Description of Historic Place

The Princetown Public Burying Ground is a grassed and wooded area located within Cabot Beach Provincial Park in Malpeque, Prince Edward Island. Its location is commemorated with a bronze plaque and stone cairn as well as a monument dedicated to the Annabella settlers who arrived in the area in 1770.

Heritage Value

The Princetown Public Burying Ground is valued for its associations with the early history of the Princetown, now known as Malpeque, the Annabella settlers who arrived in the area in 1770 from Campbeltown, Scotland and its association with the Stewart family who established the first British settlement in the Princetown area. Lt. Col. Robert Stewart (1729-1809) was the original proprietor of Township or Lot 18. His sister, Annabella (1732-1818) and her husband, Robert Stewart led the settlement of Princetown beginning in 1770. Robert Stewart went on to be Speaker in the Island's first House of Assembly in 1773. Speaker Robert Stewart died in Princetown in 1787. Annabella's brother Capt. Dugald Stewart (1730-1791) was master of the Annabella which brought 60 families from Campbeltown, Scotland to Prince Edward Island in 1770. It was he who granted the land, Pasture Lot 158, to the people of Princetown for use as a burying ground. Princetown was to have been developed as the Prince County capital of the province, however it did not evolve as such though the 1798 census listed the population of Princetown and neighbouring Lot 18 at 431 residents - 10 more residents at the time than Charlottetown's population of 421.

Established in 1790 and in use until about 1810 when the nearby Malpeque Peoples Cemetery came into use, the burying ground may have received burials as early as 1770 coinciding with the arrival of the Annabella settlers. It is estimated there could be upwards of 100 interments.

Any grave markers that may have existed have since disappeared. Located close to Malpeque Harbour, some seasonal buildings encroached the perimeter of the burying ground. In the early 1960s, Cabot Provincial Park was established and a road was constructed unknowlingly across the cemetery in 1976 likely in preparation for the 1977 Boy Scout Jamboree held at the Park. In 2007 ground penetrating radar established the perimeter of the cemetery and the road has since been re-routed.

Princetown Public Burying Ground, a peaceful, pastoral landscape, the resting place of some of Prince Edward Island's earliest Scottish settlers is an important landmark for the community of Malpeque and the province's early settlement history.

Source: Heritage Places files, Department of Economic Growth, Tourism & Culture, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7N8 File # : 4310-20/P46

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the cemetery is shown in the following character-defining elements:

- The landscaped area of the cemetery
- The 1964 memorial cairn to the Annabella passengers dedicated to the 60 Scottish families who settled the area in 1770
- The 1984 cairn placed by the Malpeque Historical Society to commemorate location of the burying ground and those buried there
- the setting of the cemetery within Cabot Beach Provincial Park