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 1839 - The cemetery's
early years
 The first occupant of the cemetery was Mary Ann Fish who
died of consumption (now called Tuberculosis) in 1836 at the
age of 24.
There is no doubt that the cemetery was a success with the
local community. It was a popular place to stroll, meet and
pass the time. However, as a commercial company it was less
successful. It took six years to sell the first one thousand
burial plots and because sales were slow the shareholders
did not see a fast return on the £13,000 they had invested.
Body-snatching was also a major concern. Even though laws
had been passed to prevent surgeons from illegally acquiring
bodies for dissection (the Anatomy Act1832), people still
were afraid that graves would be robbed.
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Q9. Problems
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more questions |
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Which other problems
do you think the General Cemetery suffered in this year? |
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In
fact it was all of them. It's very easy to think that these are modern problems
but the cemetery had to deal with theft and vandalism of the stone and monuments,
and government policies that favoured the country's main religion: Anglicanism.
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A rumour went about that a tunnel from the General Cemetery
to the surgeon's house at the top of the hill had been created
for just this purpose.
Security was, therefore, of prime importance at this time
and a certain amount of policing took place in the grounds.
 The paupers were the poorest of the poor. They had little
dignity in life and were certainly given no dignity in death.
One way for the company to make more money was by burying
paupers for the Poor Law authorities. They charged five shillings
(25 pence) for each pauper. Then they waited until they had
a cartful of them and saved space by burying them all in a
single plot.
This cemetery has one plot in which there are as many as
96 bodies!
To be buried in a pauper's grave was considered to be one
of the saddest and most shameful ways end to a life.
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