A visit to Watertown, Massachusetts

Last weekend, while your Editor was starting a long weekend's holiday in Maine, one of my Ong cousins sent me a message saying he was visiting Watertown, Mass, the original home of the Ongs in America, and asking if I knew if any Ongs were buried there, and where the oldest Ong grave marker might be.  I knew that one of the oldest family records cites that "Francis Onge widow", whom we usually cite as Frances Onge, was buried at Watertown on 12 November 1638, "55 years old".  But where exactly she was buried, and whether there was a headstone or other marker I didn't know, although I was pretty sure there wasn't one since it would have long since come to my attention.

I was frustrated that I could not immediately answer the question fully, so at the end of the long weekend when seeing that my car's navigation system on the trip home to Connecticut was sending me into central Boston to avoid congestion on the I-495 ring-road, I decided to take a lunch break in Watertown and do some quick exploring.

First some equally quick history:  Watertown, which lies on the north bank of the Charles River immediately to the west of Cambridge, is one of several towns founded as part of the original Massachusetts Bay Colony when a fleet of 15 ships led by Governor John Winthrop carrying around 1000 passengers arrived from England in the late spring of 1630, considered the start of the Great (Puritan) Migration.  (The others were Boston, Dorchester and Roxbury.  Salem (1624) and Charlestown (1629) had been founded under the Bay Colony's auspices prior to Winthrop's arrival.)  The Onge family of Lavenham, Suffolk, arrived in Boston in February 1631 (1630 Old Style) on the Lyon, a voyage primarily devoted to winter supplies (the colony already had severe food shortages) but which also carried a few families.

The evidence suggests that the Onge party consisted of Frances Onge, widow of Edmond Onge (1568-1630) of Lavenham who died the previous summer, accompanied by several of her children as well as her late husband's cousin, Francis Onge (1605-1666), presumably accompanied by his wife Susan Onge, nee Chandler (b. 1608), as we have evidence that Francis' oldest son, also Francis (1632-1657), was later cited as "born in New England" when he was admitted in 1644 to Colchester (Essex) Grammar School, at a time when Francis (who also attended Cambridge and ordained a priest in 1638) was Minister at Great Parndon, then Peldon, both in Essex, England.

For reasons we can only guess at (possibly personal connections to one of the 1630 founders), the Onges were assigned to Watertown, and "Francis Onge" (whether this refers to Widow Frances or her cousin-in-law Francis is a matter of debate) appears in the earliest records as the holder of three parcels, showing that he or she held a "proprietary share" in the town.  The custom at the founding of Watertown is that the original proprietors received several free lots, which varied in size according to the size and standing of the family.  One lot would be a "homestall" to include the main residence, which were all originally located at the eastern end of the current town,  Other (non-contiguous) lots were allocated for plowlands and for livestock.

As soon as I exited the Mass Pike and pulled into the town I parked and googled "old cemetery Watertown" and discovered that there was an "Old Burying Place", aka the Arlington Street Cemetery, on the corner of Mount Auburn and Arlington Street so I immediately made my way there.

View of Watertown Old Burying Place gateway from across Arlington Street

Entering through the gate there was a plaque with historical information and the location of notable monuments:

Based on this information it seems certain that this cemetery is the final resting place of Frances Onge, but the location of the grave is unknown.  There were a couple of 20th century monuments set by descendants of other Watertown founders to honor their earliest American ancestors:

I wonder if they would allow an Ong monument some day?

Anyway life in early Massachusetts was mobile, and available records show all of Frances Onge's known adult children died in other towns, so hers is the only known Watertown burial.

Satisfied that I had the answer to my cousin's question, I went to the Watertown Free Library to check out the local history section.  (While the library is "free", parking was not!)  The Library had an extensive genealogical and local history room, and I could have spent a few days there, but only had 30 minutes of so before I needed to hit the road.  I did manage to find a copy of an early allotment map which showed several Onge plots, generally assigned to "S. Onge", referring to Frances' son Simon Onge (1619-1678).  I understand that these lots are not the same as the Francis Onge lots, which to a certain extent ended up in possession of Simon's very likely brother-in-law Justinian Holden, who is generally believed to have married Frances' daughter Elizabeth (1616-1673).  This map was part of Henry Bond's "Genealogies of the families and descendants of the early settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts":

I subsequently found a better copy on the internet:

The "homestall" of Simon Onge, appeared to be on what is now Mount Auburn Street:

This is at the corner of what is now Mount Auburn and Belmont Streets, at the eastern apex of what was the Meeting House Common and across the street from the Northwest corner of what is now Mount Auburn Cemetery.  So I decided to leave the library and take a last look at what may have been one of the early family homesteads:

As you can see it is now a Star Market!  And one of the "T" transit lines also runs through it.  Anyway the neighborhood - and much else - has changed quite a bit since the 1630s!  I look forward to a return visit to dig around a little more.