Sunday, June 10, 2012

Findings from a visit to Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa, Ontario

This is the tombstone for William and Sarah (Bishoprick) Sales, in Beechwood Cemetery, Ottawa, Ontario. William died in 1928, of stomach cancer; he was noted in the Beechwood interment records as having been a civil servant, and his next of kin, responsible for his burial, was his widow, Sarah. Sarah died in 1930, 2 years later, of (I think, will have to check) heart failure. Her next of kin in the Beechwood records is listed as Mrs. Patrick (Florence) McEvoy, her daughter. She lived with the McEvoys at 464 Gladstone Street in Ottawa until her death. Sarah's father was Mark Bishoprick Junior, and her mother was Maria (Kilbourne) Bishoprick. They are both buried in a plot in Beechwood not too far from this one, but in a different section of the cemetery. Mark Bishoprick Senior also lived in Ottawa, and was also married to a Maria, nee Downing. She, however, was not Mark Junior's mother, who appears to have been someone named Ann Todd. Both Mark Bishoprick Senior and Junior were born in England, probably from North Yorkshire. They emigrated together in 1832, when Mark Junior would have been about 9. Mark Bishoprick Junior may have been the only child from the first marriage; other children were born in Canada from Mark Senior's second marriage to Maria Downing. More on the Bishopricks below.

This tombstone in Beechwood marks the burial site for Mark Junior, Maria (Kilbourne) and George Frederick Bishoprick, who was either a brother of Mark Junior, or the son of Mark Junior and Maria K. The three individual markers of their graves were completely covered over with turf; Matt dug them out with his hands and we took pictures of them, as well as of the surrounding tombstones so that I can do some more research to see if they're buried near other family members; offhand, I didn't remember any of the names of the families around them (Wright, McLaren, McFarland, Tully), but I'll do some more digging. To date, I haven't been able to find much online about Maria Kilbourne's background or family except that she was apparently born in Kingston, Ontario, somewhere between 1819-1825. I haven't yet found any records of her birth. Her husband, Mark Junior, was the son of Mark Senior (who may have been named John Mark, but he apparently went by Mark) and apparently Ann Todd, in England. Again, so far, I haven't been able to trace them back much in England.


This tombstone marks the grave of Maria (Downing) Bishoprick, second wife of Mark Senior. She was apparently born in England also, although I haven't yet been able to trace much of her background. She had several children with Mark Senior, one of whom was her daughter Alice who married William Henry Marshall. Maria lived with them during her later years, and Alice was listed as the next of kin in the Beechwood records. She would have been Mark Junior's stepmother, although she was very close to his age (perhaps the same age as he), and her children were the same age as Mark Junior's children, so they would perhaps have felt more like siblings than like nieces/nephews. The two Marias (Downing and Kilbourne) were also very much the same age. Mark Senior is actually buried in Springhill Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio, a very strange coincidence because that was where my mother grew up, and both of my maternal grandparents (Irving and Anne Robertson Magorian) have their ashes interred at that cemetery (many, many years later). I'll make a trip to Springhill on my next visit to Cincinnati and see if I can locate Mark Senior's tombstone. Apparently his son (or grandson) George Frederick lived in Wyoming, Ohio, and may have been the reason why Mark Senior's body was sent there for interment. However, George Frederick himself is buried in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa in the same plot as Mark Junior and Maria Kilbourne. Seems as though there's something of a story there to try to puzzle out...

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