I made some progress in the Mary Fawcett mystery today. It's Susan Hill to the rescue again. First she emailed an elderly fellow who had done transcriptions in the cemetery in 1970 to see whether he had taken photos. He hadn't but remembered the Old Burying Ground very well, especially the bones sticking out of the ground (!). Next Susan checked her own notes and discovered that she, too, had questioned the dates. She sent me a photo taken in 2005 and it's just astonishing how much more readable that stone was just 8 years ago. It's clearly the stone of Mary Ripley. The day of her death, 16 Dec is clearly visible, but the year is not. The first digit is a 1 and the last a 7. We know that Mary was still alive in 1835 when Henry died and that she was born around 1770. The year must range from 1837 to 1897. The unreadable numbers in question have some roundness to them so my best guess is that she died in 1837 at age 68.
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Though I'll be leaving Nova Scotia today, I'll be leaving behind many descendants...generations upon generations of mosquitoes and blackflies. And it wasn't just because we were CFA's (come-from-aways) that we were swarmed. In Parrsboro all the locals resembled beekeepers with their hats and bug nets. Despite the bugs in certain areas, we had a fantastic tour around this spectacularly-scenic province, visiting Joggins Fossil Cliffs, Advocate Harbour, Peggy's Cove, and Lunenburg. I also accomplished most of what I'd hoped to do in the Amherst area. We visited Fort Cumberland where the Ripleys first landed in the Chignecto area. We were able to find 4 of the 5 cemeteries in which generations of great grandparents are buried and took many photographs. I was finally able to meet local genealogist Susan Hill, first cousin Tannis, and distant cousins Rachel and Art Ripley. I also learned of a Ripley who has a sugar woods in Fenwick. In River Philip we located the plaque honouring the Yorkshire settlers and possibly the locations of the original Ripley land grants there. We waded in the River Philip to cool off and bought local strawberries in Oxford. It was wonderful to acquire a sense of "place" that you just don't get from looking at maps. I will be able to add much information to the website in the weeks to come. It's clear I need to come back and spend a week or two at the Cumberland County genealogical centre going through the papers of Ernest Coates, who collected 8 files on the Ripleys. Hopefully next summer...though making maple sugar in the spring certainly sounds tempting. On the way back from Lunenburg to Moncton, we were able to visit Fort Beausejour (Cumberland) where the Ripleys first made landfall in their new home. I had wanted to visit the area to walk on the same grounds where they had likely walked and to get a sense of their first views of the landscape. The fort was originally the French Fort Beausejour, captured by the British in 1755 and renamed Fort Cumberland. The interpretation centre includes information on the original Acadian inhabitants and their deportation. The centre also has a collection of artefacts from the late 1600's and early 1700's including wooden shoes and tools. A model of an Acadian women dressed in replica flax homespun clothing gave an excellent idea of the rough and bulky clothing worn during that time. I was particularly struck by the difference between this type of clothing and the extremely ornate uniforms worn by French and British soldiers. All around us, guides and visitors were speaking both French and English and it was clear that many of the visitors had come because they had family ties to the area. Other displays in the interpretation centre helped in forming an impression of life in the later 1700's. The collection included pieces of English china once owned by the Trueman family which had close connections to the Ripleys. There was also an early portrait of their Methodist minister William Black. The fort was built in a star shape which is still visible from the air. Visitors are able to walk around the fort and explore its many underground rooms which have been excavated and restored. I found the barracks particularly interesting as the Ripleys likely stayed there for at least a few days before finding a home. It's still possible to identify what looks like a cooking area in one corner of the excavated barracks. The fort is large, but it was difficult to believe that 500 soldiers had been housed there at one time. As we were leaving, we spotted a black truck with a Riptide logo on the door. The Riptide flyshop in nearby Amherst is owned by a Danny Ripley. Just one of those marvelous coincidences that seem to occur when you're doing genealogical research. Photos of the visit and information about Fort Cumberland have now been updated on this website on the Fort Cumberland page. With the aid of a hand-drawn map furnished by Susan Hill, archivist at the Cumberland County Genealogical website, we set off early in the morning to find the Yorkshire Land Grant Plaque and hopefully the original Ripley Land Grants. We took Highway 104 heading southeast from Amherst about 15 minutes to the Oxford Exit number 6. Then we headed south toward Oxford Junction and Collingwood Corner (not north which takes you to Oxford). A short distance past the