Easton’s Potter’s Field by James Dawson One historic site of Talbot County that I’ll bet you’ve never heard of is Easton’s Potter’s Field, as it is doubtful that a cemetery for paupers and criminals would ever make it onto lists of Things To See And Do in Historic Talbot County. Nevertheless, the Good Old Days weren’t always so good, and many places had a Potter’s Field, even Colonial Williamsburg. But first, why is a cemetery for paupers called a Potter’s Field? The first use of the term Potter’s Field is
in William Tyndale’s 1526 translation of the Bible for Matthew 27:5 of a “potter’s field to bury strangers in,” but that actually meant a field ow ned by a pot ter. Or someone named Potter. Or maybe even a potter named Potter. A Potter who was a potter. However, by the 1700s, it came to mean any field used for the burial of paupers, as potters were often thought to be poor. On Feb. 28, 1843, the General Assembly of Maryland passed a bill authorizing the commissioners of
51
