The Stafford Cemetery is located a short distance south of the main house, Stafford Mansion. Robert Stafford was the leading planter and the largest landholder with up to 350 slaves on Cumberland Island in the nineteenth-century. He is buried in the cemetery along with his mother and his sister. The cemetery is enclosed by tabby block walls and there are four marked gravesites located inside.
Sacred
to the memory of
ROBERT STAFFORD
Born on
Cumberland Island, Ga.
Dec. 8th, 1790
and died
Aug. 1st, 1877
One of the gravesites
located within the walled cemetery
is not a member of the Stafford family.
Tom Hutchison was William C. Carnegie's personal golf coach and the golf pro at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club at Southampton, NY. William had a nine-hole golf course in one of Robert Stafford's large plantation fields next to the Stafford mansion. A golf professional from Scotland, he was killed when thrown from a horse while visiting with William on Cumberland.
For more information on the
life of Robert Stafford,
read Mary R. Bullard's book: