Ray takes another look at his collection of gravestones.
I trust that all our families in Australia are OK after the fires. Here in the USA south we can’t seem to get the rain to stop.
Hopefully the Jerrems.com website will be ready for a full viewing next month. It is close.
Donald Jerrems in Georgia USA
Ray Jerrems In Sydney Australia
GRAVESTONES PART 2 ARTICLE
In this article I will continue the theme of the October 2018 Journal by selecting some notable gravestones from my collection. They range from the most modest gravestones to a large mausoleum shown above.
Perhaps the first reaction of readers is that gravestones are a rather morbid subject, but they can be informative and in some cases amusing.
You will see that I have put my collection into categories, starting with “most ämusing”.
Most amusing-Spike Milligan
Admittedly, the famous humourist known for his participation many years ago in the BBC’s radio “Goon Show” has no connection with the Jerrems family, but he had a simple view of the composition of an epitaph on his gravestone “Here lies Spike Milligan. Ï told you I was ill”.
Here is a photo of the gravestone in the grounds of St Thomas’ Winchelsea, East Sussex.
Largest-the Healy Mausoleum
At the top of this article is a photo of Susan Healy sitting on the steps of Patrick Joseph Healy’s mausoleum. There has been a lot of research done on the Healy family by readers, and except for my article about Harriet Healy in the January Journal last year I have been biding my time about putting pen to paper. At last, I can tell you about the mausoleum!
But who was Patrick Joseph Healy?
Patrick (1839-1905) migrated from Ireland to Boston in the United States in 1850 and in due course set up the famous Lyon & Healy musical empire in Chicago.
His connection with the Jerrems family arose through his son Marquette “Mark” Ambrose Healy(1885–1953), who married Annie Jerrems, a daughter of William George Jerrems.
The columns of the mausoleum, which is located in Chicago, are Ionic. Delving into architectural terminology, the Ionic order forms one of the three classical orders of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian.
Of the three canonic orders, the Ionic order has the narrowest columns. The Ionic capital or top is characterized by the use of volutes (spiral, scroll-like ornaments). The Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the platform. Ionic columns are most often fluted, however in some instances, the fluting has been omitted (as in the case of this mausoleum).
Side view of the mausoleum
Here is another photo of the mausoleum, taken after a snowfall. It shows one side as well as the front.
Many of Patrick’s descendants (he had a very large family) are housed in the mausoleum.
The Smallest Gravestone
Here is the very humble grave of former convict John Wild, an ancestor of my wife Diane. It is in St John’s Cemetery, O’Connell Street, Parramatta, the oldest existing burial ground in Australia.
It is particularly notable because it is by far the smallest grave I have seen, its size illustrated by the fact that it is dwarfed by the normal grave behind it.
It is in surprisingly good condition considering its age of 201 years!
The wording is “Sacred to the memory of John Wild who died July…1818 Aged 55 years.” (Looks like it could be July 6th.) His Burial Certificate says he was buried on 8th July, 1818 and the ceremony was performed by Joseph Kenyon. It also gives John’s profession as simply ‘Free’!
The saddest gravestone-Friend Family
The caption is
“We loved them, yes, no tongue can tell How much we loved them and how well Jesus loved too, and thought it best, To take them to his home of rest.”
It was fairly unusual to have a separate gravestone for children. The entries were often tacked on to gravestones of adults, or the gravestones (such as they were) were placed in a “children’s” section of a cemetery. The latter happened in the case of my father’s brother Frank Raymond Jerrems (I was named after him) who probably died in the Spanish Flu Epidemic in 1920.
Another feature is that the main Friend gravestone has an unusually large angel mounted on the top.
The most puzzling gravestone-Walter Lenton
Here is a photo of the gravestone of Walter Joseph Lenton. It is a very ornate gravestone which is situated in Rookwood Cemetery, the main cemetery in Sydney. It is particularly puzzling because five names have been placed at the end in a very rough form: Eliza, Edith, Amy, Charles and Florence.
Walter was the second child of Charles Lenton by his second marriage. Eliza, who died in her 20s, was Charles’s wife by his first marriage and Edith, Amy and Charles were their children who died young (it is thought that they all died from TB). Florence was the first child of Charles’s second marriage who died young also. Walter died next at the age of 20.
It is possible that Eliza and the young children were buried in a cemetery in Devonshire Street, where Central Station is now situated. Although in theory the Devonshire Street graves were relocated to Rookwood Cemetery when the railway was extended from Redfern to Central the Devonshire Cemetery was poorly maintained and documented. It is therefore possible that the additions to Walter’s gravestone were intended to take the place of previous gravestones which had been lost at the Devonshire Street Cemetery.
Verbosity of the gravestone
The gravestone is also difficult to decipher, the only part I have been able to identify with any degree of certainty is the final sentence, from Psalm 31 “Ïnto Thine hand I commit my spirit; thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth.”
One wonders whether the Psalm was actually nominated by Walter, who was 20 years
Most poetic inscription-Philip Hogan
Here is long term reader and distant relative Brian Harrison at the very well preserved grave of his great grandfather Philip Hogan. It is situated in the old Catholic Cemetery at Parramatta, west of Sydney.
