Grave yard post!
16 Dec 2009 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatWell, I know it's not exactly festive, but I have a few pictures taken at St George's in Douglas. Only the outside - there was a service on when I was up there - lunch time communion I think.
This was the second church built in the town of Douglas - the first, St Matthews, was down at the quayside, beside the market - it didn't have a churchyard.
St George's was built in the mid eighteenth century, one of the trustees during the building was the future father-in-law of Captain Bligh of 'Bounty' fame, and one of the earliest organists was Charles Dickens grandfather who lived out his life on the island to escape debtors' prison in England!
The churchyard is not very big, and is surrounded by offices, banks and the like these days. What is interesting is that for some years this was the 'field of strangers' - local people had the right of burial in either Kirk Braddan or Kirk Onchan - the parishes in whose land Douglas slowly grew. So, to quote the church history, those buried here
include retired half-pay officers, doctors, shopkeepers, artisans and impoverished gentlefolk escaping their creditors. They had flocked to the Island because of its low taxes and cost of living and found their last resting place in St George’s. Descent from the nobility is not infrequently claimed on the headstones, and at least fifty graves are those of persons with military titles or linked to the same.
I only took a few pictures apart from the one in the 365 post of Sir William Hillary's grave.
This is the grave of a former vicar - but the thing of interest is that there is that large empty green space in the middle of the churchyard - with graves only around the edges - even though it became quite a busy burial place. There is only one small cross in all that area of green. By 1832/3 Kirk Braddan and Kirk Onchan were clearly busy with their own burials, and the people of Douglas too busy to take the bodies that far - that green area with the small cross is where 100 victims of cholera were buried. There is another small green patch where unidentified bodies washed ashore in Douglas were buried.
This also shows the cholera grave, and the burial place of 'Frank John Johnson, Registrar of Deeds, who spent the happiest hours of a busy life in the service of the Church.' I rather liked that epitaph.
These are general views; you can tell the people buried here were slightly more 'upper class' than those in the country church yards by the tombs and stones!
This rather impressive headstone was erected by one of those moneyed families - the Goldie-Taubmans who lived in The Nunnery - one of the nearest things to a stately home in the Douglas area. It is not the grave of a family member though - but of 'Louisa Jones, the faithful nurse of JS Goldie-Taubman'. I hope they did as well by her during her life!
And finally, I just love the ones where it looks as if the occupant is either trying to leave, or has done so...
So - just a few pics of St Georges.
Guess what? Once again I missed my LJ anniversary - it was 5 years on the 12th of this month...
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?
This was the second church built in the town of Douglas - the first, St Matthews, was down at the quayside, beside the market - it didn't have a churchyard.
St George's was built in the mid eighteenth century, one of the trustees during the building was the future father-in-law of Captain Bligh of 'Bounty' fame, and one of the earliest organists was Charles Dickens grandfather who lived out his life on the island to escape debtors' prison in England!
The churchyard is not very big, and is surrounded by offices, banks and the like these days. What is interesting is that for some years this was the 'field of strangers' - local people had the right of burial in either Kirk Braddan or Kirk Onchan - the parishes in whose land Douglas slowly grew. So, to quote the church history, those buried here
include retired half-pay officers, doctors, shopkeepers, artisans and impoverished gentlefolk escaping their creditors. They had flocked to the Island because of its low taxes and cost of living and found their last resting place in St George’s. Descent from the nobility is not infrequently claimed on the headstones, and at least fifty graves are those of persons with military titles or linked to the same.
I only took a few pictures apart from the one in the 365 post of Sir William Hillary's grave.
This is the grave of a former vicar - but the thing of interest is that there is that large empty green space in the middle of the churchyard - with graves only around the edges - even though it became quite a busy burial place. There is only one small cross in all that area of green. By 1832/3 Kirk Braddan and Kirk Onchan were clearly busy with their own burials, and the people of Douglas too busy to take the bodies that far - that green area with the small cross is where 100 victims of cholera were buried. There is another small green patch where unidentified bodies washed ashore in Douglas were buried.
This also shows the cholera grave, and the burial place of 'Frank John Johnson, Registrar of Deeds, who spent the happiest hours of a busy life in the service of the Church.' I rather liked that epitaph.
These are general views; you can tell the people buried here were slightly more 'upper class' than those in the country church yards by the tombs and stones!
This rather impressive headstone was erected by one of those moneyed families - the Goldie-Taubmans who lived in The Nunnery - one of the nearest things to a stately home in the Douglas area. It is not the grave of a family member though - but of 'Louisa Jones, the faithful nurse of JS Goldie-Taubman'. I hope they did as well by her during her life!
And finally, I just love the ones where it looks as if the occupant is either trying to leave, or has done so...
So - just a few pics of St Georges.
Guess what? Once again I missed my LJ anniversary - it was 5 years on the 12th of this month...
Doesn't time fly when you're having fun?
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Date: 16/12/2009 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 16/12/2009 11:32 pm (UTC)