Frost Cemetery

Frost Cemetery was a private family burying ground passed down through the Frost and Bell families for many generations. The families lived near the Piscataqua River, and the cemetery stood at the end of their properties near the original church. Among those buried there are Reverend John Blunt, who died August 7, 1748; the son-in-law of John Frost, Esq., he served as pastor of the Church of Christ in New Castle for sixteen years, and after his death at age 42 the townspeople voted to continue his salary to his wife, Sarah, for nine months. Captain John Hollicomb, who died around January of 1721 and may occupy the cemetery’s oldest grave, was likely from Devon, England; by 1688 he lived in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, as a fisherman, by 1698 he was in New Castle, and by 1705 he was a sea captain trading rum, molasses, and cotton between Barbados and Portsmouth on the ship Sarah; he was once captured by the French and paid a ransom to free himself, his crew, ship, and cargo. Captain Meschach Bell, who died July 18, 1786, had been a mariner and cooper, took part in the December 1774 gunpowder raid on New Castle’s Fort William and Mary, served as a Second Lieutenant in Colonel Pierce Long's regiment during the February 1777 march to Fort Ticonderoga, and was captain of Fort William and Mary, then known as Fort Hancock, when he died at age 34. Honorable John Frost, Esq., who died February 25, 1732, was long a mariner and commanded Colonel William Pepperrell's pinky Bonetta during the 1710 British assault on Port Royal, Nova Scotia; in 1717, while captain of the Bonetta, he was attacked by pirates en route from Barbados to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and he later became a merchant, investor, owner of the ferry between New Castle and Portsmouth, a Royal Councilor, and Justice of the Superior Court; he was the husband of Mary Pepperrell and father of seventeen children. Mehitable White, who died September 3, 1827, was the daughter of Captain John Simpson and wife of Captain Robert White; in 1821, as Widow White, she was the only remaining member of the New Castle Church and sat alone during regular service hours in the church, which had been boarded up since 1795. Private Meschach Bell, who died July 1, 1827, was a seaman who volunteered as a Sea Fencible in May 1813 when a British attack on Portsmouth seemed imminent; although the attack never came, he was stationed at Little Harbor until November and then returned to his large family. Abigail Frost, who died January 30, 1742, was the daughter of Honorable John Frost and Mary Pepperrell; she died at age 23, and her elaborately carved gravestone bears a portrait of a young woman surrounded by symbols of her faith.

New Castle, New Hampshire · United States