, but he died before he was able to establish it. The cemetery may have been in use as a family burial ground as early as 1740s, but was not confirmed in writing as a public burial ground by Palmer’s heirs until they acted on his wishes with a “deed of trust” in 1765. The cemetery was for the use of those living within the boundaries of the original town of Kensington as laid out by Anthony Palmer.
Since it’s founding, the cemetery has had a self-perpetuating board of trustees to look over its affairs. The board has included such notables as the Manuel and Jehu Eyre, shipbuilders to the Continental Navy. The board of trustees has kept the cemetery independent over all these years and has also withstood an attempt by First Presbyterian Church of Kensington to usurp it.
The current President of the Board of Trustees (2010), James D. B. Weiss, has held his position for about thirty-nine years. President Weiss, whose family has lived in the neighborhood for about 100 years, stated that the current boundaries for those eligible to be buried in the cemetery is a little larger then the original boundaries and that they now accept those living in the triangle formed by the Delaware River, Frankford Avenue, and York Street. Anyone living within this area at the time of their death can have a lot in the cemetery for free, but will have to pay for the burial. The method of deciding where to bury is simple; the family chooses a spot, a pole is used to poke the ground to see if there are any obstructions, if there are no obstructions they can bury, otherwise you keep poking.
Bibliography for the Kensington Burial Ground/Palmer Cemetery
The records of the cemetery have been microfilmed as follows: Interments 1859-1887; Vault Book 1871-1874; Minutes 1889-1913. Within the microfilmed records there appear to be two ledgers as follows:
Volume One is dated 1 August 1859 to 1 August 1887, and consists of approximately 150 pages with roughly forty names per page, or a total of about 6,000 burials.
Volume Two is dated 24 August 1884 to 28 December 1978, and consists of approximately 228 pages with forty names per page or a total of about 9,120 burials.
Together the two volumes have approximately 15,120 burials for 119 year period of 1 August 1859 to 28 December 1978.
Also within the microfilmed records is the Vault volume, dated 1871-1874, consisting of 23 pages, and not very legible. There is also a Minutes volume of the Board of Trustees of the Palmer Cemetery dated 1889 to 1913. Oddly enough, at the end of the microfilmed records of the Palmer Cemetery are several pages of the records of the Belgrade Baseball Club, a local Fishtown ball club. There is no date, but it would appear to date from the early years of baseball, perhaps the 1870s or 1880s.
The microfilm is available at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP), 13th & Locust Streets, Philadelphia. Also available in bound form are Tombstone Inscriptions. The Tombstone Inscriptions book is at HSP as well.
Besides current records since 1978, these are the only cemetery records available. All other records have either been destroyed by fire, lost, or never existed. If you page through the Philadelphia Public Ledger, or the Philadelphia Inquirer, or any of the 19th Century newspapers, you’ll find folks being buried at Palmer between the 1834 to 1858 period, as well after 1887.
Other material that is useful for the history of Palmer Cemtery:
Allaire, Alexander. Indenture, 1765. Printed indenture, July 26, 1765, for a public burying ground, granted by Alexander Allaire, and others to Emanuel Eyre and others in Kensington, Northern Liberties, Philadelphia. HSP Manuscript Collection, #892.
Allaire was the son-in-law of Anthony Palmer, he managed his wife Elizabeth's share of her father's estate after his death in 1749. He was instrumental in setting up the burial ground. Emanuel Eyre was a local Kensington shipbuilder and one of the early trustees of the cemetery.
Barker, Charles R., compiler. A Register of the Burying-Grounds of Philadelphia. Volume Two, pp. 106-107. Philadelphia: 1944 Bound Mss. Volumes at HSP
A Plain Statement of the Proceedings Respecting the Kensington Burying Ground for the Two Years and a Half Past: with an appendix / addressed to the inhabitants of Kensington and owners of property therein, by one of the aggrieved. Philadelphia: Printed for the author, 1817. Microfilm 19 p. Series: Early American Imprints. Second Series: no. 41839.
This item deals with the attempt to take over the cemtery by a local church, even though the cemetery had a board of trustees.
Shane, Dennis J. The History of the Kensington Burial Ground Palmer Cemetery. Philadelphia: Smith-Edwards-Dunlap Co., 1977. 38 page pamphlet, illustrated. This pamphlet contains a complete copy of the following item:
“Candid and Just Statement of the Proceedings Relative to the Kensington Burial Ground: of its Actual Situation, and the Conduct of its Trustees. Philadelphia: Printed by Conrad Zentler, No. 104 N. Second Street, 1817.”
This piece contained within this history, also goes into details about the attempted takeover of the cemetery.
Personal telephone interview by Kenneth W. Milano with James D. B. Weiss, President of the Board of Trustees, Kensington Burial Ground, Palmer Cemetery. May 7th, 2002.
Click Here to listen to me on National Public Radio being interviewed by Liane Hansen of the "Weekend Edition" show, July 13th, 2008, at about 8:40 AM.
I am also currently writing a history of the cemetery for the Trustees. I hope to have this volume completed sometime in the Spring or Summer of 2010.