21 January 1837: The gravestone of 25-year-old Charlotte Hall, today the first tenant of the York Cemetery
John Bibby. 2022. A York Chronicle, 1815-1914. In preparation. Reproduction by kind permission of the author. Get it:
.Excerpt
to the memory of
Charlotte second daughter of
Thomas Fishburn Hall and Betsey his wife
of Heworth.
Who died Jany 17th 1837. Aged 25 years
A lovely flower
removed, alas, how soon
from the tender watchful care
that had reared and cherished it
to be THE FIRST transplanted
into this garden of death
yet not to continue here for ever
but at the appointed season to be taken
into the paradise of God.
To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:
- ER: East Riding
- GM: Greater Manchester
- NR: North Riding
- NY: North Yorkshire
- SY: South Yorkshire
- WR: West Riding
- WY: West Yorkshire
Comment
Comment
A modern conservation volunteer, Jack Bouckley, also quotes the contemporary Yorkshire Gazette announcement:
This is the first breaking of the sod to inhume a mortal’s remains in the spot but how many must follow in the train is past calculation.
And clarifies:
During the following 165 years there have been over 122,000 bodies interred in over 28,000 graves. The exact numbers I do not know, but this I do know: from this garden of death there now blossoms forth life in the form of our newly-planted fernery (Bouckley 2003).
Something to say? Get in touch
Original
[Her stone:]
Sacred
to the memory of
Charlotte second daughter of
Thomas Fishburn Hall and Betsey his wife
of Heworth.
Who died Jany 17th 1837. Aged 25 years
A lovely flower
removed, alas, how soon
from the tender watchful care
that had reared and cherished it
to be THE FIRST transplanted
into this garden of death
yet not to continue here for ever
but at the appointed season to be taken
into the paradise of God.
95 words.
Tags
Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.
Similar
- 30 May 1836: Albinia Chaloner becomes the last person to be interred in York Minster
- 31 October 1684: Mrs Taylor of Brighouse, a Quaker, is buried upright next to her husband and daughter in their garden
- 22 August 1572: The head of Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland and leader of the Catholic Rising of the North, is impaled on Micklegate Bar, York, where it stays for two years
- 27 March 1634: In commercial Gothic urban legend, John Bartendale, a piper, is hung and buried at York, but awakes, is rescued and pardoned, and returns to the music business
- 15 November 1444: A survey of the boundaries of York
- 30 March 1834: Anne Lister seals a surreptitious mock marriage with fellow-landowner Ann Walker during the Easter Sunday service at Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York
- 12 September 1856: Band-leader John Hope tells an inquest of the life and murder of his daughter, the dancer Jane Banham, by her ex-lover, a Mancunian tailor, at the Malt Mill Inn, Armley
- 17 March 1190: Jewish survivors of preceding massacres and overnight suicides plead from York castle walls to be allowed to convert to Christianity
- 3 July 1837: The Swan, a Hull whaler, returns from the dead (the ice of the Davis Strait) bearing three whales
- 2 August 1680: William Dolben, perhaps reluctantly, condemns Thomas Thwing to death at York for his part, without co-conspirators, in a fictitious conspiracy – the Popish Plot
Search
Donate
Music & books
The Headingley Gallimaufrians: a choir of the weird and wonderful.
Music from and about Yorkshire by Leeds's Singing Organ-Grinder.
RSS feed
Bluesky
Extwitter