the separation of a burial ground on every plantation_."
We presume, therefore, that it was about this time (1621-2) that the
first church of Kigquotan was erected, and we have not forgotten
the _churchwardens_ of 1644. And now, in answer to the other
question--_where_ was this church built?--we have only to turn our
footsteps to the "_Pembroke Farm_" (the property of John Jones, Esq.),
about one mile from the town of Hampton, and, as we there take our stand
among the few remaining tombs, shout "Eureka, Eureka!" Whether the old
parish church of Kigquotan was of wood, or of brick, we cannot at this
day determine. "Like the baseless fabric of a vision" it has
disappeared; but we opine it was wooden, from the fact, that the first
church (and probably the second also) in Jamestown (both of which were
destroyed by fire) was a wooden one; and the presumption is, the first
brick church erected would be at the _capital_ of the colony. However
this may be, the burial ground at Pembroke could not have been simply a
piece of ground, "bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite, for a
possession of a burying place" for a family; but that it was a _public_
cemetery, even that of the old parish church of Kigquotan, is evident
from the _character_ of the tombs which are still to be seen _above the
surface of the earth_. That there are many covered over with the
deposits of years, I have not the slightest doubt. Those tombs, we now
see, give the best evidence, in their inscriptions, that those whose
remains moulder beneath the moss-grown marbles, were not private
individuals--not members of the family owning the estate--but men in
public service, and who would not have been laid in an obscure private
burial ground, when the church-yard of the new church of Kigquotan was
but a mile distant from the spot. Moreover, it will be perceived by the
inscriptions which we shall presently give, that one of the sleepers at
Pembroke was "_minister of this parish_." Now, is it probable, that the
minister of the parish would have been buried _there_, if it had not
been a _church_-yard, when there was the new church of Kigquotan to
receive his remains, as it was fifty-two years before, to receive those
of Mr. Nicholas Baker? I have no doubt that veneration for the old
cemetery, the site of the first church of the parish, caused many to
bury their dead there, long after the present church-yard was opened.
The oldest tomb we can find in the church-yard a