A Disinterred Child

Port Pirie Cemetery - photo Allen Tiller © 2019

 Isaac Grey and William Wilson was charged in the Port Pirie courts by John Martin, for unlawfully exhuming the dead body of a child. On 30 November 1893, the two were summoned to court to hear their fate.[1]

 It was charged that Mr Wilson, the acting curator of the cemetery and the town clerk, instructed the cemetery sexton, Isaac Grey, to exhume the child’s body, which had been buried by mistake in a leased ground.

1-year-old Esther Violet Eva Martin had died on 3 November 1893 and buried the next day.[2] Her mother and father, John and Sarah Martin, and another relative George Heaver were all in attendance at the funeral. They placed wreaths on the child’s grave.
 On November 19, John and Sarah returned to the cemetery to visit his child’s grave, only to find all the wreaths removed. The Martin’s immediately went to the sexton’s office to find out what had happened.
 Martin asked Grey if his child had been moved, which Grey replied, “yes she had.”
He asked who had approved the moving of the body, and Grey told him that Mr Wilson had done so and that Wilson had said not to make a fuss over it, unless, by chance, he met them in the cemetery.

 The Martin’s visited the Mayor, Mr Geddes, and expressed their distaste at the goings-on at the cemetery. The Mayor was outraged and went with Mr Martin to Wilson’s office to make enquiries. They asked Wilson if it was true that the child had been moved. Wilson replied indignantly, “yes, what about it?”
 Wilson asked Martin, “Have you come to make a fuss or row about it?”
 Martin asked, “Can I have the grave opened again to satisfy myself that my child is buried there?”
Wilson replied, “Most certainly not!”
 Martin asked for proof his child was buried where Wilson said she was, to which Wilson replied, “you’ve got to take my word for it.”
 Martin asked Wilson if it was not his duty to first ask the Mayor before moving a body, to which Wilson replied, “I will please myself.” Wilson then pulled out a map of the cemetery and explained to Mr Martin and Mayor Geddes how the mistake was made.

Mayor Geddes was put on the stand during the trial. He confirmed Martin’s report of what happened in Wilson’s office but also stated he gave no authority to Wilson to exhume the child’s body.

Wilson was called to give evidence. He stated it was his job to enter cemetery details into the register. He had discovered that Martin’s child had been buried in a plot already leased to Mr Davis. He discovered the error two days after the burial, so he asked Mr Grey to move the child to the nearest vacant site. Wilson blamed the error on Grey, who had not checked with him where to bury the child.

 The presiding judge ruled that the usual 10 pound fine for the crime was reduced to 1 pound and costs.

Mr William Wilson would go on to be Port Pirie Town Clerk for 31 Years (without a break, nor a holiday!). Wilson was originally from Dungannon, Ireland, arriving in Australia onboard Carisbrook Castle in 1875. He was 67 in the year of his retirement. Wilson died 25 Nov 1918 at Prospect, South Australia.

 

 Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2020

[1] 'DISINTERRING A CHILD.', South Australian Chronicle, (2 December 1893), p. 21., http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article92801792.

[2] Ancestry.com. Australia, Death Index, 1787-1985 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

Death in the Victorian Era part 10: Mourning Cards

Death in the Victorian Era part 10: Mourning Cards

A tradition that has stayed with us from the Victorian Era, although somewhat altered and modernised is the Mourning Card.

Traditionally, Mourning Cards were supplied by the Undertaker. The card was usually printed black and silver on a white background, but depending on the status of the person, they could become quite ornate, with some examples having inset photos.
 Most would feature traditional grief symbology crosses, a female mourner or one of the many other symbols that reminded the reader of death.

The card featured the name of the deceased, sometimes their birth date and details about the funeral. They were a standard size of around 3 by 4.5 inches.  On occasion, they might be sent out to those who could not attend the funeral, as a reminder of the person, and to remind the viewer to add the recently deceased to their prayers.

 

 As Mourning Cards became ever more popular, their appearance became more intricate, with some containing gold embossing, poems, prayers, artworks or photos of the deceased. Cards belonging to direct family members might’ve also contained a lock of the deceased’s hair or a button from their clothing. The card and the lock of hair would then be presented in the home in a special frame, or sometimes an elaborate mourning card stand

By the 1900s the cards had become much simpler, and with the modern advent of printing technology, today we see cards that feature photos, prayers, funeral details and so much more in high gloss print, but nothing we do today, comes close to the artistry of the Victorian Era Mourning Card.

Next Week: Death in the Victorian Era part 11: Sin Eaters

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Death in the Victorian Era part 7: 
Cemetery Design and Symbolism

Cemetery Symbolism was alive and well in Victorian Era England and a lot of what we see today in our own Australian Cemeteries hark back to this period, some symbology though has been adapted to Australian conditions and way of life.

 There is a huge amount of symbology to be found in cemeteries, and it is something have written about previously on my other “Eidolon Blog” 

http://eidolonparanormal.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/cemetery-symbolism-part-1.html

http://eidolonparanormal.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/cemetery-symbolism-part-2.html

http://eidolonparanormal.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/cemetery-symbolism-part-3.html

http://eidolonparanormal.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/cemetery-symbolism-part-4.html

http://eidolonparanormal.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/cemetery-symbolism-part-5.html

 From Freemason, Catholic, Anglican and family symbology, to Gothic-influenced statues, urns, broken columns, Military, sailing and Egyptian obelisks, there is some great artistry in the Victorian Era cemeteries. Catacombs, Family mausoleums and Crypts were also found amongst the grandiose cemeteries that the Victorian Era brought into being (for South Australian cemetery symbolism you cannot go past West Terrace Cemetery, The Seppelt family mausoleum at Seppeltsfield or the Jesuit Crypt under St Aloysius Church at Sevenhill)

In 1832 the English Parliament passed a bill encouraging the establishment of seven private cemeteries in a ring around outer London. The first to open, in 1832, was Kensal Green, followed by West Norwood (1837), Highgate Cemetery (1839), Nunhead (1840), Brompton (1840), Abney Park (1840), and Tower Hamlets (1841).

 These new cemeteries were seen by the middle class of England as extensions of their social status and a way to immortalise their family names, through monuments to their dead.

 The graves of the period were extremely ornamental and were built to be symbolic of the family, or of the interests of the deceased. One could expect religious symbolism, crosses, Angels, the HIS inscription or passages from the Bible.

 Some would symbolise the working nature of a person, an anchor for a sailor, a horse and whip for a coachman or a sword for a military officer. Other families preferred symbols of death, such as skulls, the reaper or funeral urns.
 What is most curious about a lot of the symbology in early Victorian Cemeteries is how many graves feature pagan, Egyptian or Roman symbology. Perhaps the people of the era did not put too much thought into their choices and chose from only what appealed to them, or perhaps it has a deeper meaning within a family to be represented by a mystical pyramid.

 There was also, amongst some of the religions, such as Methodism and Protestants, not to have anything that could be remotely seen as Catholic-inspired upon their graves, forsaking the use of crosses, angels, and bibles etc for other things such as torches, wreaths or “holding hands”.

With the slowly rising popularity of cremation, and the upcoming World Wars, Cemetery burials and monuments began to change during the Edwardian period, and today in our age, the modern cemetery is very rarely decorated with such ornate, beautiful imagery as it was in the Victorian Era.

 Next Week: Death in the Victorian Era part 8: Coffins

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