Benson was chartered October 27, 1779, but not signed until May 5, 1780, by "the Governor, Council, and General Assembly of the Representatives of the Freeman of Vermont," and named for the Hon. Egbert Benson of Albany, New York.  Walter Durfee, Daniel Barber, Jonathan Meacham, James Noble, Abijah Holabird, and Henry S. Waston were some of the first settlers.  Most of these first settlers had served in the Revolutionary War, many from Berkshire Co., Massachusetts, and a few from Connecticut.    The Old Cemetery was surveyed and laid out on October 5, 1790.  Previous to this time there had been some burials in other parts of town, but no monuments were ever placed to mark these burials and no traces of these graves remained in the 1880s.  Stones in the Temple Cemetery date from 1795 and in Carter Street Cemetery from 1813.  About 1920, all the stones with dates through 1870 in the Old, Temple, and Carter Street Cemeteries were copied and recorded.  Many of these stones are now illegible, face down, or missing.  The data from this book has been added where I could not read the stone.

Hubbardton was chartered on June 15, 1764 by Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire, to Thomas Hubbard and others and named for Mr. Hubbard.  Settlement began in the spring of 1774 in the south-east part of town by Uriah Hickok and William Trowbridge.  They were soon followed by Samuel and Jesse Churchill, William Spaulding, Abdial Webster, Benjamin Hickok, Benajah Boardman, and John Seleck.  By the summer of 1784, there were 20 families.  The north-west part of the town is known as Hortonville, named for Gideon Horton.  There is no mention as to when the cemeteries were laid out.  The oldest stones are in the East, North, and Hortonville Cemeteries.

Hubbardton is best remembered because of the decisive battle fought there on July 7, 1777.  General Burgoyne's British troops were brought to a standstill by the American forces under Colonel Seth Warner, the Green Mountain Boys, Colonel Ebenezer Francis' Massachusetts Militia, Colonel Nathan Hale's 2nd New Hampshire Continental Regiment, and Major General Arthur St. Clair's rear guard.  The nine families then in town fled.  The Battle of Hubbardton resulted in about 580 casualties.  When the settlers returned after the war, they found the bones of those who fell, still lying upon the field of battle, bleaching in the sun.  They were all buried in one grave, unmarked until the monument was erected in 1859.

Sudbury was chartered on August 6, 1761 by Benning Wentworth, Governor of New Hampshire and contains 13,426 acres.  Settlement began in 1771 when Timothy Miller arrived.  He was soon followed by Thomas Ketcham, John Gage, and a Parks.  They all left at the beginning of the war and the town was deserted for several years.  The first town meeting was held on January 15, 1789 with John Hall as moderator.  Some of the early settlers were Shaler Towner, John Gage, Zebina Sanders, John Ricke, Joseph Warner, John Hale, Jeremiah Stone, William Buck, William Palmer, Timothy Miller, and Roger Burr.

The book includes a map of Rutland County and one for each town, showing a location of each cemetery.

Included are all extant stones in the following Benson cemeteries:

OLD CEMETERY                                        FAIRVIEW CEMETERY                                        TEMPLE CEMETERY

RESSEGUIE CEMETERY                              DUNLAP CEMETERY                                          HICKOK GRAVE

Included are all extant stones in the following Sudbury cemeteries:

HILL CEMETERY                                        WALLACE CEMETERY                                        WILLOW BROOK CEMETERY