| Historical notes: | Parramatta:
The Indigenous people who inhabited the Parramatta River and its headwaters consisted of a number of clans, hordes or families known generally as the Darug Nation. At the head of the river were the Burramattagal clan (or Barramattagal) whose tribal lands included the area of the present day city of Parramatta. The country was highly suitable as a place to live with its ample fresh water, prolific plant and animal life and temperate climate.
European settlement of Parramatta dates from 2 November 1788 with Governor Phillip's settlement of convicts and soldiers at Rose Hill (on the south bank of the Parramatta River, within present day Parramatta Park) to clear and cultivate land to ensure food supplies for the infant penal colony. On 2 June 1791, to celebrate the birthday of King George III, Phillip named the Rose Hill settlement Parramatta, after the Barrumatta clan, noting that the name signified the 'head of a river'. While there seems to have been little conflict between the new settlers and the Indigenous inhabitants at this time in the Parramatta area (unlike Sydney Cove) the Barrumattagal clan were devastated by introduced European diseases, including the 1789 smallpox epidemic. By 1830 there were no known survivors of the Burramattagal clan (Kass, Liston, McClymont: 1996: 4-6, 14-16, 26; Parramatta Council riverside interpretation).
The Anglican Church in Parramatta:
The Chaplain of the First Fleet, Rev Richard Johnson, conducted the first Christian worship in Parramatta on 28 December 1788. Johnson visited Parramatta fortnightly and held services under a tree on the river bank near the present day ferry terminal at the end of Smith Street (St John's, 2005). The service on Christmas Day 1791 was held in a carpenter's shop near Governor Phillip's residence in Parramatta (St John's, 1988, p 5).
Church records from 1789 are kept on-site at the cathedral. The original records are held for baptisms (1789-present), marriages (1790-1823 and 1828-present) and burials (1790-present)(Parramatta Sun Magazine, 2013).
The Rev Samuel Marsden came to live in Parramatta in 1794 and in 1796 he dedicated a makeshift building of two old timber huts at the corner of George and Marsden Streets (the site of the present day Law Courts) as the first church building in the settlement. In a letter dated 17 September 1796 at Parramatta Marsden wrote "A convict hut is almost now ready for me to preach in at Parramatta, the first building of any kind that has ever been appropriated for that sacred use here since I came to the Colony" (Elder, 1932; St John's, 2005).
On 14 September 1798, Marsden wrote about his first service in this church, attended by 12 worshippers (HRNSW, 3, p 487). This reference has caused confusion to historians due to an editor's note (most likely erroneous) which states that this temporary church was "Built where St John's now stands".
The Rev James Samuel Hassall was born in Parramatta in 1823 and lived there during his childhood, being educated at The King's School. He was the eldest son of Rev. Thomas Hassall (1794-1868) and a grandson of Rev. Samuel Marsden (died 1838). Both James Hassall's father and grandfather were in Parramatta during its earliest days and undoubtedly James would have heard about these times from them both. In his reminiscences James twice mentions the old timber church "There had been a church, built of timber, at the corner of George and Macquarie (sic) Streets, but it was gone in my time, and a Court-house built upon the site" and "At Parramatta, the services were held in a carpenter's shop or in the open air, until, on the first Friday in August, 1796, Mr. Marsden opened a church built out of the materials of two old huts. This temporary place of worship stood at the corner of George and Marsden streets" (Hassall, 102, p 11).
Hassall did not name the streets correctly in the first quote with George and Macquarie Streets being parallel and not intersecting. But the additional information that a court house was later built upon the site shows it to correctly be the corner of George and Marsden Streets, as named in the second quotation (pers. comm., Pearce, 2009).
This is likely to be an authoritative location given Hassall's long-term familiarity with Parramatta and his connection to Marsden, his grandfather, who established this first (temporary) church and died when Hassall was 15 (pers. comm., Pearce, 2009).
Services continued to be held every Sunday in this temporary timber church until the first permanent brick church (on the site of the present St John's Cathedral) was opened in April 1803 (pers. comm. Pearce, 2009).