turn-off to Spring Hill we located the River Philip United Church on the left hand side of the road at 2808 Wyvern Road. After admiring the Classic Revival architecture of the church and wandering through the cemetery nearby, recognizing names very familiar from earlier research, we spotted a boulder and several gravestones in a grove of trees about 50 metres south of the church. This proved to be the location of the Yorkshire Land Grant Plaque and the grave of George Oxley, the first settler to have died in the area. I've updated the Yorkshire Land Grant page on this website with photos taken of the church, the plaque, and George Oxley's grave. On the agenda for a future trip is a visit inside the church to see the history recorded there. I had been quite keen to find George Oxley's grave which, according to the inscription on the new gravestone, was located on his Lot 19 from the Yorkshire Land Grant. Since the Ripley grants are at Lots 16 and 17, locating George's Lot 19 would be very helpful in determining their location. When I mentioned this to Susan Hill, she relayed the disappointing information that an Eleanor Ripley B-something, a resident of River Philip, had told her that George Oxley's remains had previously been buried elsewhere and relocated to the church. I was able to determine Eleanor's last name by asking around town and I'll follow up on that lead before my next trip. Heading south toward Collingwood Corner, we attempted to match up the meanderings of the River Philip with the markings on land grant map number 60 which I had brought along. This was more than a little iffy because it depended on the road being in the same place and the course of the river unchanged since 1785. However, we did find one section where the river did run exactly parallel to the road before veering sharply away as it did on Robert Ripley's Lot 17. I think the reasonable solution to this is a guided flyfishing trip on the river with a guide who knows it well. For example, Danny Ripley at Riptide Flyfishing in Amherst. I didn't see any rising fish but the River Philip is a sweet little river with great-looking lies for trout and it looks reasonable wadable. Property deeds may also be available for the area. In Collingwood Corner, we pulled over to view a lovely pool in the River Philip where locals were swimming to cool off in the heat and nearly tripped over a Ripley Number 4 Road sign lying in the ditch. Flagging down a truck just coming off that road, we learned that the road continued for quite some ways but we were warned that it was fairly rough and we shouldn't attempt it in our rental car. We contented ourselves with wading in the River Philip and reading the rules for fishing etiquette as the swimming hole turned out to be a favourite salmon fishing pool. I've updated the Lots 16,17 page of the website with photos of the River Philip area. We finished the trip with lunch at the Timmy's in Oxford (Tim Horton's was a new experience for my American friend Gail). We took photos with the giant blueberry and bought fresh-picked strawberries from a roadside stand, a gift for Art and Rachel Ripley whom we planned to visit that afternoon. Along with flyfishing, picking blueberries happens to be a favourite activity of mine. I'd certainly say yes to 500 acres on the River Philip. All of my previous experience with cemeteries has been relatively traumatic, occurring under rather sad circumstances. It struck me as quite odd when I was packing that I had actually organized a trip around visiting cemeteries and was eagerly looking forward to doing so. One of the first things we noticed driving through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia was the astounding number of cemeteries. We just don't see that many cemeteries in B.C. But even the tiniest town in Atlantic Canada has several churches, each with its own cemetery and small family cemeteries are sprinkled throughout the countryside. I'd planned to visit 5 cemeteries in the Amherst area and was able to visit and photograph four, Amherst Cemetery, The Old Burying Ground in West Amherst, Fenwick Cemetery, and Michael Fortune Cemetery in Maccan. The Harrison Orchard Cemetery eluded me. It's on private property in someone's back yard and visiting requires permission, disabling electric fences and moving cattle. I couldn't even find the road it's supposed to be on. I'd done quite a bit of preparation prior to my visit and knew who was buried in which cemetery and which stones I wanted to photograph. I even had maps of where the graves were located in four of the cemeteries, thanks to Susan Hill's excellent book. I thought it would be a snap. We dropped in to the Cumberland County Genealogical Society just in time to make poor Susan give up most of her lunch hour. She quickly drew a map of how to find the cemeteries and looked up the location of Robert Salter Ripley's grave in Amherst Cemetery (Block C) in their database. There are over 3000 graves in Amherst Cemetery and we might have seen them all. An hour later we were still wandering around trying to find Robert Salter Ripley's grave in Section C. It wasn't exactly where it was supposed to be so we'd started hunting and eventually ended up in Section C of the Catholic Cemetery which we didn't realize is adjacent to the Amherst Cemetery. And I don't