Quaker Street Burying Ground

The Quaker Street Burying Ground is located at Lot 8 on Concession 3, on the north side of Quaker Street, west of the intersection of Quaker Street and County Road 59, in the Township of Norwich. The small 19th century cemetery was established in 1813.

The property was designated, by the Township of Norwich, in 2006, for its cultural heritage value or interest, under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act, By-law 64-2006.

The Quaker Street Burying Ground is the site of the first cemetery and Quaker meeting house, in Norwich Township. The land was set aside as a site for a meeting house and burial ground, in 1813, shortly after settlers led by Peter Lossing and Peter De Long, many of whom were Quakers, arrived in what is now Norwich Township, from Duchess County, in New York. The 1810 Quaker Migration into the Township led to the development of one of the most populous Quaker settlements in Upper Canada. The first documented burial occurred at the Quaker Street Burying Ground in 1817, the same year that the meeting house, now demolished, was erected.

The Quaker Street Burying Ground contains the graves of many of Norwich Township's earliest settlers and their ancestors. Of note are Peter Lossing; his son Solomon Lossing, who was a major figure in the local rebellion of 1837and later an early warden of Oxford County; Henry and Anne Wasley, who were great-grandparents of United States President Herbert Hoover; and Daniel Bedford, who was a hanged rebel of the 1837 rebellion. Many of the early settlers are commemorated by a Norwich Pioneer Society plaque ,located in the cemetery, that lists family name and place of origin of the pioneer settlers of Norwich Township.

Many of the grave markers are plain marble tablets that are consistent with the Quaker concern for simplicity. The Quaker custom of numbering days and months is evident on many of the markers. Quakers did not believe in using the names of the months and preferred instead to use the number to which each month was associated. January would be “First Month”; February is “Second Month” and so on.

Source: Township of Norwich By-law 64-2006.

Character defining elements that contribute to the heritage value of the Quaker Street Burying Ground include its:

- location, orientation and dimensions of the burying ground

- original placement of the gravesites, markers and monuments, with their surviving inscriptions

- variety of markers and monuments, representing a range of styles, materials and symbolism

- Norwich Pioneer Society plaque that commemorates the pioneer settlers of the Township