Kings County is located just north of St John County and the port of Saint John, the main port of entry during the Irish immigration years. As a result this county was dotted with Irish settlements with such names as Irish Settlement, Vinegar Hill, Waterford, Donegal, and Londonderry. Many Irish Catholic parishes dotted the landscape of Kings County, but as time passed, and the descendants of the original Irish settlers moved away from the small settlements, many parishes disappeared – leaving behind the cemeteries to tell their own story.

Although some of the parishes in the southern reaches of the Kennegecasis Valley were served directly from Saint John, most of the rest of the Kings county parishes were tied eventually to St Francis Xavier Parish. Located in Sussex, the heart of the county, it serves many of the small communities that surround the dairy town.

But it was not the first St Francis Xavier Parish in the region. The original St Francis Xavier church was located south of Sussex, in Ward’s Creek. Mass was said in homes in the community as early as 1832 by priests who came from Saint John. Father John Sweeny (later Bishop) served this area and found that there were enough communicants to build a church. He laid the cornerstone for the new church in Ward’s Creek, but it was his successor, Fr. Michael Wallace, who oversaw the construction. Built by Thomas Stableford for the sum of £275. It was consecrated St Francis Xavier in 1846.¹ A rectory was built at a later date.

This church served the surrounding communities until the end of the 19th century but as the families moved out of the area, it became run down and was in a very dilapidated state. No longer conveniently located for the Catholic population, Father Edward Savage, after a fire destroyed the rectory in 1897, decided to move the parish to Sussex. Completed in 1900, and blessed by Most Rev. Timothy Casey, Saint Francis Xavier continues to serve the Kings County Irish community.

 

 

Millstream is located west of Sussex and also had a sizeable Irish population at one time. Mass was said in various family homes very early on – well before the construction of a church. Although it is not clear when the first church was built here, the present structure was completed in 1888 and consecrated St Philip’s Parish by Bishop John Sweeny. It is a mission of St Francis Xavier parish in Sussex.

 

Sacred Heart Parish – Norton (source: Pax Vobis)

Other Catholic Churches were found throughout Kings County. St Michael’s Parish was first built in the 1850’s in Newtown (halfway between Sussex and Cornhill on Route 890). It was replaced in 1917 by another church and blessed by Bishop LeBlanc in 1921. In Anagance Ridge, near Cornhill and Buckley Settlement, St Gabriel’s Parish was also blessed in 1921 by Bishop Sweeny. St Patrick’s Church in Waterford (southeast of Sussex) was built in 1848 but closed in 1955. Transferred from Holy Ghost, Riverside-Albert, Albert County in 1921, Our Lady of Ransom Parish on the Fredericton Road, (Route 112) in Westmorland County, was also tied to St Francis Xavier parish in Sussex until it was transferred to St Bernard’s Parish in Moncton in 1955. It closed in the 1980’s, although the cemetery is still well maintained.⁵

 

Precious Blood Parish
Goshen

 

The parish of St Isodores Agricola in South Branch, Kings County (on Route 114 – the highway to Fundy National Park) was a mission of St Agatha’s Parish, in New Ireland, Albert County, but was also sometimes served from Sussex. Abandoned in 1908 when parishioners moved away from the area, this parish was replaced by Precious Blood Parish in Goshen, which was built in 1912 and was also served sometimes by priests from St Francis Xavier Parish in Sussex. It is well maintained and lovingly cared for by the descendants of the local Irish families. New stained glass windows have been added in recent years. A mass is held here every summer and people attend from far and wide.

Because of the large number of Catholic Churches in Kings County and the fact that sometimes they were served by a number of mother parishes, it makes it difficult for those seeking vital church records to find information. Excluding the Hampton area parishes which were served by Saint John, most of the other parishes were missions of St Francis Xavier Parish in Sussex and that is a good place for any genealogist to start when seeking Kings County information. St Francis Xavier Parish continues to be the religious centre of Kings County. It rightly deserves the title of mother church of the Kings County Irish.

[1] Rev. Dr. Michael McGowan, Pax Vobis: A History of the Diocese of Saint John, its Bishops and Parishes, Strasbourg: Editions de Signe, 2004, p. 67.
[2] Ibid, p. 66.
[3] Pax Vobis, p. 62
[4] Ibid, p. 71.
[5] Maurice A Léger and Oscar Bourque, Souvenir du 50e Anniversaire de l’Archdiocèse de Moncton, Sackville, The Tribune Press, 1986.