think we were the only folks having trouble locating graves. As we walked through the cemetery we saw the same cars going up and down each lane either out for a peculiar outing on a 30-degree day or also searching for graves. Despite the fact that I already had a photo of the grave and knew it had a triangle shaped top and displayed the Ripley coat of arms, we were unable to find it. We flagged down a mower who said he'd definitely seen the stone but couldn't remember where. Finally a caretaker by the name of Joe Holland took pity on us and came over to help. He looked up the location of Robert Salter's grave and led us right to it. The stone is visible from the road but the inscription is facing the other way. Robert's wife Hannah Elizabeth and their daughter Nellie who'd died in childbirth were buried in the same area and share the headstone. Joe stepped back, looked at the ground with a practiced eye, and told us who was buried where. He also pointed out a tag on the back of the stone near the bottom and said the stone had likely been placed about 1965. This meant the original stone or stones had been replaced. The monument company closed down several years ago and their records were destroyed so we may never know who actually designed the stone and decided to put the Ripley coat of arms on it. This is significant because we're not sure about the parentage of Robert Salter Ripley's father Andrew C. Ripley. We saw many other Ripley stones in our wanderings but only photographed one other, Jonathan Vickery Ripley. Lesson #1: in a large cemetery just go find the caretaker. Lesson #2: if you take photos of a shiny stone on a sunny day you'll be reflected in the photos. Next we visited The Old Burying Ground in West Amherst where the Ripley progenitors, my 4th great grandparents, Robert Ripley and Isabella Beane and some of their descendants are buried. This is a smaller cemetery and it only took about 5 minutes to find their graves up on the hill. The headstones are made of sandstone, badly weathered, and covered with splotches of lichen but the names "Robert Ripley" and "Isabella" are still visible. Lesson #3: it's even harder to photograph old weathered stones than it is to photograph shiny newer ones. I took a moment to introduce myself, thank them for their brave decision to come to Canada in 1774, and how I planned one day to relate their story to my granddaughter Alexa. After photographing the stones of their daughter Jane and her husband Robert Coates, we located a group of 3 stones that held an intriguing mystery. This group consists of Robert and Isabella's son Henry, his wife Mary Fawcett, and their daughter-in-law Matilda Riley. On every tree I've seen, Mary's death date is given as 1817 age 60 which can't be true as she was alive to inherit 100 pounds from her father in 1829 and Henry's estate in 1835. I was especially interested in seeing her stone to determine if the date was correct in which case the grave is not Mary Fawcett's. Unfortunately the stone was completely unreadable. However, I do think it's Mary Fawcett. Her stone is the same shape as Henry's but taller. Isabella's stone is also taller than Robert's and Jane's is taller than Robert's which might have been the fashion of the time. So, mystery not solved but I'll get Susan on it later. The biggest surprise in The Old Burying Ground turned out to be the grave of John P. Ripley who died at the age of 23. When I first encountered the entry for John P. Ripley in Susan's book I was astonished. She had noted that John P. was the son of Andrew C. Ripley and Elizabeth Ripley, my second great grandparents. This was a person that Gordon Ripley and I (and apparently even Ernest Coates) had never seen before on any family tree. I was most curious to discover how she'd come to the conclusion that John P. was Andrew and Elizabeth's son. Well, it says son of Andrew C. and Elizabeth Ripley right on the stone. And John P. is buried right next to his maternal grandparents John Parkinson Ripley, for whom John P. was likely named, and Hannah Lake Smith. Welcome back to the family, John P. Michael Fortune Cemetery is in a very shady grove right next to Hwy 302 in Maccan. Robert Ripley and Rebecca Vickery, my 3rd great grandparents, were easy to find. Susan had told me that Robert's headstone was lying face down on the ground so I was prepared for disappointment. Although it's still lying in two pieces on the ground, someone has kindly turned it face up and the name, dates, and verse inscribed are all readable. The top of Rebecca's stone has cracked off but the bottom is still standing and readable. Robert and Rebecca and buried side by side. Robert's brother James Coates Ripley is buried next to Robert and Rebecca's sister Rachel is buried next to Rebecca. This arrangement of stones confirmed what I'd only suspected before; that the James and Rachan (sic) living with Rebecca after Robert's early death on the 1871 census were her brother-in-law and sister. Robert's brother Thomas is buried on the left of James Coates so it was very interesting to see these three sons of William Coates Ripley and Hannah Smith buried all together. It seemed that half the graves in the tiny cemetery were Ripleys and we were able to photograph many of them but somehow I missed Esther and Phoebe. On the way to Fenwick