Marlatt Family Farm Cemetery
Location:
Ivan Franko Homes, 3058 Winston Churchill Boulevard, Mississauga, Halton Region, Ontario, Canada.
Concession 1 NDS (North of Dundas Street), Lot 1, Trafalgar Township.
History:
An Early Family Graveyard by Philip Shaw (updated):
“Two ancient cedar trees, standing side by side amongst the apple trees of a once productive orchard, mark the resting place of Joseph and George Marlatt. According to the still legible grave monuments at the foot of the cedars, they died in 1813 and 1814 respectively. The grave monuments and cedars are surrounded by an iron railing. The actual plot is ten feet square.
Where is this lonely grave plot? It is located on the south ½ 100 acres near the Dundas Highway. The tall cedars can be seen quite clearly in the orchard if one looks north from the Highway a few hundred yards west of the Halton-Peel county line (now Winston Churchill Boulevard). The cedars appear to be quite old and were possibly planted at the time of the
burials.
Joseph Marlatt purchased the land on July 8 1806 though a land petition at the junction of the Dundas Highway and the county line. The property ran from the Dundas Highway to Concession Road II NDS and consisted of 200 acres. It was originally Crown land as was much of the land in this area.
The Marlatts first settled in Barton in Lincoln County (now Niagara) where they remained for some four years until the land petition was granted. There is no proof that the family were United Empire Loyalists who emigrated to Canada from New York and Pennsylvania following the American Revolution which began in 1776. A John Marlatt, who also came from Barton,
however, was a U E L.
The name is of French derivation, and their ancestors are believed to have been Huguenots who were compelled to flee from France because of religious persecution.
The descendants of the Marlatts no longer live on the property. As the land began to be sub-divided through inheritance or sale, each time a transfer of land took place in the south ½, it always excluded a ten-foot square plot. It can be assumed that this was the cemetery site and title to it remained with the family. The last owner, Floyd Marlatt, sold the land and moved away. The graves in the orchard are on a portion of the land consisting of about 10 acres sold to Mr. R Dauphinee. It contained the farm house, orchard and some of the adjacent fields. Mr. Dauphinee had no wish to disturb the graves and left the site intact.
When Joseph and George Marlatt died there was no church cemetery nearby and St Peter’s Church in Erindale had yet to be built. However, later members of the Marlatt family were buried in St Peter’s cemetery, as evidenced by the large monument which bears the names of Samuel Marlatt, who died Aug 21 1875 aged 79 years, his wife Mehetabel and other members of the family.
In 1865, John Marlatt died at the age of 87 years and was buried in Springcreek Cemetery, section C-49 plot 3. He was one of the early settlers to obtain a grant of Crown land on the lake front in the Clarkson area.
The property was eventually sold to the Ukrainian Home for the Aged in 1973 who placed bee hives and a honey shed in the area where the graves were located. Several digs were undertaken at this time, however neither the graves nor monuments were found. As a result, all traces of the cemetery and monuments have disappeared.”
Letter written to Philip Shaw from Mrs Josef (Helen M) Finck 1519 Marshall Avenue St Paul Minnesota 55194, dated September 13 1967:
“I recently received a letter from my cousin, Miss Katherine Marlatt of London Ontario. In it she enclosed a copy of an article written by you about the burial place of Joseph and George Marlatt who died in 1813 and 1814 respectively. She wrote that she had had correspondence with you and that you were very much interested in the history of the Marlatt family. For the past 10 or 12 years I have been compiling all of the history of this family that I could find.
As you stated in your article, the family were Huguenots and originally lived in France. The earliest record I have is of Gideon Merlet, who because of religious persecution, left France and went to Holland. In the Walloon Church in Leyden on August 21 1644 he was married to Marguerite Martin.
Under the promise of lands and aid in getting started in the New World, with some other 29 other refugees, he came over to the New Netherlands (now New York) in October 1662 on the ship “Purmerland Church”. With him were his wife and four minor sons: Joshua born 1645, Paul born 1654, Abraham born 1656 and John born 1658. Early in the year following his arrival
in 1663 Gideon, with six other Huguenot immigrants, joined in a petition to the Director General and the Council of New Netherlands for grants of suitable land, provision for temporary subsistence and seed grain which in due time they promised to repay. The petition was approved and he was granted land on the south side of Staten Island, where he settled.
Gideon’s son Abraham (through whom I believe my family is descended) married about 1677 to Christence Billieu, daughter of Pierre Billieu (a Huguenot immigrant of 1661 and prominent in the early settlement of Staten Island).
According to the will of Pierre Billieu, Abraham and Christence had four children. However I have been able to locate a record of only two: Margaret, baptised March 31 1678 and Abraham, baptised May 16 1680. Abraham (baptised 1680) married Elizabeth —–. They had 7 children. The youngest was John who was baptised Apr 25 1711. This John possibly is my direct ancestor. However, as yet, I can neither prove or disprove it.
The name “Merlet” is conceded to be derived from “Merle”, the European blackbird or thrush. It very soon lost its French pronunciation and spelling, changing to “Merlet”, “Marlett” and “Marlatt”, with many other spellings.
From the beginning the Marlatt family has multiplied and spread widely in the United States and Canada.
One descendant of Gideon Merlet, who made a long and earnest attempt to trace and recover the records of the family was Mrs. Jane Marlett Taft, wife of the late Russell S. Taft who was Chief Justice of Vermont. Unfortunately she did not live to complete her work but her manuscript is on file in the Library of Congress in Washington D C, from which I obtained a copy a few years ago.
If you have any other information about the Marlatt family, I shall be very happy to receive a copy of it and share with you any information that I have about them. My grandmother’s maiden name was Emma Alberta Marlatt and she lived in St Thomas Ontario.”
Transcription purchase:
No transcription has been made available for purchase, because the cemetery had so few stones.