England Family Cemetery – Found!

Two burial sites (depressions) Notice white flag and rock at head of one
John England Family Cemetery, Stafford, VA

On April 4, 2014 I wrote about John England and his Seine Pocket Farm located between our Del Webb development and the Rappahannock River. One of our goals since then was to locate the England Family Cemetery. We acquired the deed that stated when the family sold the farm to the Fredericksburg Power Company, they reserved a 150 square grave site.

On this beautiful sunny 70+ degree day we met with three women from the Stafford County Cemetery Association who in 2011 located this cemetery. We walked with them on the trail to relocate it.  Easily done as the map she had drawn marked out the turn in the path, at which the burials were located. We could easily see many of the depressions.  My husband marked a few with flags.   Burials done at that time did not have cemetery stones as we know them, but just rocks placed at the head and foot of each plot, with head facing east.  

The cemetery is on high ground, overlooking the Rappahannock, though obviously placed on land not tillable.  We located a temporary marker, but it was rusted so contained no information.  We are excited to locate this cemetery, and have plans for cleaning it up and erecting a marker stating: John England Family Cemetery.  We might even put up corner fence to define the outer limits of the burial sites. 

Next on the list is to locate the farmhouse and to clear that site.  We want the England family descendants to know that although developers have come close to their property, we residents respect the history of the England family and Seine Pocket Farm, and won’t let them be forgotten. 

Seine Pocket Farm

Revolutionary War soldier John England b: abt 1755 served as a private in the Virginia Colony Army under Captain Mason Pilcher and Colonel William Garrand.  Mr. England was a farmer, locating in Stafford County from Bucks County, PA.  His farm was located along the Rappahannock River and named Seine Pocket Farm for the river’s rock formations that trapped fish as the tides changed.

Mr. England at age 95 in 1850 lived with his son Patrick H. England, wife, Emma, and their five children in Stafford County.  I am still looking for his burial.

In 1990, Mr. England’s descendant, Anne Brooks Brauer, wrote a short bio of her Revolutionary War ancestor from which this write-up was taken. In the two page bio she states: “To this date of July 1990, there have been no families other than Englands living on the property since John England owned it. Seine Pocket was sold out of the England-Brooks family in the late 1940s. The farm now overgrown and sitting in the path of developers would be a terrible loss to the local people.”

My interest in John England is because I believe his farm is just a short walk from our new home in the dreaded new development that Anne refers to.  If further research proves the England farm was so near, then it is only right that we do something, like placing a marker at the site to honor the homestead of John England.

Thanks, Anne, for your family history.