Governor John Hunter was a religious man and was concerned that there were no proper churches (Collins,1975 orig 1798, vol 2, p 260n). On 1 November 1798, Hunter reported he had laid the foundation of a small church at Parramatta (HRA, 1, 2, p 237, 722). It was later claimed that the foundation stone of St John's, the first brick church in Australia, was laid on 5 April 1797 (Hassall, 1902, p 146).
Foundations were also laid for a stone church at Sydney to measure 150 feet long and 52 feet wide. Preparations for 'making a similar building at Parramatta of smaller dimensions' were reported (Collins, volume 2, p 96). A Return of Public Works since October 1796 showed that by 25 September 1800, Hunter had 'Erected an elegant church at Parramatta one hundred feet length and forty-four feet in width, with a room of twenty feet long raised on stone pillars intended for a vestry or council room' (HRA, 1, 2, p 561). The Church was open but not complete in 1800 (Collins, volume 2, p 260n). In 1802, David Collins published a 'Plan & Elevation of a Church Built at Parramatta [sic] New South Wales during the Government of John Hunter Esqr 1800' (Collins, volume 2, p 223).
Governor King proclaimed the two first parishes in the colony on 23 July 1802 being St Phillip's, Sydney and St John's, Parramatta. On 9 November 1802 he declared that the church being built at Parramatta would be named as St John in honour of the former Governor, John Hunter (HRA, 1, 3, p 631). The new St John's was opened on 10 April 1803 when Rev. Samuel Marsden performed Divine Service for the first time, with a service based on 2 Chronicles c. 6 v.18. The church was described as being sizeable, handsome and well finished though the pews were to yet to be installed (Sydney Gazette, 17 April 1803, p 3). The original Church was stuccoed brick.
Governor King reported on 1 March 1804 that when he took control the church at Parramatta 'was just covering in' [i.e. being roofed] but was now complete (HRA, 1, 4, p 471). A sketch of the Parramatta Church in the Banks' papers from 1807 apparently sent by Governor Bligh was inscribed 'Parramatta Church, built of brick and in a very bad state; unfinished in the inside - Stands in a Swamp' (Banks Papers, volume 22, ML A85, p 277). The last notation may explain why there were problems with the stability of the church. Construction of a brick barrel drain from the 1820s onwards from the market place opposite the church (now the site of Parramatta Town Hall) to the river greatly improved the drainage of this vicinity (Higginbotham, 1983, pp 35-7). Continuing problems with the church were reported over the next few years (HRA, 1, 6, p 98, 125, 170).
Andrew Houison claimed that the vestry fell down though did not know when this occurred (Houison, 1903, p 124). No other reference to this event can be found but on 1 August 1810, Macquarie instructed Lt. Durie, Commandant at Parramatta, to detail Richard Rouse to make temporary repairs to the church as directed by Marsden that could be completed 'with little labour and Expense' (SRNSW 4/3490C, p 142). Durie instructed Rouse to do this within the next few days (SRNSW 4/1725, p 322). In 1812, James Harrax was paid (Pounds)110 for 'Repairs' to the church (Wentworth Papers, ML D1, p 29). From 1 October to 31 December 1813, repairs to St John's to the value of (Pounds)431/3/4 were completed (Sydney Gazette, 5 Feb 1814, p 2).
Between 1817 and 1819, twin towers were added at the western end where the vestry had been. The towers were a copy of those at the 12th century Saxon Church of St Mary's at Reculver Church, Kent, England. A campaign to save that church was raging when the Macquaries left England (Kerr & Broadbent, 1980, p 39). Mrs Elizabeth Macquarie showed Lieutenant John Watts, Aide De Camp of the 46th Regiment a watercolour of the church and asked him to design some towers for the church (Macfarlane, 1992, p 38). A watercolour of Reculver Church in the Mitchell Library has a note in Macquarie's hand that he laid the foundation stone on 23 December 1818. Mrs Macquarie chose the plan and Lt. Watts was responsible for implementing the design (ML D337).
The 1803 church and the 1819 towers were both most likely constructed by convict labour.
When listing achievements in the colony, Macquarie noted that at Parramatta, he had ' The Old Church repaired, new roofed, lengthened and greatly improved, inside and out, new Chancel and Spire being added thereto, the Outer Walls stuccoed in imitation of Stone, and the Church Yard enclosed with a neat Paling' (HRA, 1, 10, p 689).
