East Stoughton, Massachusetts - now Avon.  A stroll to the oldest surviving gravestones. A good colleague Marian Pierre-Louis (Genealogist and Blogger - follow her amazing website on New England gravestones The Symbolic Past) today asked me about the oldest gravestone in Avon.  I had to think about it, and go into my book manuscript for Stoughton.  So to answer her I thought I would share it with the rest of Norfolk County.  The oldest surviving gravestone for what was once East Stoughton (now Avon) is the small slate gravestone of an eleven year old girl.  She died the year Massachusetts fired the first shots of the American Revolutionary War.  Her name was Dorothy Littlefield.  The following is the inscription that I did, and so did Waldo Chamberlain Sprague a few decades before -

In Memory of / Dorothy, daugh^tr of / Mr. Nathel Litelfield / & Hannah his wife / who Died Sep^tr 1^st / 1775 in y^e 11^th / Year of her / Age.

Her gravestone is on Findagrave.com along with fifty other interments from the East Main Street Cemetery.I sent a note to the submitter that the stone is actually 1775 not 1773, you have a look.

The following other early gravestones can be seen in this cemetery that I transcribed.

In Memory of / John fon of Lieut / Moses Wales & / and Elifabeth his wife / he Died March 30 / 1776 aged 2 / years 10 months 11 days.

Here lies the body of Joseph Blancher died Sept. 25, 1777. [Visible in 1936 “Very thin slate stone loose and was still lying against front wall”].  This stone is missing or buried under the ground now.

In Memory of / Polly, daugh^r of / Mr. Nathaniel /  Hammond; & / Elisabeth his wife, /  She died March 12th / 1778 : Aged 4 / Months & 2 / Days.

In Memory of / Wales fon of M^r. / Nathaniel Hamond / & Elizabeth his / wife,  he Died Oct^r / 26^th 1780,  1, Year / 3 Months, &  22 / Days Old.

In Memory of / M^r Nathaniel Ham- / mond who died Feb. 13, / 1781 Aged 26 / Years & 10 Months / &  7 Days. / Ye thoughtless mortal hear my Gift / Attend into my [faded] / For You Before Grant Death just / & Lie as low I [faded]

In Memory of / Dorothy Daughter of M^r / William & M^rs Deborah Curtis / who died Augt. 2, 1781 in ye 14^th / year of her age.

In memory of / Mrs. Hannah wife of Mr. John Battles who died / June 6th 1784 / in her 55^th Year. 

In Memory of / Abigal Daughter of / M^r Enoch & M^rs / Rebekah Penniman, /  who died April 27^th / 1785 aged 1 day.

[In] Memory of / [Doroth]y Daughter of / [Mr.] Samuel & M^rs [broken] Littlefield  who / died March 30 1786 age / 2 yrs. /

In Memory of / John fon of M^r William & / M^rs Hannah Curtis who / died April 6, 1786 aged 1 / years & 4 months.