Stonington Cemetery Commission

06/03/2026

Revolutionary Patriot Deacon Sands Niles was born in South Kingstown on April 19, 1727, to Ebenezer and Elisabeth (Tucker) Niles, both from long established New England families. His father’s family came from Block Island, and is where he gets his name, a combination of “Sands” and “Niles,” his paternal grandmother and grandfather’s surnames.

Sands was a teacher and a deacon by trade. He came to the area when he married Elizabeth Cottrell of Westerly in 1745, and had five children together. Niles was heavily involved in local affairs, both with town government and the Borough Baptist Church, where he served as secretary. In 1763, he is listed among many Borough residents in a successful petition to build a school on Long Point, of which he became the “stern schoolmaster.”

By the time of the Revolution, Deacon Niles was very heavily involved with the town and military, serving in 1775 with Capt. James Eldridge's company of Stonington, 6th Connecticut Regiment. Niles marched to Boston during the British occupation to fortify the siege lines at Roxbury, and his name appears on several petitions and resolutions, including an appointment in March 1777 to the committee to care for the families of soldiers.

Niles also had the unique position of having such a close familial connection to Block Island, who was intricately connected to Stonington during the Revolution. When the island’s cattle were evacuated to Stonington, causing the British to attack us, Niles was one of the contributors to the defense.

Niles was captured in December 1777 while serving as an ensign in Col John Ely's Connecticut regiment. He had been caught by the British during an expedition against a Loyalist stronghold at Setauket, Long Island, and held as a British prisoner of war until 1781.

After nearly four years as a POW, Deacon Niles was exchanged and released back to his home in Stonington. He had remarried at that point to Bathsheba Palmer, and had three more children, two of whom died in childhood. Deacon Sands Niles passed away on December 3, 1799 at the age of 72. For unknown reasons, his wife Bathsheba died the very same day at 56. Deacon Niles was buried at the Robinson Burying Ground in Stonington Borough, the final resting place of numerous other Patriots.

Join us this Saturday June 6, 10am-12pm for a cleanup of the Robinson Burying Ground! While Deacon Niles’ brownstone may be too delicate to touch, there are several graves in need of restoration waiting to be cleaned. All cleaning supplies will be provided, and plenty of parking is available down the street at the town dock. We hope to see you there!

Niles’ epitaph is now eroded to nothing, but was recorded a century ago by Grace Denison Wheeler. It read: “By long experience have I known Thy sovereign power to save; at Thy command I venture down serenely to the grave.”

05/21/2026

Another cleanup is upon us! Join us Saturday, June 6, (10am to 12pm) for a restoration of the Robinson Burial Ground in the Stonington Borough.

Celebrate America 250 by learning to clean headstones and give back to those buried there, including numerous Revolutionary War veterans! No prior experience necessary.

We hope to see you there!

05/05/2026

Interested in getting involved? Always wanted to learn how to properly clean a gravestone? We will be holding small stone-cleaning workshops throughout this spring and summer at numerous locations around town.

The focus will be on burial grounds containing participants in the American Revolution, with the intention of cleaning the stones of all Stonington patriots. Attached is the schedule for those interested.

Questions? Email us at [email protected].

05/02/2026

Check us out in today’s Westerly Sun!

STONINGTON — The burial grounds rich in history in Stonington are getting some much-needed care, thanks to a passionate group of local volunteers.

04/28/2026

This weekend we had the pleasure of undertaking two(!) cemetery cleanups:

We started on Friday morning, taking part in the 4th annual Stonington High School Volunteer Day. Students spent two hours in the Noyes Cemetery ( #11) on Pequot Trail in Pawcatuck, cleaning stones and completing general maintenance around the grounds. Each of the 50+ stones (mostly marble) were cleaned and will gradually whiten with time!

On Saturday morning, we and others held the public cleanup at the Thomas Miner Cemetery ( #17) on Wilcox Road. We appreciate the great turnout and can already see a difference in many of the stones!

Of course, we couldn’t improve these burial grounds without the help of our volunteers. Thank you to those who came out this weekend!
Missed it? Don’t worry! There will be plenty of opportunities to clean stones in the coming months. Stay tuned for details!

Below are a few photos from this weekend:

04/24/2026

Tomorrow!!

It’s that time of year again!

Join us a month from today for a cemetery cleanup and headstone cleaning workshop at the Thomas Miner Cemetery on Wilcox Road, Saturday, April 25th from 10 to noon.

No experience necessary! Just bring water, gloves, and yourself! All cleaning supplies will be provided. Plenty of parking is available across the street at the Quiambaug Cove Professional Center.

Join us as we help celebrate America 250 in Stonington by looking after those who came before us. We hope to see you there!

04/20/2026

Manasseh Miner was freshly 21 on July 4, 1776, when American colonists declared independence from the British. Coming from a rural Stonington farm, he would see some of the most decisive action of the American Revolution with his own eyes.

Manasseh was born June 13, 1755, to Thomas and Sarah (Watson) Miner. He came from a long line of Miners in Stonington and was likely named after his grandfather, Deacon Manasseh Miner, son of Stonington founder Thomas Miner. His father died when Manasseh was just five, leaving his mother, who came from Nantucket Island, to raise the children.

Manasseh served as a corporal and sergeant in Capt. William Stanton’s militia company, 8th Connecticut regiment of the state militia. This was mostly made up of men from Stonington’s uplands, with the Road Church being their rallying point. Manasseh very likely served under Stanton in the defense of our town from Capt. Wallace in 1775.

In 1776, he was with the company at New York City when they were ordered to reinforce George Washington’s Continental Army defending the city. He watched as the British invaded New York, forcing the Continentals to retreat to White Plains, where he would eventually participate in the Battle of White Plains on October 28.

