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Family Trees L I P P I N C O T T      C E M E T E R Y
Clarksboro, New Jersey


On January 8, 2005 two knowledgeable friends, Wick and Mary Cloud Hollingshead, aided me in locating the elusive Lippincott Cemetery in Clarksboro, N.J. Elusive, meaning I had attempted several times to locate this family plot without success. I must add here, that my search for this cemetery was spurred by an email sent to me by one of the descendants of Restore Lippincott. Without Shirley's initial inquiry about this cemetery plot, I would not have been as compelled to seek it out. She herself made several trips to the site attempting to locate it.

On a chilly day, with the Hollingsheads as my guide, I ventured out into the back woods near Shady Lane Nursing Home (after letting local staff know we were there), and came upon the plot, with the stone wall in great disrepair. The small graveyard was greatly overgrown with weeds and brush.
It is in an out-of-the-way place, and not easily located. Where there was once open land, is now a building and fenced in area, making access to the graveyard more difficult, but not impossible.

According to the town's history, "On the crest of a knoll on the northeast line of the farm, lies the Lippincott family graveyard, enclosed by a neat stone wall. Within its quiet enclosure where the perfume of wild flowers and the songs of thrush and the rest bird oftimes fill the air with their sweetness, lies the remains of Restore Lippincott and some twenty others of the family."

As the town history indicates, there is still only a single marked grave, even though there are others believed to be buried here. Besides Restore Lippincott and his wife Deborah (Cooper), which of his family make up the twenty others mentioned above, can only be guessed. The tombstone on Restore's grave is not an ancient one, and it was probably created and placed many years after his death.

It is documented that "the Lippincott family, however, instituted a small burial ground across a valley, and on a rising hill in front and at some distance from the mansion house, soon after it came into their possession, in which the interments of the family from time to time were made; and the said William Lippincott before mentioned, in his last will and testament directed the enclosure of the ground by a good stone wall, which was carried out by the aforesaid Elizabeth Lippincott, under the immediate supervision of the writer, and when the deed was made to the county for the farm, this venerable little spot was reserved. The said Elizabeth Lippincott in her last will (though not interred in said burying ground) bequeathed a legacy sufficient to keep the same forever in repair."

Read more about this Lippincott Family.


Click on any thumbnail photograph to see a larger picture


Path leading to the cemetery

Probably the old Lippincott family road

The cemetery is in serious disrepair

Mary Cloud Hollingshead locating Restore Lippicotts stone

Several photographs showing the brush and overgrowth




The wall is crumbling in most locations

We were only a few feet away, and it was almost invisible in the woods.

View nearby
Views of the
Lippincott Cemetery
Clarksboro, N.J.

In addition to the Lippincott graveyard, there is supposed to be another small graveyard on the Lippincott estate (now owned by the county as part of the Shady Lane complex). "William Gerrard, in his deed to Restore Lippincott, dated the 26th of the 12th month, 1755, as noticed in its place, reserves one-half acre of land for a family burying ground forever, but where it is located, or whether it ever was used as a burial place, none can tell, as no traces thereof appear." [according to the land survey of 1865]. Whether or not William Gerrard and his family used this plot for burials is not known.

I am NOT going to link to Find-A-Grave since people there seem to like stealing my copyrighted photographs.


Sources:

  • From: "Proceedings, constitution, by-laws, list of members, &c., of the Surveyors' Association of West New Jersey : with historical and biographical sketches relating to New Jersey. Camden, N.J.:
    Published by order of the Society, 1880
  • History of East Greenwich NJ, Centennial Booklet, 1981
 

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