Smallpox Cemetery Traditional Cache

Middleboro Smallpox Cemetery contains nine graves. All nine succumbed to smallpox over a 12 day period during an epidemic on the South Shore in December of 1777.  The victims included one child, aged 2, and 8 adults ranging in age from 39 to 78.  Among them was the pastor of the first church of Middleboro, and two veterans of the colonial militia.

Two of the victims were members of important early American families; the Soules, whose descendants arrived on the Mayflower, and the Eddys, arriving in 1630.

The cemetery is about 500 sq ft, on a small rise near the corner of Brook & Soule Streets, a short distance from the town line with Plympton.  Parking is best done at the nearby road intersection.
The nine slate headstones all bear the "Memento Mori" inscription; Latin for "Remember you must die".  

The cache is a small lock-n-lock placed 50 ft to the west of the headstones.