Harvard Historical SocietyDiscover Your Town
Peter Atherton
1705 – June 13, 1764
Peter Atherton was Harvard’s first town clerk, and in that role, he entered the first records in the town books.
Peter Atherton was Harvard’s first town clerk, appointed at Town Meeting July 11, 1732. In that role, he entered the first records in the town books. He also served the town as assessor 15 times and as selectman 11 terms. Atherton was the town’s first representative to the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and he was appointed resident justice in 1745.
Atherton and his wife, Experience, are buried in the same grave, something that was very unusual. The inscription on the stone reads:
One solitary mansion encloses their remains
Companions in life they have the consolation
Of not being separated in death – if indeed
consolation can be found in the grave.
This monument is erected to their memory,
which will ever be dear to the sons and daughters of virtue and religion.
