The city of Richmond opened Shockoe Hill Cemetery in 1822 on 12.7 acres. Prominent burials include John Marhsall, Chief Justice of the United States, his wife Polly, Peter Francisco, Elizabeth Van Lew, mayors Williams Foushee and Joseph Mayo, Governor William H Cabell.
Situated on gently rolling terrain adjacent to Hebrew Cemetery, the burial ground is enclosed by a pilastered brick wall crowned with brick coping and is accessed through six iron gates. Four orthogonal roadways divide the cemetery into a nine-parcel grid and numerous grass pathways subdivide each section. Throughout the nineteenth century the City planted magnolias, tulip poplar, Virginia elm, Kentucky coffeetree, lilac, crape myrtle, boxwood, and yew.
Architectural style is Late Victorian, Early Republic, 19th-century and Exotic Revival.
Shockoe Hill Cemetery is on the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places.
More than a thousand servicemen are buried here, including 27 Revolutionary War veterans; an estimated 430 or so War of 1812 veterans; and an estimated 600 or so Civil War soldiers, both veterans and wartime casualties
The cemetery holds the graves of Chief Justice John Marshall; attorney John Wickham (counsel for Aaron Burr in Burr's 1807 treason trial); Revolutionary War hero Peter Francisco; famed Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew, as well as many members of her spy network; John Minor Botts, a Congressman and later a dedicated Unionist who helped lead opposition to the Confederate government; Virginia Governor William H. Cabell; Virginia Acting Governors John Mercer Patton (General George S. Patton's great-grandfather), John Rutherfoord, and John Munford Gregory; Judge Dabney Carr; United States Senators Powhatan Ellis and Benjamin W. Leigh; Dr. Daniel Norborne Norton, developer of the Norton grape; dozens of Revolutionary War soldiers; and hundreds of Confederate soldiers. It is believed the more than 400 veterans of the War of 1812 buried here is the largest such assemblage in the country.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockoe_Hill_Cemetery
- https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/52134/shockoe-hill-cemetery
- https://www.virginiahistory.org/read-watch-listen/shockoe-hill-cemetery-richmond-landmarks-history-alyson-lindsey-taylor-white
- https://tclf.org/landscapes/shockoe-hill-cemetery
- Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia: Register of Interments April 10, 1822-December 31, 1950 (snippet search for 1960 book)
