Yarrow's neighborhood

     Related to the two, somewhat morbid posts about graves, I want to mention my research about Yarrow's neighborhood. As said in earlier posts, it was in the Beatty and Hawkins Addition, which was platted in 1760. The image below is taken from that plat.

     Beatty and Hawkins included in the addition three double lots for churches. Just as any good real estate developer would have done in those days, they thought the lots would sell better if buyers knew a church was nearby. Beatty and Hawkins weren't going to build those churches, but they did provide for them. The three were the Lutherans, the Church of England (Episcopal), and Calvinists (Presbyterians).  Bear in mind that Georgetown proper was south and east of the Beatty and Hawkins Addition.  The Addition was outside the city limits of Georgetown proper.

     The Church of England lot (in yellow on Fifth/Q Street) lay vacant until 1876 when the first houses were built there. The Episcopal congregation built St. John's on O Street instead.  When a schism developed about 1817, part of the congregation broke away to form today's Christ Church on the east side of High Street/Wisconsin.  The Lutheran double lot, not shown on the map, was where the Lutheran Church is today on Wisconsin.

      The Presbyterian Church and graveyard was on Bridge/M Street and Market/32nd Street.  But around 1800, the Presbyterians bought land in the Beatty and Hawkins Addition adjacent to where the plat set aside a double lot for them (in yellow).  They then converted most of that block into what has been called the Old Presbyterian Burying Ground (in yellow).  That became the principal cemetery in Georgetown until Oak Hill was developed around 1850. However, towards the end of the 19th century as the Beatty and Hawkins Addition was finally being filled in with houses, the city of Washington supposedly moved all the bodies to other places. Even before then, many families had moved their ancestors remains elsewhere.

     But in addition, bodies have been found along the north side of Q Street including in the Church of England lot. A newspaper reported the first set of human remains being found there in 1867.  Since then, an estimated 40 sets of remains have been found, some as recently as 2020.  There is no record that this was a recognized cemetery, but obviously people were being buried there.

     Legally, human remains in the Church of England lot would seem protected by an 1828 ruling of the United States Supreme Court. In that case, the Lutheran congregation sued to prevent Beatty's heirs from reclaiming the lot set aside for them.  The Court noted the the Lutherans had built a crude church on the lot and that both Lutherans and others had buried people on the land. Once these things had been done, the lot became dedicated to religious purposes. This precedent suggests that any human remains found on the Church of England lot may enjoy some kind of protection. And conceivably, Yarrow Mamout's remains lie there if they have not already been removed or disintegrated.