Jane (Godfrey) Fortune: a descendant’s story
Photograph of Jane (Fortune) Godfrey’s gravestone: Denise J. Rice
Rose Fortune’s first child, Jane, lived worked, married, and died in the local area. You’ll find her grave stone, and that of her husband, Issac Godfrey, in the Garrison Graveyard. As you can see above, Marker 1 and 2 are set apart in the extreme south-east corner of the Graveyard.
“Rose Fortune was almost certainly the daughter of “Fortune — a free Negro”, who came to Nova Scotia after the American War of Independence. He appears with his wife and a “child above ten” (probably Rose) in the muster roll of Loyalists at Annapolis in June 1784". -from the research of Brenda Thompson
Rose lived in the Town, working as a porter moving luggage by wheelbarrow from ships arriving at the Town to local hostelries. This memorial , by Brad Hall , is found in Parks Canada Fort Anne National Historic Site’s Garrison Graveyard.
Unlike her daughter, Rose Fortune though buried in Garrison Graveyard, has no gravestone. The location of her burial site is unknown.
Seeking an answer to the question: what became of other descendants of the Black Loyalists of Annapolis County?
Intent on finding missing pieces of history, a committee of Annapolis County residents hope information from the local Black community will shed new light on the lives of Black Loyalist Descendants.
Coordinator Micha Cromwell reports that the group was formed in late June , 2022, at a public meeting in Annapolis Royal.
Local church records and oral history indicate that early Black Loyalists, like Rose Fortune, were buried in Fort Anne Historic Site’s Garrison Graveyard. While a general idea of where those graves is known, it will take Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) to pinpoint them. Boreas Heritage Consulting, which in 2018 located lost Acadian graves at the Graveyard, will again lead a GPR search. This will be the first project the new committee will take on.
Rose Fortune. Artist unknown.
All 234 standing grave stones in the Garrison Graveyard are searchable by marker number or surname at Mapannapolis.ca here.