The Cemetery that Never Was

George Carden, who laid claim to being the found of the General Cemetery Company, and originator of Kensal Green Cemetery, fell out with the company directors not long after the cemetery had opened. A little known fact is that he decided to open a rival venture, in what is now Holland Park - still semi-rural in the 1840s - just that little bit nearer to fashionable West London, to trump his former associates. The scheme never got off the ground, but this is the prospectus ... this is, broadly speaking, how the joint stock cemeteries of the 1830s and 1840s were touted. Note also that Carden even suggests he will attempt to build the (quite mad) scheme for a pyramid mausoleum that was still doing the rounds (Carden and its originator were in talks at one point). West London would have looked very different.

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Public Meeting in Favour of the Scheme of The Great Western Cemetery, After the Plan of Pere La Chaise

Shares, £21 - Half Shares, 10 Guineas each.

An Exposé of the Scheme of ex-urban Burial will be made by the Found in the appropriated Ground,

Notting Hill, Bayswater, At the Two-mile Stone from Oxford Street

On Saturday, June 21, at Three o'Clock, And the Modelled Design will be again exhibited.

This scheme embraces a great public benefit, and, under proper management, offers expectations of a very profitable investment without risk. The site is nearly equi-distant from Piccadilly, up Church-street, Kensington, thus embracing on its upper and lower ranges, the extremely populous and most respectable neighbourhoods of Belgrave Square, Sloane Street, Brompton, Knightsbridge, and Kensington - also of the continuation of Oxford Street, Bayswater and Notting Hill. From the Bayswater-gate of Kensington Gardens, the distance is about ten minutes walk; and from London, through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, it is within the limits of a moderate ramble through the most delightful  part of the environs of the metropolis. The SITE COMPRISES 52 ACRES in extent in one ownership, available for such a purpose, which must surprise even those persons most intimately acquainted with the outskirts of London. One portion of the estate, "Norland Farm", is let to a farmer at a considerable rental. Another, comprising twelve acres and a half, is walled in; these were the grounds of Norland House, occupied, ten years ago, by H. Drummond Esq., until destroyed by fire. All around are lofty trees, many of which are of great beauty and size. There are also numerous woody plantations, gravel walks and shrubs. At the further extremities are two ancient mounds, most beautifully embellished by towering trees, forming arches groves of peculiar magnificence. At some future day, these spots may offer attractions of more than ordinary interest. On the right of the enclosure is, at present, an extensive enclosed garden; on the left, a wilderness of brushwood, and a long hedged-in footpath, bordered by an extensive range of various trees. The centre of the ground exhibits a lawn most beautiful to look upon, without any trees, and at the extremity is a double range of lofty poplars, through which, at the side entrance, the chapel will be visible in a most picturesque manner, when erected in nearly the centre of the ground. The celebrated Norland Well, within the grounds, must not be forgotten, so great was the depth required to be dug to gain the spring. It is concealed by a thicket near the entrance to the grounds, and is surrounded by five trees of very large girth. About the year 1756 its waters were in great celebrity. There are many other things of interest within the grounds. The spot is known by the name of Norlands. At either extremity along the Uxbridge Road, are in large letters on boards, "The Great Western Cemetery Company." The extent which already is enclosed is set forth in the Prospectus. In fine, it may be truly said of this site, that near the metropolis no fitter spot could be found for a mansion of rest, and that this cemetery will ere long become equal in appearance to THE FAR FAMED CEMETERY OF PERE LA CHAISE, NEAR PARIS.

The Mechanics Magazine Saturday April 12 says "we can hardly imagine a spot better fitted for an establishment of this kind than the ground selected for this new cemetery - indeed, we had no idea there was any thing so suitable WITHIN SO SHORT A DISTANCE OF TOWN."

Capital £31,500 in 1,500 shares of £21 each; Half shares 10 Guineas each

DIRECTORS

Charles Forbes Calland, Esq., 83 Upper Norton-st; The Rev. M'Donald Caunter, 13, Regent Street; Geo. F. Carden, Esq., 1 Mitre Court Building, Temple; Tipping Thomas Rigby, Esq., 12 Paper Buildings, Temple; Captain Geo. Webb Derenzy, Robert Street, Adelphi; Geo. Thoas. Williams, Esq., 51 Montague Square.

