Sacred Ground, Loyalist Cemeteries of Eastern Ontario, Volume Two

By Stuart Lyall Manson

This book is the second volume in a series that delves into the lives and accomplishments of United Empire Loyalists who were interred in six loyalist cemeteries, five of which are situated in the Eastern Ontario County of Glengarry, and the other in the City of Cornwall. Includes important historic details of both the cemeteries and their loyalist occupants.

Cemeteries included in Volume Two are:

• St. Andrew’s United Cemetery (Williamstown, Glengarry)
• St. John’s Presbyterian Cemetery (City of Cornwall)
• Falkner Settlement Cemetery (South Lancaster, Glengarry)
• Salem United Cemetery (Summerstown, Glengarry)
• St. Raphael’s Cemetery (St. Raphael’s, Glengarry)
• Gleninore Cemetery (Charlottenburgh, Glengarry)

In each chapter the author discusses in depth, an individual cemetery containing United Empire Loyalist mortal remains. Numerous cemeteries in this region contain many such burials... all of the sites described in this book also contain non-loyalist burials. An historical overview of each of these burial grounds, along with biographical information on specific loyalists with particularly-remarkable stories. The locations chosen for this volume are based on geographic distribution, religious diversity, and other factors. The book is based on rigorous primary and secondary source research which is generously cited.

Sacred Ground: Loyalist Cemeteries of Eastern Ontario complements other publications that list burials or transcribe tombstone inscriptions. Those publications are important resources. This book supplements that basic data with greater historical context and additional research into the lives and experiences of these men, women and children who laid the foundations of modern Ontario.

Volume Two contents include:

• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: St. Andrew’s United Cemetery (Williamstown, Glengarry)
• Chapter 2: St. John’s Presbyterian Cemetery (City of Cornwall)
• Chapter 3: Falkner Settlement Cemetery (South Lancaster, Glengarry)
• Chapter 4: Salem United Cemetery (Summerstown, Glengarry)
• Chapter 5: St. Raphael’s Cemetery (St. Raphael’s, Glengarry)
• Chapter 6: Gleninore Cemetery (Charlottenburgh, Glengarry)
• Appendix A: Locations of Cemeteries
• Appendix B: Bethune’s Advice to his Congregation, 1815
• Appendix C: The Sanctity of the Sepulchre
• Appendix D: Church Trustees’ Petition on Lot 38, Lancaster, 1818
• Appendix E: Gleninore Name Plaques
• Sources Used and Cited
• Nominal Index
• Sources Used and Cited
• Nominal Index Click here to browse the INDEX

Reviews of the series:

• "SACRED GROUND provides a new and exceptionally detailed way in which to explore the founding of modern Eastern Ontario, primarily through the words of the people who settled here. After more than 40 years studying and travelling through the region, I thought I had exhausted all possible avenues. Stuart Lyall Manson, the regions leading contemporary historian, demonstrates that I mIssed the past that was hidden in plain sight in the numerous historic graveyards. Masterfully bringing the past "to life," Stuart's latest work [volume two] takes you on a tour of South Glengarry from Williamstown, north to St. Raphael's, then South Lancaster and Summerstown, with a bizarre stop in Cornwall. A professional historian and Loyalist descendant, Manson tells the hIstory of the men and women who remained loyal to their principles and their King to found modern day Ontario, through grave sites, while paying respect to the Haudenosaunee Iroquois. This deeply researched and eminently readable book is a must have for anyone interested in our heritage, touring the region and genealogy. Full review
  - Ian Bowering. The Cornwall Seeker [magazine], Page 34, December, 2023 issue.

• "Heritage cemeteries live on in Cornwall writer's Sacred Ground series. There’s a saying the only place you can find equality is in the cemetery, but an historian and author in Cornwall knows that’s not true. The new book [volume 2] provides rich biographies of some confirmed loyalists who are buried in those cemeteries; the loyalists were the residents of the 13 U.S colonies who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War (1775-83). Upon losing the war, they were resettled here in Canada, including in what is now Eastern Ontario."
  - Todd Hambleton. Cornwall Standard-Freeholder newspaper, October 10, 2023 issue.

