Join us while the sun sets for our Patriots Day (April 19th) Candlelight Tribute at Westlawn Cemetery. In this unique self-guided stroll, you can access the service records of Westford’s Revolutionary War Patriots on your phone or tablet. There will be colonial interpreters to answer your questions stationed throughout the illuminated cemetery.

This triangular burial place at the fork of Concord and Country roads was originally on land belonging to Deacon Joshua Fletcher, one of the town’s original 89 taxpayers. His daughter married Samuel Parker, who inherited it when the Deacon died in 1736. Parker sold the land to Nathan Proctor (1698-1788), who donated what was then called West Burying Ground to the town. When Westford assumed care of West cemetery in 1761, many of its founding citizens had been interred here.

The most distinguished citizen buried here is Colonel John Robinson (1735-1805) Westford’s highest ranking Revolutionary War officer, who has the largest slate marker in the cemetery. Robinson was also a town selectman who led three companies of Westford Minutemen to the North Bridge in Concord on the morning of April 19, 1775, where his men engaged the British regulars and fired “the shot heard ‘round the world.” Colonel Robinson also fought alongside many of these men at the Battle of Bunker Hill, where he comported himself with courage and honor. West Burying Ground was nearly named after Colonel Robinson in 1895, but residents instead chose the name Westlawn. The town did rename the road where he had lived less than a mile away, and the school on that road, in his honor.

Colonel Robinson joins with 15 other Revolutionary War veterans, many of whom served with him, whose graves are marked by iron Maltese crosses placed by the Sons of the American Revolution in 1902.

Suggested Donation: $10 per person

Photo courtesy of the Westford Historical Society & Museum