(Additional Names to be added from among Subscribers)

AUDITORS - Three (to be chosen at General Meeting from among the Subscribers)

TREASURER AND REGISTRAR - G.F.Carden, Temple

SOLICITOR - John Hare Webb, Esq., 9, Gray's Inn Square

BANKERS - Messrs. Wright, Robinson and Co., Henrietta Street, Covent Garden

The price and conditions upon which the Company become entitled to the lad, declared to parties interested.

A portion of the ground intended to be consecrated, a part not, that the Cemetery may be used generally by the members of EVERY religious community.*

[*A Dissenter cannot by law officiate in consecrated, neither a Member of the Church of England in unconsecrated ground.

Speech of Lord ALTHORP, March 18, 1834 - "These (naming them), he believed, were all the grounds of complaint (no - no - burial in churchyards) he begged pardon, he had forgotten that, yes, the last point was that of burial in churchyards, without the ceremony of the Church of England. Now, he needed not to remind the House of the strong feeling which existed on this last point throughout the country. He hoped, therefore, that some plan, other than by legislative enactment, might be adopted which would have the MERIT of not interfering with that feeling."]

An Act of the Legislature is to be applied for.

The capital of the Company to be raised by shares of £21, and half shares of Ten Guineas each.

Holders of five shares, qualified to be Directors, Trustees or Auditors. Joint Holders of 100 shares qualified, at once, to nominate on their own behalf, one qualified Subscriber as a Director.

The Treasurer not to hold fewer than 50 shares.

Subscribers entitled to one vote for every share; at general or ordinary meetings, or among the Directors. Voting allowed by proxy given to a shareholder.

To guard against that grasping system of fraudulent mismanagement embraced in the terms, expensive extravagance to serve private interests, the prompter of this scheme has the advantage of 400 votes, so that with a moderate concurrence on the part of those who, bona fide, wish to see the plan executed, he can almost  venture to put forth a pledge that there is scarcely a hazard of the purpose being defeated; and this scheme is intended to be conducted as if it were the property of an individual.

The number of Directors, all honorary, 24; three to go out annually.

Three Directors a quorum; proceedings to be confirmed at a subsequent meeting.

The Treasurer, for the time being, by virtue of his office, to be a Director.

The following are the periods at which it is now requisite that subscriptions should be paid;-

At the time of subscribing - £5 per share, £2 10s per half share.

First Instalment on the 8th of August - £5 per share, £2 10s per half share.

Second Instalment on the 15th of January, 1835 - £5 per share, £2 10s per half share.

Third Instalment on the 15th of July - £3 per share, £1 10s per half share

Fourth Instalment (if needed) on the 15th of January, 1836 - £3 per share, £1 10s per half share.

But interest at the rate of £5 per cent. per annum will be added to each share paid up in full - and also upon deposits or instalments, from the time the monies are paid, until the whole of the shares are taken and the whole amounts due thereon equally paid up by each subscriber.

AFTER THE 15TH JULY, NO SHARE WILL BE ISSUED EXCEPT AT A PREMIuM OF 20s A SHARE, AND 10s A HALF-SHARE; WHICH PREMIUM WILL, HOWEVER, BE ADDED TO THE CAPITAL OF THE COMPANY.

Persons desirous of procuring freehold sites for future use without being subscribers, or subjecting themselves to an expense, may treat for the same.

Persons desirous of promoting this scheme, whether individuals or corporations, by a present advance of capital, may have the right of granting free burial for such persons as the donors may please to select to the full extent of such donation.

Within a limited period, original subscribers may transfer a share in value £21, and become in lieu thereof entitled to a double grave, in perpetuity, to hold not fewer than ten coffins; and for half shares of 10 guineas each, in perpetuity, a single grave to hold not less than five coffins, without being at a limited time required to make a monumental structure. - The public will be at liberty to employ their own architects.

