Showing posts with label Richmond Cemetery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Richmond Cemetery. Show all posts

Monday, November 7, 2022

The Municipality of Richmond and their quest for a Cemetery

The Argus had the following report in their August 19, 1853 issue about the establishment of  a Cemetery in Richmond to be located in the Survey Paddock - 
A meeting of gentlemen resident at Richmond was held on Wednesday evening last, at St. Stephens's School-rooms, Richmond-hill, to receive the report of the deputation appointed to wait upon His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, with respect to the establishment of a cemetery at Richmond. D. S. Campbell, Esq., occupied the chair. The chairman stated that he, accompanied by Messrs. Green, Trenchard, Gill, Le Strange, Burnley, M.L.C., and Dr. Wilson, the gentlemen who formed the deputation, last Monday week waited on the Lieutenant-Governor, by whom they were most graciously received. At the interview, the great inconvenience and expense which the people of Richmond were at, in conveying the dead to the new cemetery, were explained to His Excellency, and that the present and growing population of Richmond required that a separate cemetery for their use should be established in the neighborhood; that the evil was felt most strongly by the poor, particularly by those who had but recently arrived in the colony, who were unable to meet the enormous expense of removing their deceased friends to so great a distance. The deputations pointed out to His Excellency the site they had selected for the proposed burial ground, which is in the Survey Paddock at Richmond. His Excellency approved of the site, but at the same time stated, that the present Act of Council which applied to the case, contained a provision, that no cemetery should be formed within a mile of any township, which would preclude the space selected from being appropriated to the object they had in view. He was, however, satisfied that the existing law was not applicable to the present state of the colony, and required to be amended; and added it was his intention, in the ensuing session of Council, to have the subject brought under consideration, with a view to make such alterations as might remedy the inconveniences complained of. He further stated that he would make a minute, that he approved of the site selected by the parties whom the Delegation represented, for the guidance of his successor, should he leave the colony before the matter was brought to a conclusion (1). 

The Survey Paddock was the area reserved  for depasturing the Surveyor-General's Department horses and oxen. The first Survey Officers were appointed in the Port Phillip District in 1836. The Paddock was bounded on three sides by the Yarra River and in 1862 was officially renamed Richmond Park. The Burnley Horticultural College was established in the Park in 1891 (2). 


Detail Parish of Jika Jika plan, showing the Survey Paddock
Surveyor General's Office, 1856. State Library of Victoria http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/170391


There was some debate in the community as to whether the Survey Paddock was a suitable site for the Cemetery, apart for the fact that it was less than a  mile from the township, and this debate played-out in a series of letters written to the Editor of The Argus in November 1855. A man using the pseudonym Veritas wrote - 
The spot of ten acres in the Survey paddock would have been a very fine site, and of a good depth of soil on the greater portion of it: it had been tried by the surveyor of the district and found to contain six feet of earth without meeting any obstruction, but he could not ascertain what greater depth it contained owing to the instrument being too short. This place would have allowed the friends of the dead of have carried the bodies to their last homes without the expense of a conveyance, from its nearness - which is a serious object to the poor at this period (3). 

In response, C.R.P.A, wrote
It will be evident to you also, Mr. Editor, when I tell you that this fine site is a portion of Richmond Flat, over the greater part of which the well-known bluestone protrudes above the surface, and where it does not show itself thus palpably, it undoubtedly forms the subsoil, and extends to an unknown depth. How strikingly, therefore, does your correspondent "Veritas" show his sympathy for the poorer classes when he recommends that they should be compelled to pay the enormous cost of chiselling and blasting the graves in which to deposit their dead! (4)

Also in response to Veritas, Eneas MacKenzie wrote -
I copy the common-sense account of the long-longed for site from a letter received by the Richmond Committee from the Colonial Secretary's office, dated 11th May, 1851. It is thus: - "I have received the report of the Surveyor-General upon your application, from which it appears that that officer considers the site alluded to by the committee is wholly unsuited for a cemetery, the surface of the Survey Paddock consisting exclusively either of sandy alluvium within reach of flood, beds of trap fragments densely packed, or honey-combed clay, land very wet and of inconsiderable depth before the rock is reached."....Dr. Wilson stated to the meeting that, from the reports given in of the site by the surveyors it would seem to consist of clay, which in many parts was not six feet in depth; that it was a well-known fact in the colony that the effect of the sun in summer on clayey soils was to cause deep fissures, and, therefore, as such rents could be seen in the paddock, of considerable depth, he left it to the good sense of the meeting if such a site was appropriate for a cemetery. The miasma would be released and the living must then suffer by the poisonous effluvia from the dead. (5). 


