Notable Burials

Discover the notable Americans laid to rest in Christ Church Burial Grounds, including five signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Marked Graves

The Burial Ground has 1,400 markers, including those of prominent Colonial and Revolutionary Era leaders. Over 2500 markers have disappeared due to erosion with time.

This is the final resting place of five signers of the Declaration of Independence, the founders of the U.S. Navy and many of America’s early medical pioneers. Grave markers include these famous and notable names from three centuries of American history.

Benjamin Franklin

1706-1790
Scientist, philosopher, printer, diplomat, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution

Francis Hopkinson

1737-1790
Artist, lawyer, judge, composer, signer of the Declaration of Independence

George Ross

1730-1779
Judge, signer of the Declaration of Independence

Dr. Benjamin Rush

1746-1813
Physician, social reformer, Treasurer of the United States Mint, signer of the Declaration of Independence, founder of Dickinson College, “The Father of American Psychiatry”

Major William Jackson

1759-1828
Revolutionary War officer, Secretary of the Constitutional Convention in 1787

Sarah Franklin Bache

1737-1811
Daughter of Benjamin and Deborah Franklin, Founder of The Ladies’ Association, leading fundraisers during the Revolutionary War

Joseph Hewes

1730-1779
Secretary of Naval Affairs, signer of the Declaration of Independence

Dr. Philip Syng Physick

1768-1837
Known as the “Father of Modern Surgery”

Major General George Cadwalader

1806-1879
Civil War General

William M Meredith

1799-1873
Lawyer, State Attorney General, Secretary of the Treasury

Michael Hillegas

1729-1804
First Treasurer of the United States

Commodore William Bainbridge

1774-1833
Commander of Old Ironside

Joseph Hewes

1730-1779
Secretary of Naval Affairs, signer of the Declaration of Independence

Sarah Knowles

1721
Oldest known marker in the burial ground

Edward W. Clay

1799-1857
Political cartoonist

John Dunlap

1747-1812
Printer of the first broadside of the Declaration of Independence, publisher of the first daily newspaper

Dr. William Camac

1829-1900
Prominent Philadelphia physician, founder of the Philadelphia Zoo, America’s first zoo

John G. Watmough

1793-1861
United States Congressman, served as First Lieutenant in the War of 1812

Franklin Watkins

1894-1972
Painter, served in the US Navy during World War I

Dr. Thomas Bond

1713-1784
Physician, founded Pennsylvania Hospital

Julia Stockton Rush

1759-1848
Wife and daughter of signers of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Ladies’ Association

John Spurrier

1746-1798
Author of Practical Farmer

John Taylor

1718-1803
Burial Ground grave digger for over 50 years

Richard Folwel

1768-1814
Newspaper publisher and printer of the first collection of laws of the United States, commonly known as the “Folwel Edition”

Joseph Dolby

1741-1816
Sexton and bell ringer for Christ Church

James Humphreys

1748-1810
Printer and publisher of The Pennsylvania Ledger

Richard Thomson

1799-1824
Consul from the United States to Canton

Without Stones

In 1864, Christ Church warden Edward Lyon Clark compiled a book of visible inscriptions on the fading soft marble markers. Most of these inscriptions have disappeared over time. The Edward Clark Inscription book has been reprinted and is available for sale for $40.00 at Christ Church and the Christ Church Burial Ground.

We may never know where the following people are buried in our Burial Grounds, but we honor their memory. The following is a list of some of those “without stones”:

Benjamin Franklin Bache

1769-1798
Grandson of Benjamin Franklin, printer and publisher of the Aurora newspaper

Thomas Hopkinson

1709-1751
Father of Francis Hopkinson, President of the Philosophical Society, one founder of the Library Company

Samuel Blodget

1757-1814
Economist, merchant, designer of the First Bank of the United States

Rev. Aaron Cleveland

1715-1757
Minister, great-great-grandfather of President Grover Cleveland

Charles Mason

1728-1756
Astronomer, surveyor, helped to settle the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland, creating the Mason-Dixon Line

Major David S. Franks

c. 1740-1793
Highest-ranking Jewish officer in the Continental Army

Jonathan Gostelowe

c. 1744-1795
Philadelphia cabinet maker and crafter of the baptismal font and altar table still in use at Christ Church

Captain Anthony Palmer

c. 1664-1749
Governor of Pennsylvania, founder of Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia

Matthew Pratt

1734-1805
Portrait painter

Lewis Evans

c. 1700-1756
Surveyor and geographer, whose maps were used by early

Churchyard Burials

Before the establishment of the 5th Street Burial Ground in 1719, Christ Church buried the earliest members of the congregation in the churchyard, a common Christian and European practice.

Rev. William White

1748-1836
Rector of Saint Peter Church and Christ Church, first Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania

Robert Morris

1734-1806
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, financier of the American Revolution

James Wilson

1742-1798
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 

Pierce Butler

1744-1822
Signer of the Constitution from South Carolina

Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson

1739-1801
Poet, early American writer

General John Forbes

1759
Commander during the French and Indian War

Andrew Hamilton

1676-1741
Known as “The Philadelphia Lawyer,” founder of the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania

Jacob Broom

1752-1810
Signer of the Constitution