Southold Presbyterian Graveyard

The earliest grave in the cemetery is of the wife of the soldier John Underhill.  Helena de Hooch Underhill, died in 1658. Her grave and the other early graves are all cluster in the front of the yard where they would have been sited alongside the first church. Since no stonecutters lived in the area, the stones at that time had to be imported from across Long Island Sound from Connecticut and Massachusetts. It wasn’t until the 1730s that gravestone carving became a full time occupation rather than a side job for builders and masons. Ithuel Hill, one of the earliest identified gravestone carvers on the East End of Long Island preferred carving marble to red sandstone, and several of his stones can be found in the yard. 

While variety of markers exist in the graveyard, the most eye-catching are the tombs, (the stone boxes), which are false crypts. The space immediately under the stones is empty. The bodies are buried, then the box constructed over the grave. Slab stones which are full length stones that are flat on the ground also populate the yard. 

The cemetery has always been open to all of the people of the area, and within its borders rests not only the European settlers, but also the Enslaved People of the town.  

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