Cemetery: Old Hill Burying Ground, Newburyport Massachusetts

"Lord" Timothy Dexter was not only a prominent citizen of Newburyport, but also very well known for his eccentricities. He rose from the lower classes to become one of the wealthiest men in town, and owned some of the finest homes in Newburyport. He purchased the Tracy Mansion, now the part of the public library, when Nathaniel Tracy's fortune was lost. He later purchased the Jonathan Jackson mansion on High Street, which he turned into a museum dedicated to great men. This included very tall statues he had carved of George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, King George and many others and placed them all over his property. He also had a small zoo which included a lion on the property.

Whether he was incredibly shrewd or incredibly lucky in business is not known for sure. Quite a bit of both are likely. Part of his fortune was made by marrying a widow that had a moderate income, Elizabeth Frothingham. Other profitable exploits included shipping warming pans and mittens to the West Indies, where they were discovered to be useful tools in processing molasses.

He had originally made plans to be buried in a grand tomb he had constructed on the grounds of his mansion on High Street. He had a fine coffin constructed and placed in the crypt, and would often take naps there. He even sent invitations to a rehearsal funeral, where they went through all the rituals of an actual funeral while he watched from inside the house. Legend has it that he was upset with wife afterwards that she did not show enough grief, and she received a beating for it.

The title of Lord was given to him by the people of Chester NH, where he lived for a few years. He liked the title so much he continued to refer to himself as "the first Lord in the United States". He was also referred to as "King of Chester".

This title is much more extensive written by him in his booklet A Pickle for the Knowing Ones, which was his philosophy of the world completely void of punctuation. A note on the cover states "I am the first in the East, the first in the West, and the greatest philosopher in the known world."

Read many more stories about this interesting character at The Official Virtual Seat on the "Noue Systom of Knollege & Lite" of Lord Timothy Dexter.

There have been several books written about him, but most if not all are out of print. These include "Timothy Dexter Revisited" by John P. Marquand, "Life of Lord Timothy Dexter" by Samuel L. Knapp.

Infoplease.com's definition

"1870: Strange Events At Newburyport" from the UFO Files

He is mentioned by Henry David Thoreau in "Life without Principle - Part 1 of 2"