From this high ground in the North End, the second-oldest burying ground in Boston, your eyes take in a harbor view that once made it a prized military post during the Revolution. Copp's Hill was established as a burial ground in 1659 and contains more than ten thousand graves, including the family tomb of the Mather dynasty — Increase Mather, Cotton Mather, and Samuel Mather, three generations of Puritan ministers who shaped the religious and political character of early Massachusetts. Cotton Mather's role in the Salem witch trials of 1692 made him one of the most controversial figures in colonial history; he supported the trials and wrote extensively about them.
During the Siege of Boston, British troops under General Gage set up artillery on this hill and used it to bombard Charlestown during the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775. The tombstones in the burial ground still bear the marks of British soldiers who used them for target practice. Look across the harbor toward the Charlestown Navy Yard and the USS Constitution; from this hill, the people of the North End watched Charlestown burn on the afternoon of the battle.