Plaquing St John’s Cemetery: Remembering Our Past
St. Lawrence Branch
CRYSLER – In a quiet but moving ceremony on September 7, 2025, a Loyalist Burial Site plaque was dedicated near the entrance of St. John’s Anglican Cemetery by the Reverend Jonathan Askwith, rector of St. Clare’s Anglican Church in North Dundas.
The placing of the plaque was the result of a collaboration between members of the Saint John’s Anglican Cemetery Board and members of the St. Lawrence Branch, United Empire Loyalist Association of Canada. The plaque was installed by SLB member Michael Eamer, U.E. with assistance from Lorna Armstrong.
This historic cemetery is the burial site of Colonel John Crysler, UEL who served during the Revolutionary War with Butler’s Rangers. Following the cessation of hostilities and the defeat of the British, Crysler became a loyal refugee eventually settling along the St. Lawrence front and then to the village of Crysler which bears his name. He and other members of his family were very involved in the social, cultural, political and religious life of their new home communities.
Lorna Armstrong, a member of the cemetery committee, gave a short but informative address on the role played by the Crysler family, noting the land for Saint John’s Anglican Church and cemetery was purchased from this family, his son. Another son John Pliny Crysler donated the land for the construction of Holy Trinity Anglican in nearby Chesterville.
It is of great interest that a beautiful stained-glass window, now located in the Crysler Hall in Upper Canada Village, had been donated to Saint John’s Anglican Church in his memory by his wife following his death 1852.
Darlene Fawcett-Montgomer, U.E, gave a brief outline of the Loyalist Burial Site program noting this was the sixth plaque to be dedicated in Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry. She explained the project began in 2019 in an effort to honour the United Empire Loyalists buried in that specific cemetery.
Other cemeteries with a Loyalist Burial Site plaque include Trinity Anglican Church in Cornwall, St. Andrew’s United Church Cemetery in Bainsville, the first cemetery of St. Andrew Catholic Church in St. Andrew’s West, Iroquois Point cemetery in Iroquois, Ontario, and the cemetery of Salem United Church in Summerstown.
Reverend Askwith then dedicated and blessed the installation of the plaque by these words which reflect on the cemetery being the final resting place of “those who were those who were loyal to the Crown in times of conflict, and whose earthly remains rest in this hallowed place.”
Those in attendance were able to gather following this to socialize and learn about Saint John’s Anglican Church and the cemetery where burials date from the early 1800’s. People learned of the vandalism which desecrated the church and its subsequent demolition and visited the memorial to its memory near where the church had proudly stood and served its community for decades.
St Johns Anglican Memorial Small Group
Sixth Loyalist Burial Site Plaque dedicated
Pictured (left-right): Reverend Jonathan Askwith, Rector of St Clare’s Anglican Church, St. John’s Anglican Cemetery Lorna Armstrong, St. Lawrence Branch President Carolyn Goddard, U.E. and St. Lawrence Branch Secretary and Assistant Genealogist Darlene Fawcett Montgomery, U.E. Courtesy Photo
By Carol Goddard, September 2025