St Anne's Church graveyard - Annapolis, MD
Posted by: saopaulo1
N 38° 58.714 W 076° 29.575
18S E 370683 N 4315458
A small churchyard on the side of St. Anne's.
Waymark Code: WM6D14
Location: Maryland, United States
Date Posted: 05/15/2009
Views: 7
"Under the planning of Governor Francis Nicholson St. Anne's church was placed on the second highest piece of land in Annapolis; the highest was reserved for the State House. The burial grounds around the church were at one time much larger than what presently exists. Annapolis' growth and especially the construction of the street around the circle, have reduced the cemetery to only a representative sample of what existed in the 18th century. It is reported in an early 20th century newspaper article that graves extended all the way to the Post Office and Government House.
Among the tombstones in the churchyard are those of five 17th-Century Marylanders: Col. Nicholas Greenberry (1627-1697) acting governor in 1694, and Ann, his wife (1648-1698); Major General John Hammond (1643-1707); Captain John Worthington (1650-1701); and Henry Ridgely (1669-1700). There are also grave stones of the first Mayor of Annapolis, Amos Garrett (1671-1727), and several other colonial worthies, including William Bladen (1670-1718), Benjamin Tasker, Sr. (1691-1768) who was President of the Maryland Council for thirty-two years and acting Governor of Maryland on several occasions; and his son, Benjamin Tasker, Jr. (1721-1760); Margaret Tilghman Carroll (1743-1817); and of the last British Governor of Maryland, Sir Robert Eden (1741-1784), whom George III created "Baronet of Maryland." Governor Eden returned to Annapolis after the Revolutionary War and died here. He was originally buried at St. Margaret's Church, but his mortal remains were moved to St. Anne's churchyard in 1926 by the Society of Colonial Wars who erected the monument.
In recent years the vault of Margaret Tilghman Carroll, daughter of Matthew Tilghman, on the north side of the church was opened and the mortal remains of several members of the Carroll family were identified in addition to her own, including: Dr. Charles Carroll (1691-1755), his second wife Anne Plater Carroll (d. 1766), his younger son John Henry Carroll (1732-1754), his elder son, the eminent constitutional lawyer and patriot, Charles Carroll, the Barrister (1723-1783) and husband of Margaret Tilghman Carroll.
Many other interments are no longer marked by stones, including the Bordley family vault beneath the ground behind the east end of the church. Discovered recently when a hole was dug to plant a tree, the vault was opened and found to contain three coffins, one of which bears a silver plate with the name of Margaret Chew Bordley (died 1773), first wife of John Beale Bordley (1727-1804), the celebrated agriculturist and animal breeder. She was a sister of Molly Chew, the first wife of Governor William Paca (1740-1804). Another coffin contains what is believed to be the remains (with his yellow wig still intact) of the prominent lawyer and bon vivant Stephen Bordley (ca. 1710-1764). The third is believed to be that of his socially accomplished sister, Elizabeth Bordley (1717-1789), who lived with her unmarried brother in the Bordley House and managed his household, famous in its day for its hospitality and cuisine. She is the same Elizabeth Bordley who in 1790 gave the bequest of land on College Creek which since then replaced the churchyard as St. Anne's Cemetery." (
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