St.John's Cemetery:
Australia's oldest surviving cemetery dating back to 1790. It is the most historic and important cemetery in Australia with graves from the 1788 First Fleet and of well known pioneers, including Governor Phillip's manservant and gardener, Henry Dodd, The Reverend Samuel Marsden, his wife Elizabeth, land holder D'Arcy Wentworth and family, land holders and farmers the Blaxland family and colonial bridge builder David Lennox.
Church records from 1789 are kept on-site at St. John's Cathedral. The original records are held for baptisms (1789-present), marriages (1790-1823 and 1828-present) and burials (1790-present)(Parramatta Magazine, 2013).
The Cemetery was established as a general burial ground for all denominations in an old stock paddock on the outskirts of Parramatta, the land of the Darug Nation's Burramattagal clan. The first burial was that of James Magee, the child of First Fleet convicts, on 31 January 1790 - considerably earlier than the Old Sydney Burial Ground under Sydney Town Hall (est. 1793), the Devonshire Street (Sandhills) Cemetery under Sydney's Central Station (est. 1819), and Rookwood (est. 1868). The first marked burial and eleventh interment at St. John's was that of First Fleeter Henry Dodd, the Superintendent of Convicts at the Government Farm, who grew the first successful wheat crop in the colony. Dodd's death gave the cemetery two important firsts: the earliest memorial in situ in Australia and, as his funeral was reportedly 'attended by all the free people and convicts at Rose Hill,' the first public funeral in the colony (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
Two early town plans of Parramatta trace the establishment of the cemetery. The first titled, 'The Town of Parramatta' c.1791 shows an 'Inclosure for Cattle' and the second plan, an enclosure to Governor Macquarie's dispatch of 7 October 1814, shows the same site as the 'Burying Ground.' The cemetery at that time extended to Pitt Street, but there is no evidence that this section was ever used for burials as the earliest known photos of the cemetery show no memorials in the additional section of land (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
A government order published in the Sydney Gazette in 1811 noted that any death should be notified to the District Constable and nearest Resident Chaplain in order that the latter could attend and perform the funeral service. It further ordered that consecrated burial grounds be enclosed by either a good wall or 'strong Pallisadoes.' A total of 82 pounds, four shillings and seven pence was raised by public subscription, donated by people of all denominations, and a ditch and fence enclosure was completed by January 1812 on which date the subscription list was published (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
By the early 1820s the ditch and fence had fallen into decay and Governor Brisbane gave instructions for a brick wall to be built in its place to keep out wandering stock. A letter published in The Australian newspaper in 1824 noted the wall was slowly being built. This remarkable wall with many of its bricks impressed with government arrows was also built by public subscription and, as 'the most substantial sandstock structure remaining in Australia' is a very significant feature in the cemetery landscape (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
Charles Fraser, soldier and colonial botanist, who was appointed the first superintendent of the Sydney Botanic Garden by Governor Macquarie in 1816, is buried in St. John's Cemetery, he died in 1831 (Davies, G., 2004, paraphrased by Stuart Read, 9/8/2013).
