| Historical notes: | The Darug (various spellings) occupied the area from Botany Bay to Port Jackson north-west to the Hawkesbury and into the Blue Mountains. The cultural life of the Darug was reflected in the art they left on rock faces. Before 1788, there were probably 5,000 to 8,000 Aboriginal people in the Sydney region. Of these, about 2,000 were probably inland Darug, with about 1,000 living between Parramatta and the Blue Mountains. They lived in bands of about 50 people, and each band hunted over its own territory. The Gommerigal-tongarra lived on both sides of South Creek. The Boorooboorongal lived on the Nepean from Castlereagh to Richmond. (Kohen, 1993, pp 6-8) Little information was collected about the Aborigines of the Hawkesbury before their removal by white settlement so details of their lifestyle have to be inferred from the practices of other south-eastern Aborigines. It is believed they lived in bark gunyahs. The men hunted game and the women foraged for food.
On 15 December 1810, Macquarie issued an Order laying out five towns along the Hawkesbury River. One at Green Hills would be called Windsor. Another at Richmond Hill District would be called Richmond. A third in the Nelson district would be named Pitt Town. The village in the Phillip district would be called Wilberforce and the fifth in the Evan district was Castlereagh. Nearby settlers would be allotted sites on these towns to build. (HRNSW, 7, pp 469-70)
Wilberforce developed as an area of small farms with few large landholders. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 17) Situated on the northern bank of the Hawkesbury River with more difficult access, it did not attract the attention of large landholders. A community with a sizeable representation of freed convicts emerged and was maintained over the years as their families grew.
An early burial ground was located at Portland Head, later known as Ebenezer and may have been in operation as early as 1810. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 18) Otherwise, deceased people were often buried on their farms.
On 6 December 1810, Macquarie selected the site for Wilberforce. These town sites would provide refuges from floods for those farming nearby lands. Surveyor James Meehan was instructed to lay out a town at Wilberforce on 26 December 1810. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 18) Macquarie also selected land for a church on high ground near this site. Surveyor James Meehan laid out 2 acres for a burial ground at Wilberforce on 5 January 1811. (Field Book 67, p 45, SRNSW SZ 888) On 2 February 1811, Macquarie instructed Reverend Samuel Marsden to consecrate the burial grounds at towns on the Hawkesbury including Wilberforce. Surveyor Evans would show him the areas set aside. (Col Sec, Letters Sent, 1810, SRNSW 4/3490D, p 97) Macquarie issued an order on 11 May 1811 that deceased persons must be buried in consecrated burial grounds and no longer on their farms and that the local setttlers were to enclose these burial grounds as soon as possible (Sydney Gazette, 18 May 1811, p 1) Reverend Cartwright was paid £10 before 1 July 1812 for ‘inclosing the Burial Ground at the Township of Wilberforce’. (Sydney Gazette, 24 Oct 1812, p 2)
The earliest burials in Wilberforce Cemetery were of three drowned men, James Hamilton (Hambleton), Joseph Ware and John Tunstal on 13 December 1811, but their gravesites are unknown. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 21) Margaret Chaseling was buried in the cemetery in October 1815 and is the oldest burial for which the site is known. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 22) Soon afterwards, Anthony Richardson, a Second Fleet arrival, was buried on 4 February 1816. His burial marker is the oldest to survive. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 24) A schoolhouse-cum-chapel was also erected on the church site nearby so that the Macquarie ideal of the church, school and burial ground on the highest point demonstrating order and religion was realised in the town of Wilberforce.
In July 1822, Macquarie reported that at Wilberforce he had erected, ‘A Burial Ground of 4 Acres Contiguous to the Temporary chapel, enclosed with a Strong Fence.’ It is notable that the measurement does not agree with the area as laid out by surveyor Meehan, which was 2 acres (0.8 ha). The area of the oldest section is close to 2 acres. Macquarie appears to have simply made an error when listing his achievements in the colony.
Until 1826, burials at Wilberforce were recorded in the register for St Matthew’s at Windsor. A separate burial register for Wilberforce Cemetery commenced that year. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 29)
Between 1811 and 1825, there were a considerable number of burials in the cemetery who were early ex-convict arrivals. Many were later joined in the cemetery by their families and descendants. The existing spatial configuration of the Cemetery is also striking. A high number of older grave markers also survive, many of them for ex-convicts who arrived in the earlier period. Of all Macquarie's cemeteries, Wilberforce has the most interments with the highest proportional representation of ex-convict settlers from the First to the Third Fleets. Windsor has more convict burials but they arrived later. Richmond cemetery is dominated by free arrivals. The original Pitt Town cemetery does not exist any more. Castlereagh cemetery was largely unused. Liverpool cemetery has been destroyed. Of the burials at Wilberforce from 1811 to 1825, 36% were interments of convicts who arrived before 1800. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 26-9) The orientation of the graves is such that they face from north-east to south-west, so that the north-eastern boundary is the ‘front’ of the cemetery. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 41)
Though the cemetery was placed in the control of the Church of England, there are burials of people from other denominations as well such as Roman Catholics and Methodists. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 42)
The burial ground was officially appropriated as a Church of England Cemetery in 1833. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 55) From the earliest days, a road to the north and Kurrajong passed close to the eastern side of the cemetery. It was a rough track not officially gazetted but its existence was shown on the earliest plans of the town. (SR Map 5960; W Baker, Map of the County of Cook, W Baker, Sydney, 1843-6)
On 22 August 1894, Surveyor C R Scrivener completed a survey of two additions to the cemetery for a General Cemetery, with 1 rood 20 perches adjoining the Church of England Cemetery and another of 1 acre across the roadway. (Ms.1262.3000, Crown Plan) On 4 July 1896, an area of 1 acre was dedicated as a General Cemetery on the opposite side of the unnamed road. (NSWGG, 4 July 1896, p 4572) It never appears to have been used for interments and is not included as part of this listing.
The area measuring 1 rood 20 perches immediately adjacent to the older cemetery between the 1811 cemetery and the unnamed road was dedicated as a General Cemetery on 22 August 1906. It was later approved as an extension to the Church of England Cemetery. (Ms.1262.3000, Crown Plan) It was used for burials from 1911 onwards, mostly from the same families who were interred in the older part of the cemetery. There were five burials there in 1911. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 2, 38) It became an integral part of the cemetery and is included as part of this listing.
Monuments have been made by a variety of masons including a noted local mason, George Robertson of Windsor.
The trustees handed over control of Wilberforce cemetery to Colo Shire Council on 27 February 1968. (C McHardy, Sacred to the Memory, 4) It was closed for new burials in November 1986, though pre-existing rights to burial mean that there are occasionally additional interments. (Hubert, Conservation Plan, 48) It is now under the control of Hawkesbury Shire Council.
In 2003, Cathy McHardy collated the total number of interments as 1,317, the number of monuments as 460 and the number of marked interments as 842. (C McHardy, Sacred to the Memory, 6) She has identified three burials from the First Fleet; ten from the Second Fleet and four from the Third Fleet. (C McHardy, Sacred to the Memory, 10) |