Section N

Woolford

In memory of J. E. Woolford, Esq., late Barrack Master, Fredericton, died 12th Jan. 1866, aged 88 years.

In memory of Margaret, wife of J. E. Woolford, Esq.

Royal Gazette, Fredericton, NB, 6 February 1833:

Died on Wednesday morning last, the 30th ult., Mrs. Margaret Fullerton, wife of J. E. Woolford, Esquire, Barrack Master of this place, deeply and deservedly regretted.

John Elliot Woolford of the Barracks Department was appointed Assistant Barrack Master at Saint John in 1823. He bore the title until 1839 or 1840 when he was described in the New Brunswick Almanack as Deputy Barrack Master, and in 1842 as Barrack Master. He had charge of the army buildings in Fredericton.

J. E. Woolford was in charge of the building of Government House, and the very fine plans of the same are now in the Archives, Ottawa. The contract for building Government House was awarded to Jedediah Slason, and it was built in 1827.

New Brunswick Royal Gazette, 14 March 1826:

Contracts will be received by William F. Odell, Thomas Wetmore and Samuel D. Street… building a college… rough stone, hewn stone for the corners, boards, planks and scantling.

William F. Odell and the Reverend George Best advertised contracts in the New Brunswick Royal Gazette, April 1826, for a building for King’s College. The contract was awarded to James Taylor and also to Cross and Murray of Saint John. J.E. Woolford was the architect, and a model of the college building which he designed stood in his home.

Had there been a public library at that time, Mr. Woolford probably would have designed it, as the following notice suggests:

Royal Gazette, Fredericton, NB, 19 July 1839:

Fredericton Library — A General Meeting of the Proprietors is requested at the residence of Mr. Woolford on Friday afternoon next at 21st instance at 4 o’clock to decide upon the selection of a Library Room and such others matters as may be brought before the meeting. By order of the President. R. Gowan, Secretary.

J.E. Woolford resided in Regent Street opposite the Park Barracks until 1841.

Royal Gazette, Fredericton, NB, 10 July 1839:

Notice "The Subscriber" respectfully intimates to his friends and the Public that he has taken that commodious and pleasantly situated House in Regent Street owned by Captain James Segee next door to J. E. Woolford, Esq. and nearly opposite to Mr. Donald McLeod where he intends keeping a Genteel Boarding House for the reception of permanent and Transient Boarders. Good staffing is required. Joseph Estabrooks.

Royal Gazette, Fredericton, NB, 1 November 1841:

Welner-Baile Tailoring Shop in the House lately occupied by Barrack Master Woolford, Regent Street.

He was one of the artists who exhibited at the Grand Exhibition in Saint John in August 1842, and was President of the Floral and Horticultural Society of New Brunswick in 1843. He retired in 1859 from the Barracks Department, but remained in Fredericton until his death.

The Head Quarters, Fredericton, NB, 17 January 1866:

John E. WOOLFORD, Esq., late Barrack Master in this garrison was a native of England, born in London; served under Duke of York in Holland, afterwards under Sir Ralph ABERCROMBIE in Egypt where he was present at all the principal engagements. It was there that his merit as a sketcher of landscapes attracted the attention of Lord Dalhousie, under whose patronage he settled in Scotland on his return as an artist. On Lord DALHOUSIE’s appointment to the Government of Nova Scotia, he accompanied him to that country. In 1821 when his Lordship made a tour through Upper and Lower to Lake Superior, he attended him as an artist, and took views of all the principal residences on their route. In 1823 on a change being made in the Barrack Dept., he received his late appointment to this garrison and held it until 1858. It was the plans of Mr. WOOLFORD that both the College and Government House were built. He was married to a lady of the ERSKINE family, related to Lord BUCHAN and the late Lady DOUGLAS wife of Sir Howard DOUGLAS.

Vavasour and Edwards

Vavasour

Henry Froude Vavasour died Nov. 21st, 1885 aged 58 years. Also his wife Jane C., died July 7th, 1917 aged 87 years. Cora Forrester Vavasour died June 23rd, 1865, aged 3 years.

In Memoriam. Maude M. Vavasour died Jan. 5th, 1890 aged 31 years. "To live in Hearts we leave behind is not to die." "Nearer my God to Thee."

Edwin Edwards died Jan. 18th, 1880 aged 64 years. This monument is erected by his Sister and her Children in memory of a Beloved Brother and Uncle.

Lot #21, 12 x 14 feet, surrounded by iron paling with the name VAVASOUR over the gate. The tall handsome monument stands alone.

Edwin Edwards was an Irishman and a mining engineer who, upon retirement, came to New Brunswick and lived with his sister Jane C. Edwards, Mrs. Vavasour. She used to tell of being in Australia with her brother and of having seen, in a miner’s home, quintuplet babies asleep in a sliced hogshead.

Henry F. Vavasour, bookseller and stationer, was an only child of Henry Vavasour who died in 1832. He lived on the south side of King Street a few doors above York Street. His mother was Maria, third daughter of Samuel Grosvenor, and his stepfather was Thomas H. Cripps. The bookstore was bought by Francis Beverly.

Members of the Vavasour family were talented. Miss Maud Vavasour was extremely musical as they all were, and she had a beautiful singing voice. Her brother, Edwin Vavasour, worked all his life in the Fredericton post office. He died aged seventy and was buried 30 April 1926 in the Rural Cemetery.

See also The Old Burying Ground, Vol. II, p. 51.

Ann, wife of James Taylor

Taylor

In memory of Ann, wife of James Taylor of this city who died 2nd Jan. 1863 aged 67 years. Native of Carlisle, England.

