Jonathon Locke 1758-1852
Grave #2 From Locke’s Burial Ground
in Lockeport , as noted on the sign, is Jonathon, the Doctor’s son.
A note added in the family Bible,
taken from his tombstone in 1906 [presumably when the marker was whole],
adds that Jonathon Locke died in
1852 at the age of 94. He was born in
1758.
(More info regarding Locke’s Burial
Ground below.)
Born: 1758 in
Died: May 16, 1852 in Lockeport, Nova Scotia
Spouse: Mary Elizabeth (Ryder) Locke, m. December 18, 1780 in
(Grave marker shown below.)
Children: John
Locke
James Locke (Note: James is my direct relative.)
Priscilla Locke b. Sept 12, 1789
Elizabeth Locke b. September 9, 1792
Mary Locke
b. April 19, 1795
Abigail (Locke) Churchill b. March 19,
1802 (More below)
Occupation: Ship Owner and Exporter to
Father’s name: ”Dr.”
Jonathon Locke of
Mother’s name:
Abigail Perry of
Siblings: Samuel Locke
Jacob Locke
Abigail Locke
Mary (Locke) Craig (More below within old burial ground info and
also see more on her father, Jonathon Locke’s
page.)
Ann Locke
William Locke
Locke’s Burial
Ground, aka: Pioneer Cemetery
I first heard about this
Lockeport cemetery when studying Ann Capstick’s
website. For its location, she
quotes from a manuscript found at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, which
says, “On a bluff facing
Mr. Partridge has a
grandson, Jeff Partridge, who used to
play on the bluff as a child. He later
wrote a story that reminisces over those times.
He writes, “The graveyard on the bluff recalls a time when people were
more closely connected with the natural processes of life. The graveyard on the bluff remembers history
and celebrates ancestry. The graveyard
on the bluff enshrines life, both present and past. The graveyard on the bluff produces wild
strawberries and raspberries.” Below I
share with you what I found at the little graveyard on the bluff; both the
sweet and sour; the strawberries and the raspberries. (Please write me at jrkho5@sbcglobal.net if you would like
more of Jeff’s story.)
Mr. Partdridge has kept the
immediate area of the cemetery clear and clean.
However, the rest of the bluff is fairly overgrown with pine and other
scrub trees. You can’t really see
- The people mentioned for graves 3, 4 and 12
appear to also have graves located within the
- Dates noted for the people in graves 4 and 12
don’t line up with any other sources.
Incidentally, Mr. Partridge
would like to repaint the sign and freshen it up. He’s looking for opinions from family members
regarding if or how it should be done.
The sign at the entrance to Locke’s
Burial Ground showing: Name, Relationship, Died, and Age.
Information added in [brackets] are my additions for
clarity.
1, Elizabeth, Jonathon’s Wife, 1844, 82 [Mary
Elizabeth (Ryder) Locke]
2. Jonathon, Doctor’s Son, 1852, 94 [The
Jonathon of this page]
3. Laetitia, Samuel’s Wife, 1839, 51
4. Samuel, Doctor’s Son, 1844, 89 [Jonathon’s
brother]
5. Rev. John Craig [Other area historians sometimes refer to him
as James Craig.]
6. Mrs. Craig (Doctor’s Daugther)[sic] [Mary
Locke, Jonathon’s sister]
7. Ann [A daughter of Dr. Jonathon]
8. Dr. Jonathon
[Jonathon’s father]
9. Mrs. Dr.
Jonathon [Abigail (Perry) Locke, Jonathon’s mother]
10. “Black Luce”, Servant
11. Eliza Aline, John’s Daughter, 1814 [Daughter of Jonathon’s son, John. However,
family Bible states she passed in 1810.]
12. Henry Ryder, James Son, 1810 [Jonathon’s
son James’ son. More below.]
13, 14,
15. Three Children, One Named Selcher,
From Across Harbour [Bodies recovered after a drowning incident]
16. Capt. Sam Mason, Kennebunk, Mass, 1833 [died
May 18, 1833, buried by his crew]
Top:
What you see you arrive at the crest of the hill
Left: Markers of the south half. Right:
Remains of the markers on the north half.
Grave #1 Mary Elizabeth (Ryder)
Locke, Jonathon’s wife.
Left: Grave # 4, Samuel, Jonathon’s brother. Little remains of his wife Laetitia’s marker.
Right: Grave # 5, Rev. John Craig, husband to
Jonathon’s sister Mary
The
sign says that grave number 12 is Henry Ryder, James’ son, died 1810. This creates a mystery…Henry Ryder Locke is
indeed James Locke’s son, but was born in 1822 and died at age 31 in 1854. James married Elizabeth Strickland in
1811. How do we explain this? Did James have a child by this same name that
died young before he married?
I
also haven’t resolved who Ann in grave 7 might be. Ann Capstick’s
website says she is a daughter of
Dr. Jonathon. Dare we put it together with
the Henry Ryder mystery and say it might be Jonathon’s daughter-in-law, first
wife of James and mother of Henry Ryder?
