Buckingham County: Norvell Family Cemetery

Norvell Family Cemetery. Courtesy Jeremy Winfrey.

The Norvell family cemetery has been documented and described by Jeremy Winfrey. His post at Find-A-Grave reads as follows:

William Brown Norvell Jr Family cemetery – Sharps Creek, Buckingham County, Va

There are only two stones present, as well as several field stones and obvious depressions. There is evidence of ten graves. Enclosed by an old, fallen, iron fence the area is large enough to support even more burials, although no evidence remains. It sits in a pine stand, and is somewhat overgrown.

The cemetery is situated in the western portion of what was once a rather large tract of Norvell property between present day SR 622 and SR 671. This line of Norvells resided on this tract since approximately 1830. William Brown Norvell Jr resided along Sharps Creek until his death in 1850. On the east side of the property there is an old home which still stands, whose brick portion dates to 1840s. This was the home of Thomas Benton Norvell. It is probable that there was, however, an older home on the west side of the property, ca 1800. William Jr lived on Sharps Creek. By 1850, both William Jr and Sr were deceased, and their property was split up among the heirs. William Jr’s widow and children all received Sharps Creek lands. Thomas B Norvell ultimately took over the 1840 home on the east side of the property about 1865, following the death of his mother. He raised his family there until his death in 1897.

It is important to note that the cemetery is quite far away from the still standing 1840 home, about a 30 minute walk. However, the present day property owner said there were traces of an old structure about 100+ yards away from the cemetery, when his family bought the property in the 1960s. An earlier generation’s home, would explain why Thomas and Mary were buried so far away from their house. William Jr and Elizabeth Toney Norvell probably lived in the home close to the cemetery and are buried there, probably in the two graves in the east corner.

J. Winfrey- 2019

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Click here for more about the burials in the William Brown Norvell Jr Family Cemetery.

To read more about the Norvell Family, click here: Buckingham County’s Norvell House Revisited, Part I