After his service, he married Hannah Haley of Mystic on Valentine’s Day, 1779, and over the next twenty years, they had five children. Hannah died in 1801 at age 46, and Manasseh would outlive her by 36 years, passing away at 83 years old in 1837. The couple is buried together at the Thomas Miner Cemetery (named for his father) on Quaimbaug Cove.

This Saturday, April 25th, 10:00 to Noon, join us and help celebrate America 250 with a spring cleanup (weather permitting) at the Thomas Miner Cemetery! No experience necessary, all cleaning supplies will be provided, and plenty of parking is available across the street at the Quiambaug Cove Professional Center. We hope to see you there!

We’ll leave you with Manasseh’s epitaph, a favorite of our commission’s!

Consider friends as you pass by,
As you are now so once was I,
As I am now soon you must be,
Prepare for death and follow me.

03/25/2026

It’s that time of year again!

Join us a month from today for a cemetery cleanup and headstone cleaning workshop at the Thomas Miner Cemetery on Wilcox Road, Saturday, April 25th from 10 to noon.

No experience necessary! Just bring water, gloves, and yourself! All cleaning supplies will be provided. Plenty of parking is available across the street at the Quiambaug Cove Professional Center.

Join us as we help celebrate America 250 in Stonington by looking after those who came before us. We hope to see you there!

03/18/2026

In recognition of and the ongoing America 250 celebration, today we honor F***y Palmer Noyes: Stonington’s “independence baby.”

F***y’s exact birth date is historically debated. While many genealogical sources say that she was born on July 9th, popular memory remembers she was born on July 4th, 1776. Whatever the case may be, F***y came into the world the same week the Declaration of Independence was signed, and locals celebrated her for it.

F***y’s father, Capt. Amos Palmer, is perhaps best known for leading the defense against the British in 1814, but he was also active in the Patriot cause both civilly and militarily. He served in various capacities for the town during the war for independence, including militia service, setting taxes, and managing imported provisions.

F***y grew up in the shadow of her father’s revolutionary activities. This undoubtedly created a close relationship with her mother, Phebe Brown Palmer, and her younger sister, the future Elizabeth Palmer Dixon. Unfortunately, tragedy struck early when Phebe died suddenly in 1781, leaving five-year-old F***y without her mother. Amos remarried in 1785 to Sally Rhodes and had eight more children.

In 1787, when F***y was eleven, the family moved to the now famous Amos Palmer House in the Stonington Borough, next to what is now the Portuguese Holy Ghost Society. She would live there until 1798, when she left to marry Capt. Thomas Swan Jr, the son of another revolutionary local. They had one daughter together, Sarah Ann.

Unfortunately, Thomas died in 1819 at the age of 51. F***y remarried in 1827 to another widowed spouse, Rev. John Noyes of Weston, Connecticut. He was a local by birth, but by that point had been pastor of Weston’s Norfield Church for 41 years and by the time of his death was, and still is, the longest serving minister in Weston.

F***y and John never had any children together, but remained married until he died at 83 in 1846. Amazingly, F***y would outlive her husband by 21 years, passing away in 1867 at the age of 91.

The Independence Day baby of Stonington lived to see the Union survive the Civil War, experienced the death of two husbands, and was even photographed in 1864. Her legacy is a testament to the strong women who came of age with the young nation and were the backbone of domestic affairs at a tumultuous time in our history.

Her photograph, and her gravestone in the Stonington Cemetery, are below.

02/19/2026

Below is the snow-covered grave of Capt. Ephraim Williams, a farmer, enslaver, and Revolutionary War soldier from Stonington.

Ephraim was born May 31, 1756, to William and Martha (Wheeler) Williams. Ephraim grew up at the family homestead in Stonington, one of nearly a dozen children. Throughout his childhood, his father was active in local political and military affairs, likely influencing Ephraim from a young age.

Ephraim served in various capacities during the war for independence, beginning with his official enlistment in the autumn of 1776 as a sergeant in Capt. William Stanton’s company of men from Stonington’s uplands. At the same time, his father, subject of a previous post, worked at state and local government in support of the rebel cause.

Ephraim married Sarah Potter of South Kingstown in 1781 and moved to a farm in “Anguilla,” on South Anguilla Road, which is still a working farm today. Historical records often refer to this home as the “Ephraim Williams Place.” A few years later, Sarah died at age 25, and later that year, on December 23, 1787, he married Hepzibeth Phelps. Ephraim and Hepzibeth’s fathers had long known each other and were involved in town and state affairs together, which undoubtedly contributed to their meeting.

While at the Anguilla farm, Ephraim and Hepzibeth had their oldest son, Ephraim Williams, who decades later would become the face of Stonington’s currency. Also born there were Primus and Bristes, sons of Cloe, an enslaved woman in Ephraim’s household. The couple’s Bible, now in the collection of Historic Stonington, records their enslaved people and provides valuable insight into their role in slavery locally.

In 1797, Ephraim purchased a neighboring farmhouse on Farmholme Road from George Palmer. There, another of Cloe’s children, Elizabeth, was born, along with his final two children, Sarah Potter Williams and Charles P. Williams, who would later become famous as Stonington’s first millionaire.

Ephraim died just seven years later, at 48, and was buried at the Stonington Cemetery, then his wife’s family plot. Although he left no will, an inventory taken at his death reveals his lavish lifestyle, including a purple bedspread complete with curtains and a quilt. He was outlived by his wife and those he enslaved, including Primus, who would eventually, as a free man, own a home and raise a family in Stonington.