Footstone: “A.T.”

Two bases of stones are found in the lot next to the Adams lot. Part of one stone lies flat next to its base and carries the above inscription. This tombstone has been repaired, and if there had been more to the inscription, it is obliterated by cement.

In 1861, James Taylor had at least three acres under cultivation: hay, oats, and potatoes. His farm was near the Carleton Farm of the Odells.

Partelow and Tabor

Tabor

Memorial to the Honourable John R. Partelow who died on the 13th Jan. 1865, aged 69 years.

Also his wife, Jane Hamlin, who departed this life 20th Feb. 1866, aged 69 years. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."

In Memory of Charles Clifton Tabor, late Lieut. 15th Regt., died March 21st, 1888 aged 47 years. "Simply to Thy cross I cling"

In memory of Ada, wife of Charles Clifton Tabor, died March 23rd 1919, aged 80 years. "At rest in the Lord".

Percy Clifton, died Nov. 8th, 1886 aged 2 years, son of Charles and Ada Tabor.

John Clifton Tabor

Lot #156. There are six graves in this enclosed lot: Hon. John R. Partelow, his wife, and his daughter Ada, Mrs. Tabor, with her husband and two of their children.

Chas. C. Tabor claims a lot in the Burial ground. Size about 16 feet square. Situate towards the North West corner of Ground. Enclosed by heavy granite coping. Marked by marble [illegible]. Engraved "Partelow" Claimer purchased this lot from Henry Chestnut Feb 21st 1866

John R. Partelow was the son of a shoemaker, Jehiel Partelow of Saint John. He married Jane Hamlin Matthews in 1819.

From 1828 until 1856, except for an interlude of three years, John R. Partelow was a member of the Legislature for the County of St. John. He was Chamberlain of Saint John from 1827 until 1865, and was also Mayor of that city, appointed 10 April 1846 and holding office until 5 July 1848 when he was appointed Provincial Secretary. Mr. Partelow was appointed Auditor General of New Brunswick on 7 May 1855, which office he held until his death in January 1865.

When Mr. Partelow was appointed Provincial Secretary, he brought his wife and family to Fredericton. His eldest daughter, Mary, married James R. Crane. Jane, the second daughter, married John MacKay. Elizabeth married Thomas Otty Crookshank. Agnes married Henry Jeffrey Robinson, Captain, 76th Regiment, in 1857 and is buried nearby in the H.J. Robinson plot. Emma, the fourth daughter of Mr. Partelow, was the third wife of James Scott Beek, who succeeded Mr. Partelow as Auditor General and, like his father-in-law, was one of New Brunswick’s most distinguished civil servants. The Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1908, lists Mr. James S. Beek, Auditor General of New Brunswick as a Companion of the Imperial Service Order. The order was instituted by King Edward, 8 August 1902, for faithful and meritorious service in the Civil Service.

Ada, the youngest daughter, in 1862 married Charles Clifton Tabor of the 15th Regiment of Foot stationed in Fredericton from 1862 to 1868. Captain Tabor and his wife were well known in Fredericton. When Captain Clifton Tabor retired from the army, they resided at "Woodlands," the former home of Major Hansard of the 69th Regiment (Ret’d) who died in 1853. Mrs. Hansard sold the house in 1866.

The Tabors had a large family: besides the two young sons buried here, they had seven sons and three daughters. Their daughter Agnes, when young, wrote a prize essay on the 104th Regiment. She married, as his first wife, J.H.A.L. Fairweather, Judge of the Supreme Court of New Brunswick. Lilla married the Rev. G. Edward R. MacDonald, a nephew and foster son of Rev. Canon George Goodridge Roberts. The MacDonalds lived in California. After the death of Mrs. Clifton Tabor in 1919, her eldest daughter, Ada, married Dr. William Tyng Raymond, Professor of Classics at the University of New Brunswick. Some years after he retired (1929), they moved from their home at 770 George Street in Fredericton to Saint John where they died.

Hon. John Ambrose Street and Jane Isabella Louisa Hubbard

John Ambrose Street was the seventh son of the Honourable Samuel Denny Street, born in 1795 at Burton where his father had a large grant. Samuel Denny Street served in the Royal Fencible Americans at the taking of Fort Beausejour and later at Fort Howe.

Sarah Jane Smyth, wife of Andrew Sinclair

Andrew Sinclair came to Fredericton from Scotland in 1835 at the age of nineteen. Sarah Jane Smyth, his wife, came from Ireland with her mother Jane in the same year.

Mary, wife of William Ryan

Lovell’s Directory 1871 lists William Ryan, mason, on King Street in Fredericton. William and his wife Mary shared a home with John Ryan, his father.

Agnes Strachan Partelow, wife of Henry J. Robinson

Henry J. Robinson of H.M. 76th Regiment of Foot was a well-connected Irishman who remained in Fredericton when his regiment departed. He married first Agnes Strachan Partelow, daughter of the Honourable John R. Partelow, and secondly Sarah Black. There were no children.

Lillie Bell Phillips, aged 5 months

Schoolteacher, hotel keeper and stage coach proprietor Joseph Phillips (1828-1905), father of little Lillie Bell, was a son of Zophar Phillips and his wife Mehitable Dunphy. The Phillips family and the Sinclairs, whose burial plot is adjoining, settled on the Rusagonis River.

Martha Braine, wife of Alexander McKilligan

Alexander McKilligan, baker and later City Marshall, had emigrated to New Brunswick from Forres, Scotland. He married Martha Braine, housekeeper to the Lieutenant Governor, in 1844. After Martha’s death, he remarried and moved to his farm at Tay Creek, York County, NB.