Phillip John Hogan was born in 1766 at Ennis in County Clare, Ireland. He was charged in 1797/98/99 (records vary as to the year) for being involved in the Irish Rebellion “troubles” at that time. He was found guilty as a political prisoner and sentenced to life in the colony of New South Wales.
He arrived at Sydney Cove on the convict ship “Friendship” in1800 and was assigned to the Reverend Samuel Marsden at “Mame” at South Creek, south west of Sydney.
Mary McMahon (alias Ryan) was born in Ennis also, in 1777, and arrived at Sydney Cove on the convict ship “Rollo” in 1803.Mary soon met Philip and had at least two children at the time of their marriage in 1810 They resided at South Creek, some of their children being born at “Mame” Their marriage was performed by Rev. Marsden at St. Johns Church of England at Parramatta.
Phillip and Mary continued to live at South Creek. Philip held a ticket of leave in 1806 and was granted a conditional pardon in1811. He stated in a letter to Governor Macquarie in 1820 that he had seven children, 100 acres of land, from previous grants, 40 acres under cultivation, and 50 head of horned cattle. The NS.W. returns of 1819-1820 list Philip Hogan as a resident of South Creek, “a decent labouring man of good character, married with a family”.
Phillip died in 1829 aged 63 years.
Wording of Philip’s inscription
The poetic inscription on Philip Hogan’s grave is from the sixth verse of Alexander Pope’s 1717 “Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady”:
“So peaceful rests, without a stone, a name,
What once had beauty, titles, wealth, and fame.
How lov’d, how honour’d once, avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;
A heap of dust alone remains of thee,
‘Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!”
Though only 82 lines long, the elegy has become one of Pope’s most celebrated pieces. The work begins with the poet asking what ghost beckons him onward with its “bleeding bosom gor’d”; it is the spirit of an unnamed woman (the “lady” of the title) who acted “a Roman’s part” (i.e., committed suicide) due to loving “too well.” The speaker eulogizes her sacrifice and then for several lines berates and curses her uncle (who is also her guardian) for having no compassion on the lady.
Proceeding to the lines quoted above, there follows a description of her foreign burial in a “humble grave” unattended by friends and relatives, which Pope sums up in the striking (and sobering) couplet (also quoted above):
“A heap of dust alone remains of thee;
‘Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!”
Why select the elegy?
The elegy was written a century before Philip died, raising the interesting point as to why an Irish convict like Philip would have felt so strongly about the elegy to have it quoted at considerable expense on his gravestone (which incidentally appears to have been made from excellent stone).
Perhaps Philip in fact had nothing to do with the selection pf the poem but the person organising the engraving of the gravestone decided there was a parallel between Philip and the lady in the poem’s “foreign burial in a humble grave unattended by friends and relatives”.
Norbert Carlon Memorial-the smallest graveyard
Here is a photo of a memorial to Norbert Carlon (1884-1958), a pioneer of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
Norbert was a descendant of the Carlon families who originally settled in Burragorang Valley in the 1830s. In the early 1900s he built a small farm house in Green Gully, a tributary of the Cox’s River which flows into Burragorang Valley. He ran cattle in the area and downstream. He and his wife Alice were very hospitable towards bushwalkers, who frequently called in at the farmhouse for a cup of tea.
Norbert’s cattle roamed the picturesque Cox’s River Valley with its towering River Oaks and its lightly wooded tributaries, which I often visited. The surrounding rugged mountains, where there was no vehicular access and only a few rough bushwalking trails, accentuated the remoteness of the area. This included the remote Whalania Creek, where the memorial plaque has been placed in a peaceful glade where Norbert liked to camp, at least two day’s ride from Green Gully.
Ernest Shackleton-the most remote gravestone
I have included the above gravestone of the famous Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton because it is situated on the remote South Georgia Island in the Antarctic south of South America., the culmination of Shackleton’s most notable exploits.
Shackleton (who had already led previous expeditions) had embarked on an epic journey to cross the Antarctic overland.
In October 1915, still half a continent away from his objective, his ship
“Ëndurance” was trapped then crushed in the ice. Twelve hundred miles away from land and drifting on ice packs, Shackleton and his men survived the next five months on a diet of sled dogs, penguins and seals. When the ship eventually sank they were forced to escape across the ice by towing a lifeboat full of provisions. Shackleton then travelled another 850 miles in a barely seaworthy open boat across the stormiest ocean in the world from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island to reach help.
Shackleton dies
Shackleton died from heart disease on a later expedition.
A veteran of the previous expedition (Leonard Hussey) offered to accompany the body back to Britain, however a message was received from Lady Emily Shackleton asking that her husband be buried in South Georgia. Hussey returned to South Georgia with the body, and on 5 March 1922, Shackleton was buried in the Grytviken cemetery, South Georgia, after a short service in the Lutheran church. Macklin wrote in his diary: “I think this is as ‘the Boss’ would have had it himself, standing lonely in an island far from civilisation, surrounded by stormy tempestuous seas, and in the vicinity of one of his greatest exploits.”
The nearby whaling station closed down and the village was abandoned some time ago, following which there have only been occasional visitors to this desolate place from tour ships. There is a quaint custom that anyone visiting his grave must toast him with a noggin of Scotch whisky, of which he was very partial.
Conclusion
Perhaps I have given older readers some food for thought as to what they would like to be inscribed on their graves. It is a matter of grave concern that we should give it proper consideration.