Cemetery we spotted a cheerfully-painted Ripley mailbox and I resisted the temptation to knock on their door. It's hard to explain why Fenwick Cemetery was our favourite, but it had a very peaceful feeling. It's also extremely well cared-for and it looks like relatives still place artificial flowers in little wire hanging baskets near the graves. Many of the older stones have been replaced by newer ones. Andrew C. Ripley, my 2nd great grandfather, was the first person buried in this cemetery. The year of death on his stone is 1890 but he was alive on the 1891 census and the cemetery was not established until 1892. Presumably he was buried elsewhere at first and then moved to the cemetery when it opened. Andrew is buried with his wife Elizabeth, one of the next three burials in 1893. From their headstone, I learned that her middle initial was B., which I had not known previously. I wish I had re-read Myrtle Chappell's chapter on the Fenwick cemetery just before visiting because I forgot to intentionally photograph some of the distinctive features such as the perimeter road and gates that were part of the original cemetery plan though they do show up in the background of some photos. I did remember to photograph Rufus Webb Ripley and Sarah Ripley. They're Gordon Ripley's people and Rufus was one of the original trustees responsible for establishing the cemetery. Sarah was the sister of my great grandfather Robert Salter Ripley. Like my grandparents, Rufus and Sarah were also Ripley cousins who married each other. I also photographed Crane Ripley who was an original trustee and furnished the one acre lot for the cemetery for the price of $30. For a person whose family is scattered across North America and still has no idea where she should be buried, it was a very sobering experience to see so many generations who remained together. Rest in peace, Ripleys. Put the mints on the pillows, Nova Scotia. Here we come! This is my first ever trip to Nova Scotia so I'm pretty excited. I've packed my copy of Will R. Bird's Here Stays Good Yorkshire, historical fiction set in the early years of Chignecto country, for reading on the plane. And I have to say this is the first time I ever received any travel advice from 1774. Luke Harrison, who sold Robert Ripley a farm, wrote to his cousin back in Yorkshire complaining bitterly of the mosquitoes on the marsh which apparently bite the English the worst and cause your legs and arms to swell so that some are blind and lame for days. I'm also packing pants rather than dresses as the blackflies are known to fly up women's petticoats. On the agenda is a trip to Amherst to actually meet some of the people I've only met online. My second cousin once removed, Rachel and her husband Art Ripley, are going to show us around the Michael Fortune and Harrison Orchard Cemeteries which they say are visible from their house in Maccan. We're going to try to locate the graves of 5 sets of great grandparents with the help of Susan Hill's excellent book Some Cumberland County Nova Scotia Cemeteries which Susan assures me will also be a great help in fending off the mosquitoes. We also hope to drive to the Oxford/River Philip area to locate the memorial plaque to the Yorkshire Grant 1785 on Lot 19 which is very close to the Ripley grants at Lots 16 and 17. Time permitting, we'll drop into Danny Ripley's flyfishing shop in Amherst and talk flyfishing on the River Philip. Danny sells Hardy reels at his shop, sure sign we're from the same gene pool. Later I'll meet up with cousin Tannis, whom I haven't seen since childhood. We also plan to take in the sights at Fundy Bay, Peggy's Cove, and Lunenburg. I'll keep you posted.
I first started investigating the Ripleys while caring for my mother whose health was rapidly declining. With the information my mother provided, my sister and I started a family tree which has grown to include over 2500 names. But a list of names and dates just doesn't capture a sense of story about these people's lives, the wonderful memories my mother shared in the final years of her life, the aha and hair-pulling moments of amateur genealogy, and the 2 a.m. email exchanges with 4th cousins twice removed and other victims of Ripley Fever. I wish I'd been blogging all along.
Better late than never. A week from now I'll be making my first trip to Nova Scotia, so I thought this would be a good time to start. I'm planning to visit the graves of 5 generations of great grandparents and to locate a few of the original homesteads. I don't have much on the new website yet but maybe it will be easier to digest that way. I haven't been able to get too many normal people interested in my 2500-name tree. Oh...and thanks to my Weebly Website Pioneer friends Paul and Maureen who provided just the right combination of arm-twisting and tutoring to get me started. You didn't really think I'd write about technology, did you? |
AuthorHi there! My name is Mallory Burton and I started researching the Ripley family in 2011. I'd describe myself as a careful amateur who's more interested in story than names and dates. I hope you enjoy my website and blog. I also have a public Mallory/Ripley tree on Ancestry with over 4,000 names. To contact me, please comment on any one of my blog posts. Archives
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