Cataraqui Cemetery, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, is the city's main burial ground with over 46,000 interments. Cataraqui Cemetery offers the greater Kingston area a variety of interment, cremation, funeral and memorialization options and services. The cemetery is most noted as being the burial site of Canada's first prime minister and Father of Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald. Macdonald's gravesite, and the cemetery itself, are both designated as National Historic Sites of Canada.The charter of The Cataraqui Cemetery Company was handed down on 10 August 1850, by the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. The Cataraqui Cemetery is unique in that it was incorporated in 1850 as a not-for-profit corporation with the interment rights holders as the members. It is the members who elect from themselves The Cataraqui Cemetery Board of Trustees. the Cemetery continues to operate as a not-for-profit, non-denominational cemetery. Sir Alexander Campbell (a Father of Confederation and law partner of Sir John A. Macdonald) served as the corporations first president of the board of trustees. The board of trustees is accountable for all aspects of the cemetery by delegating the responsibility of the day-to-day operations to the General Manager and a full-time staff. A volunteer citizen advisory committee also assists the Cemetery's board and management with the stewardship of the cemetery.The cemetery was developed using the rural or garden theme, after the pattern of Mount Auburn near Boston and Mount Hope in Rochester, New York. The 91-acre cemetery includes roadways winding through rolling wooded terrain, ponds and watercourses all laid out in the Picturesque style of landscaping. Cataraqui Cemetery predates other notable Canadian cemeteries such as Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa Ontario, Mt Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto Ontario and Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal Quebec.