The Survey Paddock by Louis Buvelot, 1871


Towards the end of 1855, the same time that this debate was raging, another site was offered to the people of Richmond for their burial ground and this was land adjacent to the new Boroondara Cemetery in Kew -
A public meeting was held on Tuesday evening last, in St. Stephen's school-room, Richmond to receive the report of the committee appointed to inquire as to the most suitable site that could be obtained for a cemetery for the inhabitants of the municipality of Richmond. Eneas Mackenzie, Esq., was voted to the chair. After a few introductory remarks he called upon the secretary to read the report. It stated that on the Bulleen-road Government had a reserve of about 58 acres. Of this reserve the people of Kew had applied for and had had granted to them about 32 acres, for the purpose of a cemetery for Boroondara, and that the Surveyor-General had no doubt that an application from the people of Richmond for the remaining 26 acres would be successful. The committee stated that they now left the matter in the hands of the inhabitants of Richmond (6).

There was also apparently a move at one stage, October 1856 to make an effort to obtain a site which will be included within the East Collingwood Municipality-in the Studley Park (7).  However it appears that nothing came of this and it wasn't until four years later, in 1860, that the Government formally gazetted sixteen acres of  land adjacent to the Boroondara Cemetery for a public cemetery in connection with the Richmond municipal district (8). I have written about the Boroondara Cemetery, here.

Land next to Boroondara Cemetery set aside for the Richmond Cemetery
Victoria Government Gazette, July 24, 1860 http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1860/V/general/91.pdf

That should have been a satisfactory solution to Richmond's need for a Cemetery, albeit it was further away than the Survey Paddock,  however by 1862 they still had not established a Cemetery on the site. There were two reasons - The Council decided that if they accepted the land, the cost of fencing it would be more than they would feel themselves justified in incurring, but they were of opinion that the Government would act wisely in reserving the land for cemetery purposes, as other cemeteries were rapidly filling up, and they might at a future time have to repurchase the land at a considerably advanced price (9) Secondly, and more importantly,  Richmond Council felt the question to be a difficult one, as while they desired to retain the land, they were prevented by the Municipal Act from expending money upon it, as it was outside their boundaries (10). Essentially, the Government granted the Richmond Municipality the land but they were prevented from spending any money on it. 

In the meanwhile, the people of Kew believed that Richmond should have their rights to the land cancelled and various suggestions were put forward for the use of the land - it could be used for recreative purposes, for a Botanical Garden or annexed to the Boroondara Cemetery. It was considered this an urgent matter as the piece of land in question was going to the bad very fast. Wood carters wore constantly taking timber from it, and the site would be a complete waste in a short time (11) and a fine reserve was being destroyed because no one had a proper control over it (12).

In August 1862,  a deputation from Kew met with  Mr. Hodgkinson, the Assistant Commissioner of Lands and Survey and Mr. Ligar, the Surveyor-General where  the best course to adopt, it was suggested, would be to annex the land to the Kew Cemetery, which it adjoins, and to set it apart as a cemetery for the districts of Richmond, Boroondara, Kew, and Hawthorn; and it was further suggested that each of these districts should be represented on the board of trustees vested with the management of the cemetery (13). 

In response it was reported that the existing Cemetery trustees were unwilling to have the proposed additions. They had already incurred a large outlay in mapping and planning out the grounds; and the proposed increase would very much interfere with the arrangement. At present Richmond had nothing to complain of, the cemetery being open to them as well as to the people of Boroondara at the same charges. That in fact both Collingwood and Richmond had already availed themselves of the accommodation offered by the trustees. Mr. Stevenson also remarked that under the present arrangement one trustee for each religious body was appointed; and if the same plan was adopted at Richmond, of appointing one for each denomination, the number would be increased to eighteen, and would, he feared, be too large to work well. Mr. Judd objected to the additional land, on the ground that if the trustees were compelled to fence it, a rank herbage would spring up, and great danger would arise in summer time from fire, &c. At present the ground was kept pretty clear by cattle feeding on it, which could not well be done if fenced in  (14). 

