HEADLINES OF OLD: CONVICT BURIALS - ISSUE 2 TROVE TUESDAY 3rd Sept. 2019

Tuesday, 3 September 2019

CONVICT BURIALS - ISSUE 2 TROVE TUESDAY 3rd Sept. 2019

From the collections of the State Library of New South Wales [a4204001 / Z/Ce 82/2]

(Paris : Arthus Bertrand, 1824, Dixson Map Collection)

Cemetery and the active gallows, detail from 'Plan de la ville de Sydney' 1802

https://dictionaryofsydney.org/media/4654

Earlier in the year, I wrote an article about CONVICT BURIALS. At the time I received a number of messages asking for more on the subject. It seems it could be a never ending story.. these are just a few more items that I have come across...

The Monitor Sydney 20 Jan 1827

EXCERPT - DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE

A convict died the other day on the Liverpool Road ; and neither his master, nor the coroner, nor the constable, would at first bury him. Hence, the body lay exposed to the heat, till the flies, &c. and decay, rendered it so much an object of disgust and horror, the jury could not do their duty to their satisfaction. A few boards were at length begged from Clegg. Kennedy gave a few nails and raps of his hammer, and thus this wretched outcast of society, after bestowing many years of sweat and toil on the colony, was carried away, to be buried, more like a felon than an honest faithful servant. We think a General Order ought to be issued, regulating the decent burial of poor convicts, either by the Police or their masters. Convicts are Englishmen— sometimes they are good christians, "and are carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom."

Gravestones on the Isle of the Dead .TASMANIA

CC BY-SA 3.0

Star reborn

Grenfell Record & Lachlan District Advertiser 14 Oct 1899

Old Burials.

STRANGE DISCOVERIES.

The removal of the bodies from Point Gellibrand one of the earliest burial grounds in Victoria, to the Williamstown Cemetery is proving a larger undertaking than had been expected. The railway department's estimate of the number of bodies interred there, after making careful inquiries, was 200 ; the number so far removed is over 700, and about 100 more: still remain to be exhumed.

As might be expected; the condition of the bodies is invariably in harmony with the rude surroundings of the place, and the circumstances under which these, early interments took place. It has been a common thing to find bodies thrown into their grave with their clothes and even their boots on. In some cases even the coffin was dispensed with, and the remains of two or three prisoners were found in irons. Those, it is believed, are two men from the convict ships, who were connected with the murder of Owen Owens, a warden. After Owen had been shot, a boat's crew of prisoners attempted to escape, but wore overtaken, and one of them was drowned as the escapees were being brought ashore, and buried, it is believed, in his irons.

In contrast to this, a startling discovery was made in opening a grave this week. Instead of the ordinary broken fragment of rotten board, an entire coffin was found in a perfectly sound condition. It was as though it had been a few months underground, and tools had to be used in order to wrench open the lid. When this was done, the workmen beheld the body of a young woman, wrapped in a winding sheet, in as perfect a state of preservation as if it had not been interred for ten days. As no interment has been permitted at Point Gellibrand since 1857, it was at once apparent that the body bad been preserved ; but it seemed incredible that it should have been so remarkably well done, even the hair and teeth remaining intact, whilst the body was perfectly firm and rigid. The coffin was made of American ash, and had been hermetically sealed, the joints having been pine pitched and dove-tailed, and the coffin lined with oilcloth. Then the body was embalmed in spirits and packed in teased hemp.

The coffin was inspected by Dr. Crosswell, chairman of the Board of Health, and Mr. Hick, secretary of the Cemetery Trust, before it was placed intact into another shell by Mr. Lonsdale, undertaker. It seems quite evident that the death took place on board ship, and that the body was preserved and taken ashore for interment. No such solicitude appears to have been shown for any other occupant of the old burial place. The only other traces of pathetic interest that remain are a gold rimmed smelling salts bottle, interred with a little child ; the body of Mary Reddan, aged 20 years, and interred in an elaborate brick vault, and that of a convict, whose last smoke having 'been indulged in, was buried in his clothes and boots, accompanied by his pipe and half a pipeful of tobacco.

Smith's Weekly ...mistaken as convict cemetery 15 Feb 1930