Vern Gooden made a valuable contribution to St. John's records when he transcribed the cemetery in 1950. In his work he noted, 'with the advent of Archdeacon Scott in 1825, the cemeteries passed under the control of the Church of England.' St. Patrick's Catholic Cemetery was already in existence by 1822 and one by one Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Congregational cemeteries were also granted in Parramatta, leaving St. John's exclusively Church of England. The actual deed for St. John's Cemetery was not granted until 22 December 1857 when, '3 acres one rood and twenty perches were given for the interment of the dead' with Francis Watkins, Edward Rowling and Andrew McDougal as trustees. All three are buried in the cemetery (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
James William Macey was receiving a wage as sexton of St. John's from the time of the grant in 1857 and continued until his death in 1876. Samuel Cook was evidently the next sexton as when he died in 1925 it was noted he had served in that capacity for 50 years. Macey's salary had been (Pounds)4 per year in 1857 and Cook was still receiving the same amount per year in 1911. This amount was supplemented by two shillings and sixpence for digging a grave and various amounts for chipping and clearing, painting the wall, clearing scrub and repairing the burial ground wall (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
Maintenance of the cemetery from then on was, and still is, problematic. Grass grows rapidly in summer but sometimes cannot be cut for weeks due to summer rain. Trustees continually struggled to keep the walkways and walls in good repair. In 1895 the Trustees set up the St. John's Cemetery Endowment Fund to pay for alterations and repairs as they should see fit. Though there were donations amounting to (Pounds)355, 17 shillings, and sixpence, at about the same time the cemetery became full, cutting off the only other source of funding - buying burial plots and erecting memorials (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
The heavy burden of maintenance fell to the Trustees and in 1936 the first of many working bees was called. A deserving unemployed man, C. Bell of Aird Street, undertook the heavy work and, over the years, volunteers from The Kings School, Apex, The Scout Movement, Rotary and Howard's Engineering have laboured freely. Parramatta Council's Town Clerk approached the Trustees in 1946 to discuss the possibility of closing the cemetery to further burials. All Parramatta cemeteries were originally established outside the boundaries of the town but due to development were now surrounded by residential areas. Council now regarded this as a health hazard. In 1959, therefore, it was announced in the Sydney Morning Herald that the cemetery had been rezoned as open space parklands. The article noted:
'The Parramatta City Council's engineering department is anxious to turn the cemetery into a public park.preserving all headstones which will be arranged in rows on the outer boundaries of the ground.'
The church authorities and the descendants of pioneers, however, noted that they were even more 'anxious' to have the site maintained as a Christian burial ground (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
An Historic Graves Committee was formed in 1970 to work towards the restoration of the site and several major memorials were restored. Negotiations for Parramatta Council to take over the site were again rejected. Their plan to disengage the stones from the burial plots was deemed unacceptable, as it would break forever the links of family connection in burial plots (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
The lychgate, built by Parramatta Rotary in 1982, is a modern copy of James Houison's 1856 entry gate. Lych is the ancient English word for a body, therefore the 'lychgate' is the entry used to bring the deceased into the cemetery .(https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
In 1990 the Heritage Council made a $12,000 grant to the St. John's Cemetery Trust to repair a damaged section of perimeter wall at the cemetery (McManus, 1990, 2).
Parramatta and District Historical Society, under the authorship of Judith Dunn, determined to transcribe the cemetery again, recording not just information of genealogical value but everything on each memorial including the artisan's marks. Every stone, fence and kerb was measured and materials noted, symbolism recorded and sketched or photographed if elaborate or unusual. Finally, each name was cross-referenced with the burial records. Some individual stones in poor condition took literally days to read and the whole cemetery took three years to record as a spare time activity. The Parramatta Cemeteries - St John's, one of a series of six books which fully record each of Parramatta's cemeteries, was published in 1991 (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
A new group, Friends of St.John's Cemetery has formed to rejuvenate the graveyard (Adoranti, 2016, 5). On Saturday 25 June 2016 the Friends of St John's Cemetery, Parramatta was formed to guide it into the future. The Friends are working towards better maintenance, checking new memorials, repairs to the wall, research, a site-specific Cemetery Maintenance Plan, National Heritage Listing and raising the profile of this very important site (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/history/).
Over 50 First Fleeters are buried in the cemetery, but the majority have no memorial plaques and lie in unmarked graves. Ultimately, a complete list of First Fleeters buried at the cemetery will appear on this web-page. The full-length biographies completed thus far and currently available can be accessed below: Augustus Alt: The Baron
Frances Hannah Clements: The Convict's Child; Henry Dodd: The Faithful Servant; Elizabeth Eccles: The Dairy Maid;
Thomas Eccles: The Swine Connoisseur; Edward Elliott: The Husbandman; Deborah Herbert: A Prigger of Toggery;
John Herbert: From Felon to Farmer; Hugh Hughes: The Wheelwright Made Right; Mary Kelly: The First Lady of Kellyville;
David Killpack: The Merry Mutineer; Isaac Knight: The Trusty Sergeant; John Martin: The Self-Freed Slave; Jane McManus: The Maid Freed from the Gallows; John Palmer: The Purser, The P.O.W; Richard Partridge: The Left-Handed Flogger; James Wright: The Highwayman (https://stjohnscemeteryproject.org/collections/first-fleet/). |