This NATIONAL work is intended to be further beautified by means of loans without interest, and, should it merit it, by PUBLIC DONATIONS. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem has been selected as an appropriate design for the exhibition of monumental sculpture, and will probably be a model for one of the funeral chapels. The distant boundaries (as exhibited in the model) afford very appropriate sites for alms-houses. Religious societies or charitable institutions desirous of erecting memorials or alms-houses will be readily and beneficially treated with.

The number of burials annually in London, exclusive of the burials in the extensive out-parishes of St. Pancras, Paddington and Marylebone, is upwards of FORTY THOUSAND, and the most casual observer can perceive how much new places of sepulture are required, in the visibly over-crowded state of all the Metropolitan Burial Grounds. IN London, sites for burial cannot be obtained. His Majesty's Commissioners for building New Churches, &c., found this to be the case. Armed with power and the resources of a government, they could not obtain sites whereon to build the new churches, until they had pledged themselves not to appropriate contiguous open spaces for burial. There seemed, indeed, to be GENERAL determination on the part of the landed proprietors TO RESIST THE CREATION OF NEW METROPOLITAN churchyards. During twelve years, up to the year 1824 inclusive, it was found that 333,000 bodies had been interred in London, exclusive of the burials in the parishes above named.

Shocked by the frequent excavation of burial-grounds, the time is not far distant when the thinking public will wholly discontinue to bury in London. The expense is enormous, the tenure precarious; and the consecrated sanctuaries of the dead cease to afford security for permanent repose. Within the last ten years seven or eight churchyards in this metropolis have been WHOLLY EXCAVATED, and as much churches demolished and the remains carted out without rite, or ceremony.

Some parishes have no burial-ground belonging to them, other parishes have only vaults for interment. The dead, when buried in vaults, should be secured in coffins of lead. This creates great additional expense. In upwards of fifty vaults of the metropolis, the dead were found to have been deposited in coffins of wood only!!! and many of the vaults were in immediate connexion with the church. A system more destructive of the public health can scarcely be imagined, and this owing to the want of new, approximate, and economical places of burial. It is not within the means of every one to use church vaults. Persons anxious to inter in another parish are subjected to pay as non-residents, TRIBLE the amount of fees payable by a parishioner; sometimes it is only double. For strangers, and even lodges, double or TREBLE fees are required, although the burial take place in the parish in which the party dies.

The friends, then, of every stranger, of every lodger, and also the Parishioners of parishes not having burial-ground of their own, would eagerly avail themselves of this ex-urban Cemetery.

SECURITY.  - In consequence of Mr. Warburton's Anatomy bill, the remains of the dead are not likely to be disturbed. None but medical practitioners licensed by Government can possess a corpse for dissection, and an account must be duly rendered to the Secretary of State, whence and how the body was obtained, and that the remains after dissection, have been properly interred. This project, then, has nothing to fear from the resurrectionist: his horrid trade is wisely destroyed, and this site will afford convenient opportunity for economical interment. Some practitioners pay hundreds of pounds yearly for burials!

EXPEDITION WITH ECONOMY - The shape of the ground is peculiarly advantageous for Economical Walling. Along the line of the Uxbridge Road, the frontage is about 2,500ft.; of which 1,750 ft. are already enclosed. The breadth in th rear of this is 1,450ft.; on the right 1,750ft. whereof 1,100ft. are also enclosed, and on the left 2,000 ft.

The contemplated arrangements can be so accomplished as to obtain the freehold of the Premises and complete Cemetery, at a cost not exceeding the fixed capital. The public will therefore be accommodated on a plan uniting utility and economy, with great profit to Subscribers.  Of the almost numberless wealthy families of this great metropolis, it is beyond a merely speculative statement that thus enabled, at hardly any cost, at a mere trifle, indeed, compared with existing charges for family vaults, that 1,500 families will, without delay, purchase freehold sites, each sufficient for ten burials, at the very small sum of £21. This alone wold be £31,500,* the whole amount of the capital necessary to purchase the estate, &c. &c. &c. and complete the Cemetery.

