UNMARKED BLACK LOYALIST GRAVES

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I visited the St. Mary's Anglican Church Cemetery  at Auburn, Nova Scotia in February 2019, where Black Loyalists are remembered on an information board.  They have no gravestones in this place, and their individual graves are unmarked as I explain in the video which appears below.


As with other persons who lived during this time there are now for many no marked graves.  It was reported of Aesop Moses, in the Annapolis Spectator Newspaper, on 22 February 2000, as part of  the Clements Historical Society Report, that he lived to be an old man of 105 and was probably the last of the slaves brought by their masters.  When he died in 1850 he was buried in his own field beside his wife.

There are 11 persons of African descent identifed in the burial records of the Anglican Parish of Wilmot who are in unmarked graves at Old Holy Trinity Church Cemetery in Middleton. These persons are:

Rebecca Ann Hamilton. Burial record: 11 October 1866 – At Trinity Church, Rebecca Ann Hamilton (coloured) in the sixty – third year of her age.

Bessie Hill. Burial record:  30 May 1861 – In Trinity church yard Bessie, infant daughter of Thomas and Mary Jane Hill, aged 6 months (coloured).

Charles Riddoch Hill. Burial record: 28 April 1862 – In Trinity Church yard Charles Riddoch Hill, son of William and Sally Ann Hill, aged five years - coloured.

Lorinda Hill. Burial record: 11 March 1861 – At Trinity Church Lorinda Hill aged 68 years (Coloured).

Maria Jane Hill. Burial record: 5 April 1860 – At Trinity Church Maria Jane, infant daughter of Thomas and Mary J. Hill aged 18 months (coloured).

Sarah Hill. Burial record: 2 Jan. 1864 - Sarah Hill, wife of William Hill, coloured, was buried in Trinity church yard – age 35 years.

Xenophon Zachariah Hill. Burial record: 2 Jan. 1860 – At Trinity Church Xenophon Zachariah, son of J & S. Hill – aged 4 years (Coloured).

Xerxes Zachariah Hill. Burial record:  26 March 1876 - In Trinity church yard Xerxes Zachariah Hill , coloured, in the 22 year of his age.

Mrs. Jenkins. Burial record: 14 Aug. 1865 – At Trinity church Mrs. Jenkins (coloured) aged 59 years.

Jeffery Jenkins. Burial record: 4 Nov. 1857 – At Trinity Church Jeffery Jenkins, coloured, originally a slave, liberated since he came to Nova Scotia with the Loyalists of 1783. He was one hundred years of age.

Mary Stevens. Burial record:  19 Nov. 1901 – In Holy Trinity church yard, Mary Stevens (colored) who died November 17th, 1901. Aged 86 years.

In the burial records for the Parish of Wilmot was also found an interesting one which mentions a white Loyalist and whose grave is unmarked:

George Nichols. Burial record: 11 June 1864 - George Nichols, one of the Loyalist immigrants was buried in Trinity church yard - aged 96 years.

There is a virtual cemetery for Black Loyalist Graves, which includes unmarked graves, on Find a Grave. 


Further Reference:

Finding Loyalists in Parish Records by Brian McConnell, UE, published by Atlantic Loyalist Connections

Graves of Black Loyalists , virtual cemetery on Find a Grave created by Brian McConnell, UE 



Historian & Author; Member of United Empire Loyalists ' Association of Canada, Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia, Ulster Historical & Genealogical Guild (Life)

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