Snure Cemetery Revisited

GLINZ gravestone at Snure Cemetery,
Jordan, Ontario

Work continues on photographing and transcribing the gravestones of Snure Cemetery near Jordan, Ontario. A few days ago, I made my fourth and hopefully final trip to the cemetery. Retakes were needed for a number of gravestones. These were mainly for gravestones where the inscription had been in deep shadow on the north or west side of the stone. Previous visits to the cemetery had occurred in the morning, so this time I visited in mid-afternoon. What a difference. The lighting was such that on many of the stones, the face of the stone was in sunlight while the inscription was in shadow, making the inscription much easier to read.

There had been about eight gravestones that were me causing transcription headaches. The inscription on these stones was so faded that few or no details can be made out. Even under perfect lighting, only minimal details could be seen. In the 1984 Ontario Genealogical Society transcription these stones were either listed as illegible or were not listed at all. An earlier 1965 transcription didn't help.

Fortunately, while researching the history of the cemetery, I discovered a partial transcription completed in 1929. Dr. W.G. Reive was an amateur historian who spent his spare time transcribing old cemeteries in the Niagara Area. Apparently, after his death, his son donated his work to the Archives of Ontario. Using the Reive transcription I have been able to to identify all but one of the mystery gravestones.

Perhaps the stone which gave me the greatest difficulty was that for Matilda, Frederick and William GLINZ. The stone is located in a shadowy corner of the cemetery, and is broken into three pieces.

My initial visit to the cemetery last year had resulted in a photograph where no detail could be made out. A second visit last May didn't help. In July, a third attempt to photograph and transcribe the stone produced an age: 2 years. On my most recent visit, I temporarily reconstructed the gravestone. The ideal lighting conditions revealed the names Glinz, Matilda, Frederick, and William.

The stone was not listed in the 1984 or 1965 transcriptions, but Dr. Reive's transcription included a gravestone for Matilda GLINZ (1855-1862), Frederick GLINZ (1860-1860) and William GLINZ (1860-1862), children of F. and E. GLINZ. A mystery had been solved.

The actual inscription is still hard to decipher, and one line is still unreadable because of the break, but here is my reconstruction:

Children of
F. and E. Glinz
MATILDA
died 22 Mar 1862
aged 6 Y. 11 M. 22 D.
Frederick
died 26 Aug 1860
aged 12 days
William
died _________
aged 2 years

At the time of the 1861 Census, Frederick GLINZ was a 34-year-old labourer living in Louth, Lincoln, Ontario. Living with him was his 27-year-old wife Elmeda and four children: Matilde, aged 6, Anst, aged 4, Margret, aged 2 and William aged less than one. Frederick and his family do not appear to have remained in the Jordan area for long. All that remains to mark their presence is a broken, fading monument in a forgotten corner of Snure Cemetery.

The Rolle Brass at Petrockstowe

Monumental brass at Petrockstowe, Devon

One of the more challenging photographs I took during my trip to Devon was that of the early 17th century monumental brass to Henry ROLLE and his wife Margaret YEO at Petrockstowe, Devon. A tripod was essential since flash was out of the question. In hindsight, a polarizing filter would have also been useful to reduce the amount of reflection.

The two brasses show Henry ROLLE and his ten sons, and Margaret YEO and her eight daughters. Another daughter who died before her parents is represented by a skull. Margaret ROLLE's date of death in 1591 is given, however, no date of death is given for her husband. Above the head of Margaret ROLLE is the inscription, "My children feare the lorde."

Henry ROLLE was the fourth son of George ROLLE of Stevenstone in St Giles in the Wood. Henry acquired the manor of Heanton Sachville in Petrockstowe upon his marriage to Margaret YEO. Henry ROLLE presumably died in 1625 as his will was proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury later that year. Heanton Sachville was inherited by the oldest of his nineteen children, Robert ROLLE (1560-1633).

When Henry ROLLE's great-great-grandson Samuel ROLLE died in 1719, Heanton Sachville became the inheritance of his ten-year-old daughter, Margaret ROLLE (1710-1781). When Margaret married Robert WALPOLE (1701-1751), son of the first British Prime Minister, Heanton Sachville passed to the WALPOLE family. Neither Robert WALPOLE nor his son George (1730-1791) used Heanton Sachville as a residence. When George died childless, a distant cousin, Robert George William TREFUSIS (1764-1797), inherited the property, however, four years later the house was destroyed by fire.