Johnson, Eleazer, Jr. Petition dated Newburyport, Oct. 7, 1776, signed by said Johnson, in behalf of Tristram Dalton and Stephen Hooper, of Newburyport, asking that he be commissioned as commander of the brigantine “Dalton” (privateer); ordered in Council Oct. 10, 1776, that a commission be issued. 2

Capt. Eleazer Johnson, or Johnston, suffered along with his crewmates as prisoners in England during the Revolution. A crewmate, Charles Herbert, wrote the book "A Relic of the Revolution", which you can read You can read his story here. It is a story of his surviving this ordeal while being held prisoner by the British during the Revolutionary War for 4 months locked in the brig of a ship docked in Plymouth, England. Then one by one his fellow prisoners began to catch smallpox, many died from it. He too caught the deadly disease and spent two months coming very close to death and recovering.

Fellow prisoners buried here are Nathaniel Kennard, Capt. Thomas Clouston.