Conc 1 NDS
Lot 1, Plan 380
3058 Winston Churchill Blvd.
Mississauga Ontario Canada
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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 stones at the foot of the cedars, they died in 1813 and 1814 respectively. The grave stones and cedars are surrounded by an iron railing. The actual plot is ten feet square. (The colour photograph on the right was taken by Philip Shaw in 1967, the same time he wrote this history)

Joseph Marlatt purchased the land on July 8 1806 through 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 Marlatt's 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 descendent's of the Marlatt's 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 1/2, it always excluded a ten foot square pot. 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 acre 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 the gravestones were found. As a result all traces of the cemetery and grave stones have disappeared

- Written by Phillip Shaw in 1967
for the Halton-Peel Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.