Tolomato Cemetery

When Britain gained control of St. Augustine in 1763 most of the Spanish population of 3,100 left for Cuba along with many of the Native American converts to Christianity, including the friars and inhabitants of Tolomato.

When, in 1777 the residents of Andrew Turnbull's colony of New Smyrna decided to flee the dismal conditions en masse, they walked 70 miles north on the King's Road to St. Augustine.

The spiritual leader of these refugees collectively known as the Menorcans, Father Pedro Camps, petitioned the governor for permission to use the old mission and village of Tolomato for his constituents who were mostly Catholic.

In recent years the cemetery has become a place of pilgrimage for members of the Haitian-American Historical Society and many Haitian diplomats, including Ambassador Raymond Joseph (donor of a bench in front of the chapel in Biassou's memory), who have worked to gain public recognition for our first black general.

Also buried within the cemetery are a number of Confederate soldiers, including some members of the Saint Augustine Blues, the local militia unit which took possession of the St. Francis Barracks and the Castillo de San Marcos for the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War.