• "Stuart Manson's Sacred Ground constitutes the first volume in a planned trilogy exploring the subject of Loyalist cemeteries.  Here, he focuses on the Loyalist settlements of Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry Counties. Useful as it is for identifying some of the "sacred grounds" with significant Loyalist burials in Eastern Ontario, this addition to the extant literature also enlarges the cataloguing process that is fundamental to cemetery research. The author carefully fills in the context and traces the development of each site in six chapters. But he also takes his story beyond the structural and into the biographical, with fascinating accounts of the lives of some of the Loyalists interred in each one. Military history enthusiasts will find much to entice them in his discussion of the Loyalist regiments in Canada both during the American Revolutionary War and in their veterans' associations and services. Genealogists will be excited to see how he explores the interactions and intellelations of the settlers generationally through marriages and births as well as deaths, and the nominal index will be a boon to personal family research. There is also "background" discussion of how such technological marvels as the early canaIs and the St Lawrence Seaway, while received as "progress" and undoubtedly furthering the region's industrialization, nonetheless disrupted everyday lives. The appendix provides the locations of each cemetery, a sample genealogy of two Loyalist families, and two remarkable primary sources pertaining to individuals whose stories are especially interesting. The first-rate analysis is complemented by a breezy narrative style that makes for easy reader immersion. Manson's efforts, in this initial work and undoubtedly in subsequent volumes, are required reading for our many OHS members who are interested in and working for the preservation of historic cemeteries in this province.""
  - Dr. Cynthia Comacchio, Book Review, OHS Bulletin (journal of the Ontario Historical Society). December 2021 issue.

• "I have just finished reading a remarkable book, which I enjoyed immensely. Through the medium of studying cemeteries and grave markers, Stuart examines the Loyalist settlement of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Counties after the end of the American Rebellion. Everyone who has an interest in the Loyalist regiments that served in Canada, garrisoning its posts and conducting expeditions against the rebels will marvel at Stuart’s accounts of various veterans’ activities before, during and after the war. He has tracked the interrelationships of so many of the settlers in remarkable detail through their military service, adventures, relatives, marriages and children. The founding of the different faiths’ churches and their cemeteries is addressed as well as their grave markers, both existing and now missing. The effects of the early building of canals, and the major disruption caused by the building the St. Lawrence Seaway (which led to the construction of Upper Canada Village) are dealt with in detail. Despite my studying of so many of these loyalists for decades, I found Stuart’s research wonderfully fresh and informative. I am so looking forward to Stuart’s second volume." "
  - Gavin K. Watt, author of sixteen acclaimed books of the history of the American Revolution and the loyalist experience and honorary Vice-President of the United Empire Loyalists' Association.

• "Stuart has painstakingly chronicled the life and times of many pioneer men and women who laid the foundation for future settlements in the loyalist townships and counties of Eastern Ontario. Many stories reach into other aspects of our historical past, whether the fur trade, the expansion of our nation to the west, or the political activities within our communities and province. Through careful research and documentation, and with detailed footnotes, he has allowed us to have a glimpse into the lives of the loyalists who have gone before us, and to know where their mortal remains lie buried in sacred ground..... While Sacred Ground: Loyalist Cemeteries of Eastern Ontario has been professionally researched and written, it is Stuart’s folksy words and writing style, in many instances, that many will find interesting."
  - Jim Brownell, President, Lost Villages Historical Society

• "A chapter for each [cemetery] gives a historical overview and chronicles the life and times of many pioneer men and women who laid the foundation for future settlements in the loyalist townships and counties of Eastern Ontario. Even if you don't have Loyalist ancestors the information gleaned from this book could enrich a history-themed visit to the area—when we're able to make trips again."
  - John Reid, Anglo Celtic Roots

Volume Two Details:

• 214 pages
• 6 X 9"
• Softcover - Perfect Bound
• Illustrations, Photographs
• Appendices
• Sources
• Index
• Published by Global Heritage Press, Ottawa, September 2023
• ISBN 9781772402339 (Vol. 2 softcover)