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In
1776, the Honourable Michael Francklin gave about
two acres of land for erecting a Church, and for a “Burying GroundThe Burying Ground was the site of the first
two churches in Windsor.
The first, which according to Hind was sixty feet square, was built in
1771. Rev.
Joseph Bennett, the rector of this chapel appointed in 1775, was buried
in the
Old Parish Burying Ground in 1795. After the second church was
built,
this
first building was moved opposite the entrance gates to King’s
College and Hind
reports that formed part of a house.
A
second church was built in the Burying Ground between
1788 and 1790. The Church and Burying Ground were consecrated by
the
Right
Reverend John Inglis on November 5, 1826.
According
to the survey at the West Hants Historical
Society, the oldest surviving gravestone marks the death of Mrs.
Rachael Kelley
on January 27, 1771.
In 1887, the cemetery was closed to burials. Members of
some prominent
Windsor
and Nova Scotian families are buried in the Old Parish Burying Ground
including: Isaac DesChamps, the fourth Chief Justice of Nova Scotia
(1785-1788),
Winckworth Tonge, grandson of one of the original land grantees, and
Susanna
Francklin, wife of Lieutenant Governor Michael Francklin who donated
the land
for the Burying Ground, as well as
early presidents and
professors of King’s College including William Cochran, the first
President of
the College.
Beyond the genealogical
information which may be found in a cemetery, the gravestones tell
their own
story about attitudes towards death, the business of death and the
symbols used
by stone carvers to commemorate death. Many of the gravestones
are
decorated
with hands in various positions, urns, cherubs, and other symbols
common to
gravestone of this period.
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