Town-run since 1787, forty acres under mature oaks — and the most detailed rulebook of any ground we work in.
Mayflower Cemetery is at 774 Tremont Street in Duxbury, more than 40 acres in active use with another 35-plus set aside for expansion. It is named for the ship, and the first burial — Stephen Russell, in 1787 — is where the town dates its cemetery service from.
Unlike most of the cemeteries in this section, this one is genuinely town-run. It is governed by a five-member Board of Cemetery Trustees, first elected in 1894 when the town took over maintenance of four cemeteries, and managed day to day by the Duxbury Cemetery Department. Chip Locketti is Superintendent of Cemeteries and Crematory. The office is at the cemetery itself, open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on 781-934-5261. The grounds are open dawn to dusk, year round.
The department also runs a crematory, and administers four other burial sites: Ashdod Cemetery, Dingley Cemetery, the Old Burying Ground, and the Smith & Weston Tombs. The rules below are written for all of them, so they apply beyond Mayflower.
The cemetery sits beside the First Parish Church, a Unitarian meeting house built in 1840, under mature oaks. The Quincy granite entrance posts went in in 1927. Buried here are Revolutionary and Civil War veterans and Mayflower descendants — the reason the cemetery draws genealogical interest well beyond Duxbury.
The town also publishes a decedent locator for the Mayflower Old Burial Ground and a cemetery map, both linked from the department's site, which makes locating a specific grave more straightforward here than at most municipal cemeteries.
Duxbury's rules are the most detailed of any cemetery we have written up. They were originally adopted 5 March 1894 and last revised 14 January 2013. Summarized:
Flush markers get nothing. This is stricter than anywhere else we work and catches families out constantly. If your family marker is flush with the ground, there is no permitted planting, no vase, no small keepsake — and the rules explicitly disclaim responsibility for damage where such items have been placed. For a flush marker, keeping it clean and legible is the whole of what you can do, which raises the value of doing that part properly.
Shrubs are effectively for large family lots only. Six contiguous graves is a substantial plot, and the added perpetual-care fee makes the choice a deliberate one. On an ordinary two- or three-grave lot, a 12-inch bed in front of the upright stone is the whole canvas.
No weedkiller, by anyone but staff. Worth knowing if you have been dealing with ivy, bindweed, or grass creeping over a stone base. At Duxbury that is the department's job, not yours and not a contractor's — ask them rather than treating it yourself.
The February date is generous. Christmas décor can stay through January, which is later than most. Other holidays get a week, which is not.
Set against the rest of the section, Duxbury sits toward the strict end: less restrictive than Hingham Cemetery, where fresh flowers last a week, but well short of First Parish in Norwell, which permits permanent beds and bulbs. Our grave-site planting guide covers variety selection within a 12-inch bed.
Two provisions matter for anyone you might hire, us included.
Management reserves the right to give authorization and direction to any workers other than cemetery employees before they may do work in any of the town's cemeteries. And memorial contractors must supply a certificate of insurance to Management before performing work. Management also sets the days and hours when memorial work may be done.
So this is not a cemetery where a family can simply arrange for someone to turn up. Our approach here is to contact the Cemetery Department before any work, confirm what they want authorized, and provide insurance documentation on request. If they would rather handle something themselves, that is their call.
Worth noting too: the Mayflower Care and Improvement Fund explicitly does not cover maintaining, repairing, or replacing a memorial, nor caring for privately planted flowers, trees, or shrubs. Perpetual care here funds the grounds, not your stone — which is the distinction most families are surprised by.
A cemetery in continuous use since 1787 holds the full range — early slate and marble in the older sections, granite throughout the newer ones. Granite, marble, and slate covers how each weathers and what each can safely take.
Duxbury fronts the bay, so salt is a factor, though Mayflower sits inland of the shore and under heavy oak canopy — which brings its own problem, since shade holds moisture and moisture feeds the algae and lichen that darken a stone. Coastal and shaded stone care covers why both situations tend to want attention on a similar cycle.
We clean with D/2 Biological Solution over a minimum of three visits — no pressure washing, no wire brushes, nothing that leaves salts in the stone. Why D/2 and not bleach explains the reasoning. For an eighteenth-century slate, that patience is the entire point.
Mayflower holds Revolutionary and Civil War veterans, and Duxbury's town cemeteries are the kind where flag placement is coordinated locally. We have not found a published flag policy in the town's rules beyond the general provision that holiday decorations come out within a week of the holiday — which, read plainly, would apply to flags. Confirm with the Cemetery Department or the town's Veterans' Services Officer before assuming a flag will stay in place. Our guide to flag placement covers the general etiquette.
Start with the town's own resources — the department publishes a cemetery map and a decedent locator for the Mayflower Old Burial Ground — then Find a Grave and BillionGraves. Because this is a municipal cemetery, the Cemetery Department holds the records, and the office is reachable during business hours. How to find an ancestor's grave on the South Shore covers the wider search.
For Mayflower descendants specifically, bear in mind that Duxbury's very earliest burials are not here. The Myles Standish Burial Ground on Chestnut Street dates to around 1632 and is among the oldest maintained burying grounds in the country — a pre-1700 Duxbury ancestor is far likelier to be there than at Mayflower, which only begins in 1787.
If you have located a grave and cannot get to Duxbury, we can walk the section, find the stone, and photograph it for a one-time fee of $15–$25.
The Duxbury Cemetery Department is at 774 Tremont Street, Duxbury, MA 02332, on 781-934-5261, open Monday to Friday 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Lot purchases, burial arrangements, plot location, memorial approvals, and questions about the rules all go through the department. Its pages are on the Town of Duxbury website. We are not affiliated with the town; we are a private care service that works in the cemetery.
Tell us the section and roughly where the stone is — we'll clear our work with the Cemetery Department first, and send photos after every visit.
Request a Service (707) 653-6539