[* In consequece of the frequent excavation of burial grounds, and the crowded state of the public vaults, remains contained in lead will almost of necessity be removed into this new Cemetery. Taking the number upon a very moderate calculation to be only 5,000, in ten years, the account would be ...

5,000 removals if belonging to Subscribers at £2 each, 10,000 .... the public, if only at £3 each, 15,0000. But of these, 2000 would very probably belong to different families who would purchase sites at £21.

If Subscribers, the amount would be 42,000 = Total £52,000 ... the public, if only at £25 each, 50,000 = Total £65,000

Which return is wholly independent of the revenue from ordinary burials, sales of vaults &c.

There are now about ten Cemeteries established for country towns, upon the plan first promulgated in the year 1824 by Mr. G.F.Carden, founded of the General Cemetery Company, established by Act of Parliament. Of these, it may be interesting to state the progress made in the New General Cemetery, Liverpool, which was begun in the yer 1825.

Interments: 1825-6-7-8: 1,895; 1829: 743; 1830: 930; 1831: 1,277; 1832: 1,402; 1833: 1,505; total 7,752; besides 140 vaults and 1,102 family graves sold.]

EXPLANATION OF THE MODEL OF THE GREAT WESTERN CEMETERY 

The model, to which the public are invited upon presenting their cards, is now at the Company's offices, 13, Regent-street. It shoes the whole space of fifty-two acres as it will afterwards be approximated. One portion, containing twelve acres and a half, is already entirely enclosed, and most magnificently wooded. The principal entrance will be above the side centre of the grounds, by the roadway which at present exists, until the new roads at the back of Notting Hill are completed. From this entrance there is a sweeping avenue of trees, and a broad roadway running around the church, and terminating in the public road by Sheppard's Bush. The church, for the service of the Church of England, is built upon arches, which are the catacombs for the dead. The building is after the design of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, which internally is admirably adapted for the display of full-length marble figures, on account of the niches with which internally is surrounded. About two thirds of the outer boundary of the whole has to be enclosed with a wall. The grand avenue of trees being formed, and catacombs under the church made, the church built, and this wall completed, the cemetery is finished for the public use; all of which, if the funds allow, will be completed during the present year. Fortunately for the speculators, the whole estate is brick earth; so that all the work of excavation will turn to account, and the soil be made, at the upper extremity, into brick, and every brick required for use can be made upon the estate. With this great advantage, and economical management, the subscribers will possess, first, a beautiful property of fifty-two acres, including numerous outbuildings, a farm, and buildings, and have all the works just named executed for the comparatively very trifling sum of £31,500. A large portion will remain unconsecrated, for the use of those dissenting from the Church of England; viz. one-half of the further outer boundary on the Uxbridge side, and a large piece internally, together also with a piece, one-half, of the present enclosed garden. There is a very sweet Gothic chapel for their especial use. As the estate is so extensive, and in order both to give a ton to the scheme, which will surpass every other, and comfortable security to relations and friends, all around are erected almshouses at shore distances from each other. The tenants of these being pensioners from corporations and other charitable societies, are a class of persons in whom confidence can be placed, and whose interests will secure good behaviour, in the little perquisites and rewards they will, no doubt, often obtain from visiters and the friends of those who inter there. Another arrangement generally strikes our fancy: the walks are so laid out, that plots of ground are at once visibly divided, and capable of being used wholly by the Catholics, the Jews, Quakers, or any other brotherhood, in case they should prefer doing so to having the use of the general ground set apart for the "Dissenters". There is another structure which we have yet to notice, a pyramidical form, capable of containing sixty thousand coffins. This is a range of layers, one above the other, decreasing gradually in size, and intended to be constructed out of the excavated soil in the cemetery, the overplus in making family vaults, when the future profits of the Company shall be sufficient to leave a surplus to create a building fund. Such an intent, considering the great value of building-ground, and that the cemetery of Pere la Chaise, 120 acres in extent, is now losing its beautiful shrubberies, by reason of the great use and fulness of the ground, is a work not of fancy, but of wise for-thought. Within three months pasts, for the reasons stated, an edict was issued in PAris, requiring super-structures to be made in Pere la Chaise. Considering, then, as the proprietors of the company set forth, "that on the burial of every stranger, of every lodger, and also of parishioners no having ground of their own, and of parties dying in extra-parochial places, double and even treble fees are now required", this Cemetery will be hailed as conferring a great public benefit; and considering that if only 1,500 families, at the trifling cost of £21 (instead of hundreds charged in some places) purchased their family vaults, capable of containing the remains of ten members, the sum would REIMBURSE the proprietors every shilling of outlay. With the advantages of situation and cheapness, there cannot be a doubt of the appoval and support of the public, and the consequent success of the Company.

