Spore Family Burying Ground
Bayham Township, Elgin County, Ontario, Canada
Gravestone Inscriptions
Copyright by the Ontario Genealogical Society, Elgin County Branch 1999
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Reference has been found to at least three burials on a farm belonging to the Spore family in Bayham in the 1850’s.
In the parish register of Trinity Anglican Church, Port Burwell, the following three burials are recorded:
Buried May 20, 1852 – [first name not given] SPORE, died of old age, native of Canada, buried on the homestead of the family farm, concession 5 Bayham
Buried December [not given], 1852: Thursa FOSTER, age 29, died of consumption, daughter of James SPORE, buried on homestead of Spore family on concession 5 Bayham
Buried October 13, 1854: [female] SPOOR, died of consumption, buried on father’s farm, Bayham
The exact location of this burying ground cannot be determined. Land records do not show any members of the Spore family owning property in concession 5, but the family did own land across the road in concession 4. It is possible that the person entering the information in the church register referred to the road the family lived on as concession 5.
Land records show that James Spore received a Crown Grant of 100 acres, being the north half of lot 25, concession 4, in 1829. Seventy-five acres of this property was sold to John Truman in 1841, and the remaining twenty-five acres to E. T. Martin in 1856. James Spore also acquired the north half (100 acres) of lot 26, concession 4 in 1836. This property was still in his possession as late as 1859 when a mortgage he held on it was discharged. It is therefore likely that the family burying ground was located either on lot 25 or lot 26, concession 4.
Unfortunately, the identity of the family member buried in May 1852 cannot be determined because no first name is given in the church register. The other two recorded burials are most likely children of James Spore (born ca 1791; died 1867) and his wife Elizabeth (born ca 1794; died 1874). It is quite possible that there are other unrecorded and unmarked burials in this family plot.
More information on the Spore family can be found in two family histories in the collection of Elgin OGS at St. Thomas Public Library:
Lawrence Spore of Bayham Township, by Richard L. Spore, 1884
The Family of Zenas Squire Spore, by R. L. Spore, 1993