Stories of the Saint John Region's Cemeteries

Fernhill Cemetery is a good place to start to find the resting place of people who have been key to our history. Several prominent politicians are buried here, including two Fathers of Confederation, William Steeves and Samuel Tilley. Robert Foulis and Wallace Turnbull, both engineers who had inventions that were important worldwide, can also be found here. Foulis invented the steam powered foghorn that would have saved countless lives and Turnbull invented the variable pitch propeller which was very important in improving efficiency of airplanes. Fernhill is also home to a few war heroes and at least one notorious murderer, John Munroe, a prominent architect in Saint John who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his mistress Maggie Vail and her daughter, a story that scandalized Saint John in the late 1860’s.

Cemeteries can also force us to face some of the less savoury aspects of our history. The first Canadian-born Black lawyer, Dr. Abraham Beverley Walker, is buried in the Church of England cemetery on Thorne Avenue in Saint John. Dr. Walker was born in Kars Parish in 1851 and received his law degree in Washington, D.C.. When he returned to New Brunswick, the overt racism of the time denied him the chance to practice law and instead he became a magazine publisher and a civil rights advocate.

Perhaps the graveyards with the saddest stories, but prettiest views, are the ones on Partridge Island looking south over the Bay of Fundy. Partridge Island was used as a quarantine station for immigrants starting in 1830 until 1941. Its busiest year was 1847 when the Irish Potato Famine forced poor Irish farmers off their land and many made their way here to Saint John. In that year, a typhus outbreak kept around 2000 Irish immigrants quarantined here. About 600 of them died and were buried on Partridge Island. I find it incredibly sad to think these people, who were leaving terrible conditions during a famine in Ireland, were able to make it all the way here only to die in clear view of Saint John.

It wasn’t only sick immigrants who passed away on Partridge Island. Dr. Patrick Collins, a young Saint John physician originally from Cork, Ireland, offered to go to the Island to work with those with typhus. He contracted the disease within a couple of weeks and passed away shortly after. Dr. Collins was the only victim of typhus allowed to leave the island. He was placed in a lead-lined coffin for his return to the city, and his remains are buried in St. Joseph’s Cemetery.

Note: Partridge Island can only be accessed via a guided excursion with River Bay Adventures.

There are also a number of cemeteries important to the history of Saint John, including the Loyalist Burial Ground in uptown Saint John. In this park-like graveyard, you can see the graves of the men and women (and too often children) who left New England after the American War of Independence to start new lives here in Saint John and the surrounding area while staying loyal to the British Crown. The oldest grave in the grounds belongs to Conradt Hendricks who passed away in 1784, which would not have been too long after he immigrated here.

Another historically important cemetery is the Black Settlement Burial Ground in Willow Grove, home to many of the Black Loyalists from the 1780’s and Black refugees of the War of 1812. These Loyalists and refugees would have relocated to Canada from the U.S. and settled in and around Willow Grove where they were given land grants.

Churches, of course, are the host of several graveyards. One of the nicest ones to visit is at Trinity Church in Kingston. As several Loyalists were given land grants along the Saint John (Wolastoq) River, there are several Loyalist graves in this peaceful cemetery.

It’s not only the established cemeteries that have interesting stories to tell. There are an unknown number of small, family graveyards scattered around the region. One interesting one is the Watson Cemetery in Grand Bay-Westfield, which contains the bodies of eight members of the Watts (Watson) family, some of the earliest Black settlers in Grand Bay-Westfield. William Watts escaped slavery in Virginia and was able to reach a British warship. He ultimately arrived in Saint John in September 1815, along with 370 other new immigrants. In 1838, he finally received a land grant of 50 acres of which 1 acre was set aside as a family graveyard where he, his wife and six other family members are buried.

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Saint John has a long and varied history, and graveyards give us a small window through which we can peek into these stories. They don’t tell us everything but they certainly get us thinking. And they do it in some of the most beautiful places.