The grounds, we had forgotten to say, are in every direction interspersed with walks, and tombs and monuments of elegant device, the handy-work of Mr. Day, the modeller. Ladies' Magazine and Museum, June 1834

[Since the above description, there have been added sundry elegant and tasteful arcades which will serve alike, when constructed, for use and shelter.]

Cunningham and Salmon, Printers, Crown-court, 72 Fleet-street.

Stillborn

The prohibition on urban burial from 1852 onwards (crowded graveyards were gradually closed by order of the government) may have had unintended consequences for the poor. One was that the practice of quietly burying stillborn children in other people's graves - achieved by tipping the grave-digger - was now an impossibility.

... the body was found in the canal ... The Coroner said that some charge was made by the sextons of the different parishes for the burial of still-born infants. Since the passing of the New Burial Act, closing the metropolitan graveyards, the bodies of numbers of children were exposed in every way in the public streets, as the poor had to walk a long distance and to pay for the interment of the body of a still-born infant. He (the Coroner) felt that such a system should not exist, as poor persons, being unable to pay the fee, got rid of the bodies of their offspring, in the best way they could, by placing them in the streets, so that when they were found an inquest was obliged to be held, and the county was thus put to fruitless expense. He would suggest, not only for the sake of the expense, but for the sake of decency, that the parochial authorities should inform the poor by placards and otherwise that the bodies of stillborn infants would be received at the various workhouses, and interred without charge. It could be easily done ...
    A juror said that a charge of one shilling was always made, and he had seen persons bringing the bodies of stillborn infants for burial refused, in consequence of their not having the shilling to pay.
    The Coroner said that since the passing of the act, a very large number of bodies of infants had been found in the differnet districts.

Daily News, October 20, 1855

He had a female call upon him the other day with a new-born child, and produced a medical certificate to that effect, but after the last inquest he refused to bury it, and told her that she must take the body to the burial-ground at Tooting. The woman, upon making inquiries, ascertained that to get the child buried there would cost 9s. 6d. which she was unable to pay, and she told Mr. Powell that she was, therefore, compelled to bury it in her own garden, and two other applicants had also said the same. 
    The Coroner said if the body of a child was subsequently found in such a place, it might lead to the supposition that the child had been murdered .. [but] he could not see how poor people could afford to bury newly-born children when the expenses were so great.
    The prevailing opinion of the whole of the jurors was that the old system of interring still-born children in the burial grounds of parish of Lambeth ought to be contrinued, and would have the effect of saving the parish and the county a very considerable expense, and prevent the exposure of newly born children.

The Morning Chronicle, April 19, 1856

At Wandsworth, George Grove, 70, gravedigger at Merton Church, was charged with disposing of the body of a stillborn child, by throwing it into a ditch. Wiiliam Henry Corke, a carpenter livign at High park Merton said that on Saturday evening he gave the prisoner a box, containing the dead body of the child, to bury in the churchyard, with a medical certificate and 1s 6d. for the interment. On Sunday afternoon, he heard that the box had been found in a ditch ... The prisoner said that he buried the box in the churchyard and indicated the spot, but on going to it witness found that the ground had not been opeend for several days. The fee for burial in such cases was 1s., but the prisoner asked for 1s. 6d. which he gave him ... he believed the case arose through drink. ... Joseph Smith, parish clerk, and sexton of Merton Church, said the proper course was to have brought the body to him, and on the production of a medical certificate, he would have buried it ... There was no stipuated fee but he usually charged 1s. Mr. Bridge remarked that formerly there was no power to bury stillborn children in a churchyard. They might be buried in a garden. The witness said that was so until the act was passed.

