Description of Historic Place

The Fairley-Porter Cemetery is a family cemetery located on a knoll within mature woods near the edge of operational farmland at the terminus of Harris Lane in the Taxis River-Boiestown region of the Rural Community of Upper Miramichi.

Heritage Value

The Fairley-Porter Cemetery is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the Fairley family. It is believed to be the resting place for about twenty members of the Fairley family. Irish immigrant John Fairley, the original grant-holder on which the cemetery is found, is interred here. The descendants of Fairley became prominent members of the business community and were involved in the lumber and merchant trades. His children were Trustees of the local Methodist Church and instrumental in seeing the establishment and construction of the Methodist Church Boiestown in 1868, as well as the parsonage, which is built on Fairley land about 1875.

This private family cemetery was utilized prior to the inception of the area’s Methodist cemetery, bearing burial dates in the first half of the 19th century (1835-1848). The Fairley-Porter Cemetery is significant as it is a reminder of past interment traditions and the religious faith of early settlement families.

Source: Rural Community of Upper Miramichi Community Site Office File 09-10

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements associated with Fairley-Porter Cemetery include:
- elaborate wrought iron fence surrounding a child’s grave;
- sandstone and marble grave markers and foot markers;
- unmarked gravesites;
- sections of remnant wire garden fencing and ornate handmade bric-a-brac fencing;
- overgrowth in natural mature woods.