Stones, but No Bones

Stones, but No Bones. Rippon Lodge. Numerous graves are located within the Rippon lodge cemetery. The slate tablets, carved stones and slabs are neatly arranged. But some of these markers are placed on mounds that may not be graves or stand where burials do not exist., Martin Scarlit, Gent, Two large stones are displayed on the left side of the path. One once marked the grave of Martin Scarlit, who died in 1695. The carving on the second stone is long eroded. In the early 1900s, these stones were pulled from the Occoquan River and placed in a grove of trees at the wildlife refuge at Occoquan Bay. Both stones were moved to Rippon Lodge in 2005., Mismarked Graves, When Judge Wade Ellis owned Rippon Lodge, he preserved the cemetery. He stood blank slate markers where ground contours resembled graves. While burials likely exist in these areas, their presence has not been verified., Unmarked Graves, Other Blackburns and Atkinsons are probably buried here, but the locations of their graves are not known. While enslaved people may be buried here, their graves are more likely in separate and unidentified cemetery., Rose Peters, Stranger, In memory of Rose Peters , Who departed This Life the 10th , of September 16 (49/79), She is gone, O she is gone, , to everlasting rest, , To Christ our Blessed Savior , who loved sinners best.. , Aside from what is carved on her gravestones, nothing is known about Rose Peters. She died in 1649 or 1679 and was buried near Neabsco Creek. Her stones were moved to Rippon Lodge in 1963 with dirt from her grave., [Captions:] , Blank slate tablets may mark historic grave locations., Left: Martin Scarlit's stone was far more legible when this photograph was taken in the 1930s., Rose Peters' elegant foot stone is in the Rippon Lodge cemetery; her remains are not.