Tombstone Tuesday- Samuel and Mary Burnham, Derry, New Hampshire

Samuel Burnham, born 30 August 1767 in Chebacco Parish, Ipswich (now Essex), Massachusetts, died at Derry, on 1 November 1834; son of Samuel Burnham and Mary Perkins; married Mary Dalton of Derry. Samuel’s grandparent, John Burnham and Martha Story, were my 7x great grandparents. Most Burnhams live in Essex, Massachusetts, so I was surprised to find these gravestones in Derry's Forest Hill Cemetery, not too far from the "First Settlers" gravesites.

Samuel Burnham graduated from Dartmouth College in 1795, and his brothers Abraham (1804), John (1807), and Amos (1815) were also Dartmouth Alumnus. Samuel Burnham was a deacon of the Derry church and was the first preceptor of Pinkerton Academy after teaching for many years at a local classical school.

“I think no family has furnished as many educated members
as the Burnhams. A short time prior to 1775 Deacon Samuel
Burnham came from Essex, Mass., to the south part of Dunbar-
ton. Of his thirteen children, four sons graduated at Dartmouth
College. In 1865 fourteen of his grand and great grand child-
ren were college graduates. Not all of them lived in Dunbar-
ton, but Samuel's son, Bradford, and most of his children lived
here. Henry Larcom, son of Bradford, was a successful teach-
er and land surveyor ; he represented the town in the Legisla-
ture and was also State Senator. The last years of his life
were passed in Manchester where he died in 1893. His son,
Henry Eben, is a lawyer in Manchester, and was for a time
Judge of Probate. He was born November 8, 1844, in the Dr.
Harris house, and is an honored son of Dunbarton. He was
elected United States Senator by the Legislature of 1901, for
the term of six years and succeeded Senator William E. Chandler.” (Mills, 1902)


Sketches of the Alumni of Dartmouth College: from the First Graduation in 1771 to the Present Time, With a Brief History of the Institution, by Rev. George Thomas Chapman, Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1867, page 77.

A Sermon, Occasioned by the Death of Elder Samuel Burnham, Delivered at Derry, 9 November 1834, by Rev. Edward L. Parker

“Sketches of Dunbarton, New Hampshire”, by Miss Ella Mills, Manchester: Manchester Historic Association, 1902, page 10


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Copyright 2011, Heather Wilkinson Rojo