The decision was made in November 1862 when the site formerly set apart for a cemetery at Richmond was temporarily reserved as a site for a Public Garden and for Recreation (15). 


The Richmond Cemetery land reserved for a Public Garden
Victoria Government Gazette, December 23 1862 http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1862/V/general/149.pdf

And with that, all hopes that the people of Richmond would have their own Cemetery were forever laid to rest.


Trove list
I have created a list of newspaper articles from Trove on the Richmond Cemetery, access it here.

Footnotes
(1) The Argus, August 19, 1853, see here.
(2) Survey Paddock to people's park: the story of Richmond Park by Lee Andrews - Australian Garden History, v. 20, no. 1, July-September, 2008.
(3) The Argus, November 15, 1855, see here.
(4) The Argus, November 20, 1855, see here.
(5) The Argus, November 23, 1855, see here.
(6) The Argus, December 13, 1855, see here.
(7) The Argus, October 22, 1856, see here.
(8) Victoria Government Gazette, July 24, 1860, see here.   
(9) The Age, July 18, 1862, see here.
(10) The Age, August 1, 1862, see here.
(11) The Argus, July 11, 1862, see here.
(12) The Age, August 1, 1862, see here.
(13) The Argus, August 1, 1862, see here.
(14) South Bourke Standard, September 19, 1862, see here.
(15) Victoria Government Gazette, December 23 1862, see here.

Friday, November 4, 2022

Boroondara Cemetery Postcards

An unusual subject for postcards is that of Cemeteries. I have three postcards of Fawkner Cemetery, sent  by Martha Bamber to her family in Sydney in the 1920s, you can read about them here.  Here are two more from my collection, both from the Boroondara Cemetery, Kew.

The land for the Boroondara Cemetery (also known as the Kew Cemetery) was set aside in late 1855, I can't find an actual gazettal date, and the earliest references I can find are in reports in the newspapers of the need for a Cemetery at Richmond. As there was no suitable land in Richmond, they had to look further afield and the site in Boroondara was mentioned. It was described in this November 1855 letter to the editor as a very fine and suitable place as a cemetery for Hawthorne and Kew, but will in no way benefit Richmond.


Letter to the Editor - the first reference I can find to the Boroondara Cemetery.
The Argus, November 15, 1855. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4823438

A month later, the following article in The Argus reported that the people of Kew had been granted 32 acres of a Government Reserve on Bulleen Road (now called High Street) for a Cemetery. The remaining 26 acres could be made available for the people of the Municipality of Richmond (1) for a Cemetery. I have written about the Richmond Cemetery, here.


This article about the desire for a Cemetery for the inhabitants of the municipality of Richmond includes a reference to the Boroondara Cemetery. 


The Boroondara Cemetery bounded by High Street (Bulleen Road) and Parkhill Road, in Kew. The Recreation Reserve was the area set aside for the Richmond Cemetery.
Borough of Kew, Parish of Boroondara, County of Bourke. Surveyed and compiled by Holland Loxton, 
 drawn by Edmund Adderley. Published by Arnall and Jackson in 1888. 


The first Trustees for the Boroondara Cemetery were appointed in December 1858. They were Henry Box (2), Thomas Judd (3), John Charles Lloyd (4), Thomas Johnson (5), Jabez Bunting Chambers (6), John Sharp Denbigh (7), Christian Finger (sen.) (8), Thomas Cubitt Balmain (9) and Michael O'Grady (10).


Trustees appointed to the Boroondara Cemetery
Victoria Government Gazette, December 21 1858 http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1858/V/general/170.pdf


The Boroondara Cemetery website (11)  notes that the Cemetery was surveyed in 1859 and that the first burial was that of Ellen Quick, who was buried on March 12, 1859. Ellen was only 36 years old when she died on March 9  from Phthisis (Tuberculosis). Ellen had been born in Mangotsfield, Gloucestershire, England  to Thomas and Patience (nee Petherham) Derrick. She married John Quick, a stonemason, in Bristol in 1848, at the age of 25. The couple arrived in Melbourne on the Duke of Northumberland in January 1849. Their four children listed on her death certificate were - Samuel William aged 9; Marianne aged 5; Lucy Ellen aged 3 and Edward John aged one year (12). A very sad situation, though sadly not uncommon in those times, for the family to lose their mother, when she was so young and when the children were so young.  Ellen was buried in the Baptist Section, her funeral bring conducted by the Baptist Minister, Mr Foy (13). The death certificate lists two witnesses to the burial - her brother Samuel Derrick (who was also the Informant) and Uriah Whidycombe, whose name you might expect to find in a Charles Dickens novel. John Quick died August 22, 1899, aged 83 and is buried in the same grave (14).