Any ideas from all of you out there would be appreciated, please e-mail
to: jrkho5@sbcglobal.net
Daughter
Abigail Locke married maritime Captain Enos Churchill on December 19,
1822. Enos was b. April 9, 1797 son of
Enos and Mary (Paine) Churchill. They
had two daughters, Tryphena (b. ?) and Mary Elizabeth (b. 1825), and son Lewis
(b. 1822). Lewis and Mary are listed in
the Shelburne County School District #6 School Returns of 1831. The Churchill family is intricately tied into
Lockeport history and I have more information on hand about the family. For example, Mary Elizabeth married Sen. John
Locke, son of Abigail’s brother Samuel.
Please write me if you have a question:
jrkho5@sbcglobal.net. Lewis Churchill and his wife Ann went on to
run a hotel with stables. Stories say
that he hosted visiting royalty.
Left:
Abaigail Locke 1802 - 1890 wife of Enos Churchill, in
Right:
Lewis and Ann Churchill’s daughter Josephine, in
Dr. John
Locke Churchill is most likely the son of Lewis and Ann, born Jan 1, 1873 and
d. June 22, 1935
With his
wife Lottie (MacMillan) born Aug. 15, 1879 and died Nov 23, 1959
Left is the
Lewis Churchill home in Lockeport that also functioned as a hotel.
Right is
the barn that housed the stables.
This sketch was found in a folio in
the home of George Longhurst Capstick.
The caption reads, “Lockeport’s
oldest house, 1782.”
I do not know if this is a house
that one of my Locke ancestors may have lived in,
but it certainly illustrates how
they may have lived.
The folio is called Sketches in and around Lockport with the
artist’s initials as H. T. C.
For more information, go to: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~capstick/sketches.html
From the Ragged Islands Historical Society, I
have a copy of a sale of land between Jonathon
and Abigail Locke to Samuel
Locke dated May 14, 1800. The sale
was registered under the oath of Enos Churchill on August 21, 1805. It is interesting to note that in this
document, Jonathon refers to himself as a Carpentor [sic] rather than Doctor,
and his son Samuel as Farmer. The parcel
of land described is the Eastern part of Green Harbour [Lockeport] and I
believe that it translates to the large, long area located on the lower right
of the image below identified as Samuel Locke’s. The original area may have been more
substantial as Samuel Locke did deed many parcels of his land to his children.
I acquired
this image courtesy of Ragged Islands Historical Society
I
have a copy of the June through
The following story is
recounted on the Little
School Museum portion of the Town of Lockeport webpage…and I’ve heard it
from other sources too…
RED PETTICOAT STORY
In the early
days salt fish was the business of Lockeport, the men spending six months on
the fishing grounds, to come home every three months to discharge their catches
and go out to sea again. When the men put out to sea, only the old, the
feeble, the women and the children were left behind, and it made an easy prey
for the raiders that came often.
When the American
Revolution swept over the 13 colonies, the sympathies of the people of
Lockeport, New Englanders themselves, were with the rebels whom they aided on
many occasions. Their feelings changed very quickly in 1779 when some
American privateers came ashore and looted their houses. An indignant
protest, signed by W. Peterfield, John Matthews, Thomas Hayden & Jonathan
Locke was sent to
It started off
talking about things that were taken - which happened to be the town's winter
provisions. Then it continues:
"These
things are very surprising that we in this harbour have done so much for
The year 1780,
the men of Lockeport set sail for the fishing grounds, leaving the women and
children to carry on until they returned with their catch of fish. The
day after the Lockeport boats had gone hull down on the horizon, a strange
vesel was seen making toward the town. The anxious women of Lockeport hurried
to Cranberry Hill to watch with fearful eyes the strange sail. The
children were dispatched to carrying into hiding the winter supplies of the
town. Soon it was evident to the watchers that the vessel was an
American. The women remembered the previous raids, and so they prepared
for the incoming raiders.
The women
gathered up brooms, shovels, and pitchforks and had lined the shore to point
the handles of the domestic implements at the raider. Behind, those who
had muskets fired them while others beat upon tubs and buckets to produce the
sound of drums. They had dug out every red piece of clothing in town, and
draped them on bushes, stones, and trees, to produce the effect of many
red-coated soldiers. In addition women marched up and down in their red
petticoats along the promontory of Cranberry Hill. When the Americans
were near enough to view the doings on Cranberry Hill they altered their course
and went over the horizon to try their luck on some other coastal town not so
heavily guarded. The American raider had seen many red things that
appeared to be the coat of a British soldier. From that day forward the
little fishing
This
painting is inside the Henry Locke home, part of the Streetscape.
It
illustrates the Red Petticoat Story and is signed E. Locke, 1928,
probably
Edmund “Trapp” Locke, g-g-grandson to Jonathan through Samuel.
Used with
permission from
You may click here or click on the painting itself
to see a larger image of this painting.
The detail
includes a woman in a red petticoat beating a parade drum
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