About the Cemetery
A small Protestant burial ground on Butler Road in Hammond, kept by volunteers and open to everyone.
What this place is
Hammond Protestant Cemetery is an active burial ground in the hamlet of Hammond, in the City of Clarence-Rockland, United Counties of Prescott and Russell, Ontario. It lies on Butler Road, on part of Lot 17, Concession VIII, former Clarence Township, County of Russell.
It was founded by and for the Protestant families who settled this corner of Clarence Township in the late nineteenth century, and the name has stayed with it ever since. In practice the cemetery has long served the whole community. We do not require a statement of faith from anyone. Families of any denomination, of another religion, or of no religion at all are welcome to purchase interment rights and to hold whatever form of committal service is meaningful to them.
How it is run
The cemetery is governed by a volunteer board of trustees. There is no office, no full-time staff and no paid administrator. Trustees answer enquiries in their own time, which is why we ask for a little patience — and why the contact form on this site is the most reliable way to reach us.
Interments themselves are carried out by a contracted operator working to the board’s direction. Arrangements are normally made through your funeral director, who will deal with the cemetery on your behalf. You are equally welcome to contact us directly.
Licensing and oversight
Every cemetery in Ontario, however small, operates under the Funeral, Burial and Cremation Services Act, 2002 and Ontario Regulation 30/11. The legislation is administered by the Bereavement Authority of Ontario (BAO), the provincial regulator.
That legislation is the reason several things on this site look the way they do. It requires us to publish a price list in a set format and to make a printable copy freely available. It sets out what you are buying when you buy a grave — an interment right, not the land itself. And it obliges us to place a portion of every sale into a trust fund that can never be spent on anything but care of the grounds.
The Care & Maintenance Fund
A share of the price of every lot, niche and monument installation goes into an irrevocable trust known as the Care & Maintenance Fund. The capital cannot be touched. Only the interest may be spent, and only on the upkeep of the cemetery.
The point of this arrangement is the long term. A century from now, when the last lot here has been sold and there is no income left from sales, that fund is what will still be paying someone to cut the grass. The minimum contribution rates are set by the province and are published with our price list.
The Care & Maintenance Fund covers general upkeep: mowing, tree work, fences, roadways and the safe re-setting of monuments that have become hazardous. It does not pay for cleaning, repairing or re-lettering an individual family monument — that remains the responsibility of the interment rights holder. See Rules & Regulations.
What we ask of you
- Tell us when contact details change, so we can keep the register current.
- Read the rules before placing anything on a grave.
- Keep your interment rights certificate somewhere safe, and tell your family where.
- If you spot a fallen stone, a damaged fence or an unsafe tree, let us know.