The Age published this interesting letter in 1936, in response to a query about the ship, the John Bunyan. The letter is from William Bevan about his grand-parents, Thomas and Patience Derrick and their two daughters who arrived in Melbourne in 1852; no doubt to join their other daughter, Ellen Quick.  The letter states that one of the daughters married Uriah Whidycombe, who was a crew member on the John Bunyan. So that explains the connection to Ellen Quick, he was her brother-in-law.


Letter to The Age from Ellen Quick's nephew, William Bevan.



Postcard of the entrance to the Kew Cemetery

As I said, I have two postcards of the Kew Cemetery. This one shows the Caretaker's Lodge and Administrative Office, built in 1860 and designed by Charles Vickers (1820-1883) (15). There were various later additions, designed by Albert Purchas (1825-1909) (16), an Architect and member of the Cemetery Trust, including the clock tower which was erected in 1899.  The Booroondara Cemetery is heritage listed, you can read the Victorian Heritage citation, here.


The erection of a handsome tower, in which will be  a large clock....



A Temple Tomb, Boroondara
Image has been cropped. Produced by Godfrey B. Roberts, 143 Glenferrie Road, Glenferrie (17)

My other postcard is the Springthorpe Memorial, erected in 1897 by Dr John Springthorpe (1855-1933) (18) for his wife, Annie. The Victorian Heritage database notes that  It was designed by Harold Desbrowe Annear and includes Bertram Mackennal sculptures. It contains twelve columns of deep green granite from Scotland supporting a Harcourt granite superstructure, and a glass dome roof of lead lighting (19).

John William Springthorpe had married Annie Constance Maria Ingles in 1887. She was the daughter of John and Maria (nee Hale) Ingles of Vaucluse, Richmond. They had four children - daughter Dorothy who lived for 22 days in December 1887; daughter, Enid, in January 1889; a son in November 1890 and another baby boy who was born prematurely on January 23, 1897, the same day that Annie died aged 30. His death notice lists his children as Enid Totton, Lance and Guy (20).

The Ballarat Star in July 1898 had this report on the monument and gives all the credit to Bertram Mackennal -
 A Splendid Monument
One of the most sumptuous and artistic pieces of monumental sculpture ever seen in Melbourne will shortly be erected in the cemetery here. It has been designed and is being erected by Mr Bertram Mackennel, a native of this city, at his studio in London. It takes the form of a circular Greek temple, with columns of black and an entablature and plinth of white marble. The dome is composed of rose-tinted glass, through which soft and tender light fails upon the recumbent figure of a beautiful young female, the size of life, carved in the purest Carrara marble, and to which a faint flash of life will be given by the illumination from above. This figure rests on a sarcophagus, and at its head will stand a small statue of Love and at its foot one of Grief. The latter, by the way, is exhibited in the Royal Academy this year. When completed the whole work will have cost £2000, the munificent commission of Dr Springthorpe, of Collins street east. This pathetic and beautiful tribute to the memory of a wife, taken out of this life in the bloom of youth, will be unique of its kind in the Melbourne Cemetery, and will mark a new departure in art as applied to mortuary purposes, Mr Mackennal is also busily at work preparing the model of the statue of the Queen which is to be erected in marble in front of the
Town Hall in Ballarat West (21). 

Two different women - Ellen Quick and Annie Springthorpe - both died young and left young children behind, and both found eternal rest at the Boorondara Cemetery.

