Human remains from early 1800s to find permanent resting place in Ottawa cemetery

The City of Ottawa will hold a public visitation where 52 caskets containing the remains of individuals who were buried in the early 1800s in Bytown’s earliest cemetery, Barrack Hill, will be displayed as part of Canada’s sesquicentennial events in 2017.

In 2013 and 2014, at least 79 individuals and casket materials from Barrack Hill Cemetery were discovered under Queen Street in downtown Ottawa during O-Train Confederation Line construction.

Following the discovery, archaeologists disinterred the remains and moved them to the Canadian Museum of History for analysis, in an attempt to learn more about the individuals that first inhabited Bytown.

Watercolour of Lowertown from the Barrack Hill near the Rideau Canal Locks and Sappers Bridge by Thomas Burrowes, 1845.

Barrack Hill Cemetery was located roughly in a block bounded by Sparks, Elgin, Queen and Metcalfe Streets. Commissioned in about 1827 by Lieutenant-Colonel John By, Royal Engineer, who oversaw the construction of the Rideau Canal, it was created primarily in response to a high death rate among Bytown residents due to outbreaks of diphtheria, malaria and other diseases. The cemetery was the resting place for people of all levels of society, primarily Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Roman Catholics.

As Bytown and its population grew, the cemetery was soon in the middle of the city. In 1843, residents complained about “floating vapors” from the cemetery and the overall poor condition of the gravesite. As a result, plans were made to re-inter the human remains at the newly established Sandy Hill Cemetery, now known as the Macdonald Gardens Park.

However, as was recently discovered, not all of the individuals resting at Barrack Hill Cemetery were removed.

The public visitation will be held in the Resource Room of the Canadian Museum of History on September 24, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. The visitation will allow members of the public to speak with experts about the archaeological finds and research discoveries made by Paterson Group and the Canadian Museum of History, to see and learn more about the history of Barrack Hill and life in early Bytown, and most importantly, to pay their respects to these individuals before they find their permanent resting place.

The Resource Room is located on the Lower Level, Canadian Museum of History, adjacent to the Panorama Café.

Through the generosity of Beechwood Cemetery, the National Cemetery of Canada, these early Bytown residents will finally find a permanent home. They will be re-interred at the cemetery in a private ceremony in early October.