The
Green Harbor area of southern Marshfield was settled in 1637 by
Edward Winslow, who had arrived in the
Plymouth Colony in 1630, and the town of Marshfield was incorporated in 1640. In that year a parcel of land including the cemetery site was granted to William Thomas, a Welsh immigrant who had also arrived in 1630. Thomas donated land to the town for the establishment of a burying ground, adjacent to where its first
meeting house was erected. Thomas died in 1651, and his is believed to be the oldest grave in the cemetery. William Thomas's estate was acquired in 1832 by politician and lawyer
Daniel Webster, who is also buried here. There is a substantial
monument to "The Settlers of Green Harbor Marshfield", naming
Resolved White and his wife Judith, as well as Resolved's brother, Peregrine, and his wife Sarah. Also named on the monument is White's mother Susanna, and her second husband, Edward Winslow. Susanna's date of death is uncertain – sometime between 1654 and 1675, with burial in Winslow Cemetery. Edward Winslow died during an
English military expedition in the
Caribbean in 1655, and was
buried at sea. A memorial to Edward Winslow also stands in the cemetery. ==Notable burials==