History of the cemetery around St. Paul’s Anglican Church
(a talk by Brigadier-General William Patterson)

November 23, 2013

Our speaker was retired Brigadier-General William Patterson, Chair of the Lower Burial Ground Restoration Society, presented a most informative history of the cemetery around St. Paul’s. The society was created in 2007 after individuals became aware of the deterioration of the west wall of the burial ground and the Forsyte monument. They incorporated the society as a charity, raised funds, and began to do both research and repair work. In 2012 they also paid for restoration of the Stuart Family monument. It is planned to continue restoration work over the next fifteen years or so, with the Cartwright monument being the goal for 2014.

Unlike the usual procedure, where a graveyard grows around an existing church, St. Paul’s was built in an existing cemetery. In 1825 a group petitioned the Upper Canada government for a patent for the Lower Burying Ground. With their petition, they included sworn affidavits from four Loyalists to prove that burials had taken place there since 1783, and that they had always been conducted by Anglican chaplains and never by a Presbyterian minister. (The Presbyterians had no place to bury their dead, as the newer Upper Burial Ground had been divided between the Roman Catholics and Anglicans.)

The four Loyalists were:

  • John Ferguson, husband of Molly Brant’s daughter Magdalena who said an army Corporal was buried here in 1783
  • Thomas Marker, Colonel of Militia, who reported attending a burial here by Rev. John Stuart
  • William Crawford, Ensign in the 2nd Battalion up to 1784 who recalled people dying and being buried here
  • John Carscallen, Sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, who said that as deputy chaplain he read the burial service over Corporal Forbes, the first burial.

In light of these affidavits, the government granted a land patent to St. George’s Church for the Lower Burial Ground.

As the population grew, there was need for more Anglican churches. St. Mark’s (Barriefield) opened in 1843, St. James in 1844. And in 1845, St. Paul’s was erected within the graveyard. It is unknown just how many graves were disturbed or covered by construction of the church building. The first building burned in 1855 and was rebuilt in 1856. The church hall was erected in 1872, and more graves may have been disturbed. The Lower Burial Ground is the oldest consecrated cemetery in Ontario, with burials between 1783 to 1863.