In 1661 the London Quakers purchased a plot of land here of 30 square yards for £270 for use as a burial ground: it constituted the first freehold property owned by Quakers in London. This was four years earlier than the opening of the nearby "Dissenters'" burial ground, on the other side of Bunhill Row, which is still known as Bunhill Fields. As well as burials arising from routine deaths, the bodies of 1,177 Quakers who died in the Great Plague of 1665–6 were buried here. The ground was soon full, but additional plots of land were purchased to extend it, until by c.1845 about £3,600 had been invested in the site. The ground was closed for burials in 1855, by which date around 12,000 burials had taken place.