| The Churchyard at St. Anne's Episcopal Church,
Annapolis, Anne Arundel Co., Maryland
A Burying Ground from 1695 to 1790
Among the tombstones in the churchyard are those of five
seventeenth-century Marylanders: Colonel Nicholas Greenberry
(1627-1697), acting governor in 1694, and Ann, his wife (1648-1698);
Major General John Hammond (1643-1704); Captain John Worthington
(1650-1701); and Henry Ridgely (1669-1700).
There are also gravestones of the first Mayor of Annapolis,
Amos Garrett (1671-1727), and several other worthies, including:
William Bladen (1670-1718), Benjamin Tasker, Sr. (1691-1768),
who was President of the Council for thirty-two years and
acting Governor of Maryland on several occasions; and his
son, Benjamin Tasker, Jr. (1721-1760); Margaret Tilghman Carroll
(1743-1817), widow of Charles Carroll, the Barrister (1723-1783);
and of the last British Governor of Maryland, Sir Robert Eden
(1741-1784), whom George III created "Baronet of Maryland".
In recent years, the vault of Margaret Carroll was opened
and the mortal remains of several members of the Carroll family
were identified in addition to her own, including: Dr. Charles
Carroll (1691-1755), and his second wife, Anne Plater Carroll
(?-1766); his younger son, John Henry Carroll (1732-1754);
his elder son, the eminent constitutional lawyer and patriot,
Charles Carroll, the Barrister (1723-1783).
Many other interments are no longer marked by stones, including
the Bordley family vault beneath the ground behind the east
end of the church. Discovered recently when a hole was dug
to plant a tree, the vault was opened and found to contain
three coffins, one of which bears a silver plate with the
name of Margaret Chew Bordley (died 1773), first wife of John
Beale Bordley (1727-1804), the celebrated agriculturist and
animal breeder. She was a sister of Molly Chew, the first
wife of Governor William Paca (1740-1799). Another coffin
contains what is believed to be the remains (with his yellow
wig still intact) of the prominent lawyer and bon vivant,
Stephen Bordley (c. 1710-1764). The third is believed to be
that of his socially accomplished sister, Elizabeth Bordley
(1717-1789), who lived with her unmarried brother in the Bordley
House and managed his household, famous in its day for its
hospitality and cuisine. In 1790, the parish received from
Elizabeth Bordley a bequest of land on College Creek which
since then replaced the church yard as St. Anne's Cemetery.
It contains the interments of many prominent Annapolitans
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This information was taken from a flyer "For the Visitor,
A brief introduction to St. Anne's Parish, Annapolis, Maryland
Text by The Rev. Canon A. Pierce Middleton
St. Anne's is an Episcopal Parish in the Diocese of Maryland
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