The Times, 25 September 1877

 

The Testimony of Reuben Room

Reuben Room examined: I was in the employ of Mr. F. Green, as gravedigger in 1837 and continued in his employed for about six years. Our mode of working the ground was not commencing at one end and working to the other, but digging wherever it was ordered, totally regardless whether the ground was full or not; for instance, to dig a grave seven feet deep at a particular spot, I have often disturbed and mutilated seven or eight bodies; that is, I have severed head, arms, legs, or whatever came in my way, with a crowbar, pickaxe, chopper and saw. Of the bodies, some were quite fresh and some decomposed. I have had as much as 1.5cwt. of human flesh on what we term the ‘beef board’ at the foot of the grave at one time. I have often put a rope round the neck of the corpse to drag it out of the coffin, fastening one end of the rope to a tombstone so as to keep the corpse upright to get at the coffin from underneath to make room for the flesh of other bodies. The coffins were taken away and burnt with pieces of decomposed flesh adhering thereto. I have taken up half a ton of wood out of one grave, because I had to take out two tiers of coffins, some of which were quite fresh and we used to cut them up for struts, used for shoring up the graves. We had as many as 50 or 60 sides of coffins always in use to keep the ground from falling in when digging. We have buried as many as 45 bodies in one day, besides still-borns. I and Tom Smith kept an account one year; we buried 2,017 bodies besides still-borns, which are generally enclosed in deal coffins. We have taken them up when they have been in the ground only two days, and used them to light fires with. I have been up to my knees in human flesh by jumping on the bodies so as to cram them into the least possible space at the bottom of the graves in which fresh bodies were afterwards placed. We covered over the flesh at the bottom by a small layer of mould. I have ruptured myself in dragging a heavy corpse out of the coffin. It was a very heavy one. It slipped from my hold lifting it by the shoulders. The corpse was quite fresh. These occurrences took place every day.

The Times, 5 March 1845

Spa Fields Burial Ground

Mr COMBE: You deny what has been stated; now as the report in The Times contains a true version of what occurred, I will read the statements seriatim and say how they are incorrect. The report says that about 1,500 bodies are annually interred there. Is that the fact? It is Mr. Watts who says it.

Mr. Bird: Not more, I think, than 1,350, but the report further states that the burial ground is not capable of containing more than 3,000 bodies, whereas it can hold 25,000.

Mr. COMBE: Why, how many do you put in one grave. The ground is not quite two acres in superficial extent.

Mr. Bird: We put eight bodies in one grave. (Sensation)

Mr. COMBE: Eight bodies in one grave! How deep are they?

Mr. Bird: Oh, about eight feet deep, your Worship.

Mr. COMBE: And do you mean to tell me you put eight coffins into a grave eight feet deep?

Mr. Bird: Yes, I do. We put in two coffins of adults lengthwise, and then put three children's coffins at each end.

Mr. COMBE: How often do you remove the dead to make room for more?

Mr. Bird: We do not remove the bodies of adults.

Mr. COMBE: That seems to imply that you do remove those of children?

Mr. Bird: Not until they are decayed - when our rod goes through them. (Great sensation).

Mr. Vinall then observed that his brother had been a lesseefor only the last three years - he was lessee under a lunatic gentleman, who held the ground from the Marquis of Northampton.

Mr. COMBE: has the ground been consecrated?

Mr. Vinall: I don't think it has.

Several voices - It has not.

Mr. COMBE: How long has it been a burial place?

Mr. Bird: For the last 50 years. In answer to further questions he said that the average number of bodies interred there was 28 a week, but admitted that sometimes 26 were interred there in a single day.

