Daniel Davenport, d. 1860
No. 21675 Daniel Davenport, Photo published in Published in Dorchester by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco. Dover, NH, 1995. Images of America series, p. 51
Dorchester Community News 20 November 1992
Daniel Davenport was Sexton of the First Church in Dorchester and gravedigger at the Dorchester Old North Burying Ground. He published at least three editions of The Sexton’s Monitor and Dorchester Cemetery Memorial, 1826, 1837, 1845. William Davenport, a son of David, was also a sexton. He died in his fortieth year, after having buried twelve hundred and sixty-seven persons.
The following inscription is given in Epitaphs From the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, Massachusetts. (Boston Highlands, 1869). Harlow Elliott Woodward was a main contributor to this work.
This grave was dug and finished
in the year 1833,
by
Daniel Davenport,
when he had been Sexton
In Dorchester, twenty seven years,
had attended 1135 funerals
and dug 734 graves.
As Sexton, with my spade I learned,
To delve beneath the sod,
Where body to the earth returned,
But spirit to its God.
Years twenty-seven this toil I bore,
And midst deaths oft was spared;
Seven hundred graves and thirty-four
I dug, then mine prepared.
And when, at last, I too must die,
Some else the bell will toil;
As here my mortal relics lie,
May heaven receive my soul.
He died December 24, 1860,
aged 87 years 6 mos. 19 days.
He buried from March 3, 1806
to May 12, 1852
One thousand eight hundred & thirty-seven
Persons.
“Daniel Davenport” by Anthony Sammarco – see pdf version of this article at this link:
PDF1022 Sammarco Daniel Davenport Nov 1992
A pdf version of the 1845 Sexton’s Monitor may be seen at
PDF1134 Davenport Sextons Monitor 1826