Burd Tombs
Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Col. James Burd of "Tinian," able and gallant officer in the French and Indian Wars, author of Middletown Resolves for Independence, June 1774, and his wife, Sarah Shippen, lie buried near the entrance of Middletown Cemetery.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Col. James Burd was among the frontier soldiers who fought in the French and Indian War, the 1750s–60s struggle that pushed European powers and their Native allies across the Pennsylvania backcountry. From his estate "Tinian," Burd also helped author the Middletown Resolves in June 1774, one of many local declarations of grievance that swept the colonies on the eve of the Revolution. He and his wife, Sarah Shippen — of a prominent Pennsylvania family — lie buried near the entrance of the Middletown Cemetery.
Why it matters
Burd's grave links the frontier warfare that opened the interior to the grassroots resolves that carried ordinary communities toward independence.
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Related people
- · Col. James Burd
- · Sarah Shippen
Related events
- · French and Indian War
- · Middletown Resolves (1774)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Col. James Burd
Highspire, PA · est. 1946
From his home "Tinian" on the Susquehanna, Col. James Burd served the frontier in the French and Indian War, helping cut roads for Gen. Edward Braddock's ill-fated 1755 expedition and later commanding at Fort Augusta, a key defensive post upriver at Sunbury. When the Revolution came, the veteran soldier again took up the patriot cause. His house, the marker notes, still stood on the opposite hill.
Derry Churchyard
Derry Township, PA · est. 1948
This churchyard, the oldest pioneer burial ground in Dauphin County, holds the first generations of the region's Scots-Irish settlers. Among the graves lie the early pastors William Bertram and John Roan, alongside men who fought in the French and Indian Wars and the Revolution. One of them, Col. John Rodgers, put his name to the Hanover Resolves of 1774, an early pledge of resistance to Britain.
Col. Timothy Green
Dauphin, PA · est. 1948
Timothy Green's life traced the whole arc of Pennsylvania's revolutionary generation. He first bore arms as an officer in the French and Indian War, then in June 1774 joined his neighbors in signing the Hanover Resolves, a bold early declaration of readiness to resist British authority. Through the Revolution that followed he stood out as a leader of this Susquehanna-region community, and he rests today in the graveyard just south of the marker.
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