Mr. Wakeling: - Why, 29 were buried there last Sunday.

Mr. Bird being asked if he had the burial registration book said he did keep such a book, but did not bring it with him. He positively denied that human bodes had been burnt there.

Mr. COMBE then read from the newspaper Inspector Penny's statement on Tuesday, which set forth that he had often visited the place and repeated seen sound and fresh coffins burning in the 'bone-house' of every size, and that the smell was intolerable.

Inspector Penny: And I will now depose to it.

Mr. Bird: Why, you have not been there for a long time.

The Inspector smile; upon which

Mr. Macey said, that at his request, the inspector had often gone there in every variety of disguise.

Mr. COMBE then read the statement of Walters, the engine-keeper, which declared that he had gone to the bone-house on two occasions on alarms of fire, and had with great difficulty obtained admission, the last time was the 2d of last month. In the bone-house were as many coffins as three men could carry; great lumps of pitch adhered to the chimney, which one of the men said was from burning pitched coffins; the smell was horrible and seemed as if of burnt flesh or bones.

Mr. Bird: We admit that coffins are burnt, but deny that bones or flesh are.

Mr. COMBE: What class of persons is buried in this place?

Mr. Bird: The middling and lower classes.

Here ther lady who it will be recollected made a statement on Tuesday last, came forward and said that she lived in a house near the graveyard, but had been obliged to leave it, as well as many others persons in the neighbourhood, in consequence of the intolerable and unearthly stench proceeding from the bone-house. One frosty night the smell was still worse than usual. She and her son ascended the top of the wash-house, which commands a view of the ground, thick volumes of smoke and sparks were issuing from the chimney of the bone-house; she saw two men carrying something in a basket which appeared very soft and to shake; took it to be human flesh. Her tenants who lived near the place were constantly complaining of illness from the smell. The weather became hot and two of the children died from putrid fever. (Great laughter).

Mr. Bird: Will you swear to what you statae.

The Lady: Certainly.

Mr. Wakeling: There are several witnesses who can swear to occurrences of the same kind.

Mr. COMBE then read over the statement of Catherine Murphy who lived by the graveyard - her statement was that she had seen the grave-diggers throw up parts of a human body, and then chop it up with their shovels; saw one of them seize a corpse by the hair, and on that occasion she cried out, and the men threw in the flesh and covered it withclay. She now added that since her last examination she had seen Smith, one of the grave-diggers, carrying the bottom and lid of a coffin towards the bone-house. It was at 6 o'clock on Wednesday morning. She had seen the grave-diggers throw up dark heavy lumps. She could not at first tell what it was, but afterwards knew it to be human flesh. The man in the grave tossed it up on the clay. He would then come up and pick the hair up. She saw very long hair at one time in the clay; had not seen a corpse seized by the head.

Mr. Watt: I have in my possession two coffin-plates of persons buried in 1840.

Mr. Wakeling: The statement mad by Mrs. Murphy I can corroborate by the testimony of Messrs. Dawes and Syms, respectable tradesmen.

Mr. Dawes (greatly excited): Yes; I can speak about it. I lived by the graveyard; the smell was horrible. My children became ill, and three died. I left the place in consequence for two years, during which time my family were in excellent health. I unfortunately came back and two more died. The sickness came from the graveyard.

Other matters were stated of a like nature.

Mr. Vinall said that he should be ready to confute these statements in a court of justice. He believed much of the bad smell arose from a sewer in the neighbourhood. He was willing to have the graves opened free of expense to any one who might wish it, and he felt satisfied that what had been said regarding the burning of human bodies &c was untrue.

Mr. Bird said the woman Murphy had admitted that she had not seen anyone seize a corpse by the hair, but only saw the hair itself.

Mr. Wakeling then annonced it to be his intention to interdict Messrs. Bird, Green and Smith at the next sessions; he had no doubt that the parish would pay the cost, if not he would pay for it out of his own pocket.

The parties then retired.

