First Shearith Israel Graveyard

Chatham Square Cemetery was initially purchased in 1682 by Joseph Bueno de Mesquita. Fittingly, the first interment in this cemetery was that of his relative Benjamin Bueno de Mesquita in the year 1683. A city ordinance in the year 1823 prohibited burial below Canal Street, resulting in the congregation moving to its second burial ground. Even so, a few burials still took place at Chatham Square after 1823. The size of the Chatham Square cemetery reduced in the year 1855 when the expansion of the Bowery resulted in receiving a large portion of the cemetery by eminent domain resulting in 256 graves reinterred to accommodate the city’s development.