Grace Morris 8th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

Grace was born on February 17, 1661 in Roxbury, Massachusetts to Edward and Grace Betts Morris who both came to America from England. Grace was a middle child with 7 siblings. She and her sister Elizabeth married brothers from the Child family. In Roxbury, Grace Morris married Benjamin Child on March 7, 1683 and Elizabeth Morris married Joshua Child on March 9, 1685. Both families had 12 children and stayed there in Roxbury.

Grace died in December of 1723, Benjamin in January of 1724. They are buried in a tiny cemetery that’s now part of Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. The cemetery is kind of hidden and has a few different names: Walter Street Berrying or Burying Ground, Peter’s Hill, Walters Street Cemetery.

From an article, Hidden Spaces, in The Harvard Gazette, “Under giant Hawthorn trees are the crude, chipping headstones etched with old New England names like Baker, Weld, and Child. One of the earliest markers is a double headstone for Grace and Benjamin Child, husband and wife. Nearby is the stone marking Benjamin’s brother, Joshua, whose wife Elizabeth is also buried in the area. (According to the 1961 edition of the Arboretum publication“Arnoldia,” Joshua and Benjamin were brothers, born a year apart and baptized the same day, and Elizabeth and Grace were sisters. Each couple had 12 children.)”

Inscriptions on Benjamin and Grace’s shared headstone
“Here Lyes Buried The Body of BENJAMIN CHILD Who Died the 24th Day of January 1724 In the 66th year of His Age.”
“Here Lyes the Body of GRACE CHILD The Wife of BENJAMIN CHILD Died Dec. ye 10th 1723 In the 63rd year of Her Age.”

Sources

• Hidden Spaces: The tiny cemetery via Harvard Gazette, Rose Lincoln, Harvard Staff Photographer, August 17, 2011.
• Vital records of Roxbury, Massachusetts at HathiTrust
• A genealogical and historical register of the descendants of Edward Morris of Roxbury, Mass. at HathiTrust