#Down in bermuda relic monument full#

“These are our people, these are Bermudians,” she said. Ms Junos said it bothered her that those buried there - including at least one Queen's pilot and two branch pilots - were not recognised or celebrated. The place down there was a Historic Protection Area.” “How this pre-eminent archaeologist living in Bermuda and the director of the National Museum could have missed the articles and the discussions on this is beyond me. Historical researcher LeYoni Junos, who can trace her ancestry back to Tucker's Town and is working with the society, said it was “unfathomable” that Dr Harris could be unaware of the historical importance of the stones. He added: “Ultimately, we want the record set straight, the history properly written and recorded and we want the graves to go back the way they were.” Mr Richardson said Ms Brock's report “brought to the attention of the public how some people tried to do things and got away with them”. “My father was born there and left, aged nine.” “I have always known about the graveyard because my father and cousins always talked about the graveyard,” he added. But he said the sides of the original tombstones remained above ground. Vice-president Denny Richardson said the cemetery fell into an “atrocious” state of disrepair over the years, with the tops of the graves falling in and grass growing out of them. The Historical Society says the stones seen above ground in their photographs had been there since at least the 1860s and were significant to many people on the Island who trace their roots to Tucker's Town. Ms Brock released a highly critical report in January about the decision, in which she detailed how the “last relatively intact relic that evidences the communal life of a wholly unique population” was lost due to a lack of research.ĭr Harris, she wrote, developed the “mistaken” view “in casual conversations - unclear with whom” that cement tops put on the original limestone tombs in 1991 or 1992 constituted the erection of “false graves”. Marsden removed the tombstones in 2012 based mainly, according to the Ombudsman, on recommendations from overseas archaeologist John Triggs, who adopted Dr Harris's view that the tombs were “new” and “false”. It became a Historic Preservation Area in 2008 after the Department of Planning consulted with Dr Harris, the Bermuda National Trust and the Department of Conservation Services on its importance. The cemetery, which sits beneath the golf course at Tucker's Point, eventually fell into disrepair, but was rededicated in 1996 by Marsden Church and renamed the Marsden Methodist Memorial Cemetery. The community was forced to move to make way for a hotel in 1920, with some of those evicted resettling at Devil's Hole and relocating Marsden Church there. The graves at Marsden Methodist Memorial Cemetery are the final resting place of an unknown number of mostly black residents who lived at Tucker's Town from the early 19th century, around the time of Emancipation, onwards. “They were saying that the graves weren't above ground at all. The others show the stones with grass growing out of the graves and you can see why the workmen had to repair the graves.

#Down in bermuda relic monument full#

“The one of the full cemetery clearly shows that the graves were above ground.

Society president Keith DuBois, whose great grandfather Pilot James Samuel Harvey is buried at Tucker's Point, told The Royal Gazette: “The photographs were taken in about 1989 by society member Eugene Stovell. The society is calling on him to review the photos and answer questions about why he recommended to cemetery custodian Marsden First United Methodist Church and Rosewood Tucker's Point that they raze the tombstones.Īnd it wants Marsden pastor Joseph Whalen, church trustees and Tucker's Point management to publicly address the desecration of the headstones, in light of the new evidence. Society members, along with a historical researcher, say Dr Harris failed to give Ombudsman Arlene Brock a proper explanation as to how he reached his conclusion when she investigated the October 2012 destruction of the tombstones. Tucker's Town Historical Society has uncovered photographs from the late 1980s which it says disprove Edward Harris's theory that the headstones were “false” structures, put in place in the early 1990s. Bermuda's top archaeologist is being urged to explain why he thought historic tombstones at Tucker's Point Golf Club were modern constructions, by the descendants of some of those buried there.