Cheap Funerals

The Cheapest House in London for RESPECTABLE Funerals is at Hickman and Sons, No.1. Cannon-street-road, St. George's East, established 30 years. A Grown Person's Funeral, with inch-and-a-half Elm Coffin, covered with fine Cloth, four rows of Nails, ornamented with four pair of Handles and Shields, Inscription, Plate, Glora and Urn, Wood Mattress and Pillow, use of Silk Pall, and Fittings for Twelve Persons, Hearse and Pair of Horses, Two Coaches, and Pair of Horses each, Feathers and Velvets for Hearse and Horses, Attendance with Sik, Sash and Band, Pair of Mutes with Silk Fittigns and Bearers complete, to any of the Cemeteries or Burial Grounds within twelve miles of London
. . . . . . . . £13 0s.

Extras:
Lead Coffin
. . . . . . . . £3 10s.
Child's "
. . . . . . . . £1 15s.

A Grown Persons's Funeral, with inch Elm Coffin, covered with Black Cloth, two rows of Nails, Handles, with Plate and Name engraved, Angel and Flower, Wool Mattress and Pillow, use of Silk Pall, and Fittings for Six Persons, four Men as Bearers, Hearse and Pair of Horses, Coach and Pair of Horses, Attendance with Silk Bands to any of the Cemeteries or Burial Grounds
. . . . . . . .£6 0s.
This Class Funeral with one Horse to Hearse, and one Horse to Coach
. . . . . . . .£4 4s.

A Grown Person's Funeral with inch elm Coffin, covered with Black Cloth, two rows of Nauls, Plates, Handles, with Wool Mattress and Pillow, use of Silk Pall, and Fittings for Six Persons, Attendance and four Men as Bearers, &c
. . . . . . . .£2 10s

Children's Funerals, under three years of age including Coffin Trimmed, Fittings for Six Persons, use of Silk Pall, Man to carry, Attendance with Silk Bands
. . . . . . . . 16s.

The above low charges within twelve miles of London

The Coffins are supplied within two hours after ordering. Estimates given for Funerals from all parts of the United Kingdom.

Bodies removed from Hospitals and Asylums with a hearse at the charge of 5s.; and from any part of England at One Shilling per Mile.

Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, 20 September 1846

Clearing the Ground

Some 1830s parish churchyards and burial grounds were so packed that they were regularly cleared out ... warning, not for those of a squeamish disposition ...

‘I never opened a grave without coming into other coffins of children, grown persons, and what we term odd sizes, which we have been obliged to cut away, to cut through those coffins, the ground being so excessively full that we could not make a grave without doing it; it was done by the orders of Mr. Watkins and Mr. Fitch, the sexton of the parish, that those coffins should be chopped up and the wood placed against the walls and palings of the ground. We have come to bodies quite perfect and we have cut part away with choppers and pickaxes. … The strings, what we term the leaders of the knees and the joints, have been so tough and so strong that we have been obliged to chop them away with a sharp instrument, a hatchet, and the coffin wood we have been obliged to saw in different parts of it, unless we came to a nail, and then we beat it away with a sledge hammer. The skulls and bones there have been holes dug for them, and they have been placed in those holes and beat up just as you would crack nuts, and the marrow bones the same, and buried. … we could not dig a grave without coming upon coffins that have not been buried 12 months, and some not six months. I was sorry that ever I was out of a situation, to be compelled to go to such work, but I did it for the sake of my wife and family.'

 

Select Committee on Interments, 1842 

Burying the Dead

An undertaker gives evidence to a government select committee on the habits of the poor:

‘In many instances, people say “We cannot bury under a week;” that is from custom. Others have not the means of getting a black gown; and they cannot follow in a coloured one; that is their bit of pride; then it is put off, it may be two or three days on that account. They will not have their relatives buried by the parish; they would rather do anything than that, saying they wish them to be buried respectably; and then the end of it is that myself and other people like me often bury for nothing, not intending to do it. They cheat us; and if they would do away with their little pride, and let the parish do it, the bodies would be removed in a reasonable time, and such men as myself would not be imposed on as we frequently are.'

Select Committee, Effect of Interment of Bodies in Towns, 1842