Footnotes
(1) Richmond was created a Municipality on April 24, 1855; proclaimed  a Town, September 28, 1872 and a City, February 17, 1882. (Victorian Municipal Directory and Gazetteer, 1940)
(2) Henry Box - Died February 1882, aged 82. Buried in the Church of England section. I believe this is Henry Box as listed in the 1860 Sands, Kenny & Co.'s commercial and general Melbourne directory as a Merchant and a Saddlers' and Coachmakers' Ironmonger of Little Collins Street. 
(3) Thomas Judd - Died May 1915, aged 93. Buried in the Presbyterian Section. A officer of the Customs Department; read his short obituary in The Australasian of June 5, 1915, here.
(4) John Charles Lloyd - Died November 1887, aged 64. Buried in the Presbyterian Section. His death notice has his address as Bella Vista, Alma Road, Caulfield.
(5) Thomas Johnson - Possibly the Thomas Johnson who died May 1907, aged 86 and is buried in the Wesleyan Section. 
(6) Jabez Bunting Chambers - Commission Agent, declared Insolvent  in 1855 (The Argus, November 18, 1854, see here; The Argus, February 15, 1855, see here).  Appeared as a witness in a case at the Kyneton Court in 1883 (see report in Kyneton Observer of May 10, 1883, here).  Died in Lancefield in 1888 aged 71.  I have no information as to his connection to the Kew area.
(7) John Sharp Denbigh - Died February 1875, aged 48. Buried in the Baptist Section. An officer of Mining Department. There was a hearing into Mr Denbigh's death in 1876 where it was alleged that it was caused by tyrannical treatment and overwork by the Secretary of mines, Mr Brough Smyth.  Reports in The Age, February 16, 1876, see here; The Argus, May 2 1876, see here and a brief follow-up article in The Argus of August 16, 1876, see here. There any other articles on Trove about the hearing into Brough Smyth's conduct. 
(8) Christian Finger - Died August 1884, aged 85. Buried in the Lutheran Section. In the 1870s he was the Trustee of land in East Melbourne reserved for a Lutheran Church and School; he was listed as a farmer of Boroondara (The Argus, November 1, 1872, see here)
(9) Thomas Cubitt Balmain, of Thornton Lodge, Kew.  - Died aged 36, 1864.Buried in the Unitarian Section. Chief Clerk in the Public Works Department. Death notice The Argus, January 19, 1864, see here ; information about a compensation claim for his wife in The Argus, May 12, 1866, see here. Information about the sub-division of the Thornton Estate, here.
(10) Michael O'Grady - Died January 1876, aged 51. Buried in the Catholic section. The Hon. Michael O'Grady, M.L.A. Obituary in The Herald of January 8, 1876, see here; Obituary and the report of his funeral in The Advocate of January 8, 1876, see here. Public subscriptions were invited for a memorial to Mr O'Grady and there is an illustration of it in The Advocate of January 5, 1878, here.
(11) Boroondara Cemetery https://kewcemetery.com.au/
(12) Information from Ellen's Death Certificate; England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 and Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923 - both from Ancestry.com
(13) Joseph Foy -  the following is from A sketch of Boroondara by James Bonwick, published in 1858 and digitised at the State Library of Victoria (see here)
Mr Joseph Foy, most laudably commenced Sabbath morning and evening service at his house in the then wild bush, south of Cotham Road, in March 1853. No place of worship existed within two miles of it. The form of service was a Prayer meeting, following an address from Mr Foy; who without much literary ability, had a fluency of speech, and and honest desire to do good to his neighbours. A Baptist Chapel was opened in the Cotham Road in September 1854
Reverend Foy, died on May 3, 1879 aged 69 and is buried at the Boroondara Cemetery. 
(14) Boroondara Cemetery website;  Ellen's Death certificate and John's death notice.



(15) Boroondara Cemetery website. Charles Vickers (1820-1883) - more information on the Kew Historical Society website   https://kewhistoricalsociety.org.au/khs/the-arts/
(16) Albert Purchas (1825-1909) - more information - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation website  https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P003876b.htm and short obituary in The Argus, September 30, 1909, here.  
(17) Postcard image - the original postcard  has the image printed at a slight angle, so I straightened it up, but you can see it below. Godfrey Roberts of 143 Glenferrie Road, who published the postcard, established his Photographic Studio in June 1914, read about this here, in the Hawthorn, Kew and Camberwell Citizen of June 5, 1914.


(18) John William Springthorpe - Australian Dictionary of Biography entry   https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/springthorpe-john-william-8610
(19) Victorian Heritage Database citation https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/617
(20) Various Family notices in the newspapers; Indexes to the Victorian Births, Deaths and Marriage.


Life and death in two notices.


John Springthorpe's death notice

(21) Ballarat Star, July 18, 1898, see here.