Erected by the earliest settlers of the area, the Free Meeting House was intended as a place of worship for all denominations, none of whom yet had a church of their own. It remained in use by some denominations for as many as 57 years. The building remained strictly a religious building until 1963, when it began to be used for secular purposes, such as a community hall and meeting place.
Most of the founders of the meeting house are interred in the cemetery, which came into use before the meeting house was built. The earliest known burials in the cemetery took place in 1816, those of John Charters, who died on May 17, 1816, aged 56 yrs, and infant Charles G. Harris, who died June 29, 1816 aged 11 months. The final known burial took place in 1861, that of Isabella Cummings, who died October 3, 1861, aged 21 yrs. A
transcript of the cemetery indicates a total of only 45 burials, about one third of these prior to 1800.
It has recently become apparent that there are graves without markers and probably even markers without graves in the old cemetery. Evidence had come to light that in the 1850s, some gravestones were moved to the Elmwood Cemetery when it was established, but the bodies may or may not have been disinterred. Further, it was known that grave markers which once existed could no longer be found in the cemetery. As a result, the Resurgo Place Museum next door enlisted the aid of ground-penetrating radar and radiometers to get an idea of what is actually in the ground of the cemetery. CBC News reported both on the
upcoming survey in July of this year (2017) and some of the results in October. The beginning of this last article is reproduced below.
Historic Moncton graveyard
gives up some secrets
By Kate Letterick, CBC News | Posted: Oct 05, 2017 8:00 AM AT
All is not what it seems at an historic graveyard outside the Resurgo Place Museum in Moncton.
An archeological survey carried out in the summer shows what Lawren Campbell suspected.
"The results came back and showed us that in fact there are several markers that have no graves supposedly, and certainly some grave sites with no markers, which is the more important one," said Campbell, the heritage and culture co-ordinator for Resurgo Place.
Headstones date back to 1816 in the graveyard, which is between the museum and the Free Meeting House, the first and oldest public building in the city.
Staff members from the provincial government's archeology branch marked the area with plastic grids three months ago and used ground-penetrating radar and a radiometer to look beneath the earth without disturbing anything.
The results show several sites of possible graves — some in an area that has no markers.
There are three reasons for all of the uncertainty, Campbell said.
First, there is some evidence that back in the 1850s, some gravestones were moved to the Elmwood Cemetery.
As well, some stones have broken off, and it's unclear where they were located.
And back in the 1970s and 80s, an "esthetic cleanup" took place and some headstones were moved around.
From CBC News