The Quaker Burial Ground within the Hull General Cemetery

If you look around cemeteries, especially Victorian ones like the Hull General Cemetery, you will notice the great variety of monuments commemorating the dead who are buried there. The good and the great (rich?) were usually buried with more ornate monuments than the poorer brethren who had more simple markers. Through some monuments, like the Eleanor Crosses (the first photo below), we can appreciate a Victorian foundry's metal casting ability while with others we can marvel at the monuments great size and mass (photo 3). Other memorials, like that of Zachariah Pearson, remind us of the folly of many Victorian business men, of which there were a few, who over reached themselves and went from rags to riches and nearly back to rags (photo 5).

The monuments above represent the large and smaller ones found in the Hull General Cemetery. Bottom is the head stone of the bankrupt Zachariah Pearson. (Photos Chris Coulson)

Working in stone is now, with our computer control systems and modern stone working equipment, much less labour intensive than in Victorian and earlier times. This can be appreciated from the hand carved head stone of Elizabeth Wells of 1676 (in the QBG) where the stonemason has has to work with the dimensions of the stone and had to contract her name as well as her husbands to fit them in.

The head stone of Elizabeth Wells, wife of Antony Wells. Died 1676. This stone was in the 'Spyvee St. burial ground (originally Sutton) but may have come from Owstwick, in Holderness. It is now at the side of the south east entrance of the Springbankwest QBG.

I found this stone in 2012 by probing the ground with a metal rod and then excavating it. The Quaker's had it placed it on a stable base where it now lies at the south east entrance to the QBG. The carving of her date of death and that she '--departed this life 28th day of 6th month 1676' hides a great amount of history, both social and political which will be dealt with later in this article .

In the 15th and 16th century England suffered from religious turmoil, the country was riven by Catholic and Protestant problems. The break from Catholic church by Henry VIII in 1533 (the Reformation) forming the Church of England (Anglican church) and the church's subsequent support by his daughter, Elizabeth I, was put under strain by the Catholic king, James I (1603-1625) and Charles I (High Anglican 1625-1649) who reigned after her death.

Left. Henry VIII (1491-1547) after Hans Holbein the Younger and Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by George Gower (1549-1596) (Wikipeadia)

Many of the population feared that these Catholic kings would engineer a return to the authoritarian Catholic church. Such religious troubles were not confined to England but were evident in mainland Europe where Protestant and Catholic armies fought each other. Enter Oliver Cromwell who subjugated the authoritarian Anglican Church and initiated a puritanical regime, as well as the English Civil war! So the populace found themselves moving from one form of religious stricture under the old Anglican church to a puritanical one under Cromwell. After Cromwell's rule (Commonwealth period) there followed the Restoration of the Monarchy with the recall to England of the son of the executed Charles I. who became Charles II of England.

It was during this period of religious unrest that the non conformist or dissenter groups arose. Fed up with the organised ceremonial nature of religious worship, which both the Protestant and Catholic churches were good at, and which the non conformists thought separated them artificially from God, the non-conformists wanted a less formulaic 'liturgy' for their religious celebrations. Among the 10 or so main non conformist groups were the Quakers (strictly 'The Society of Friends') which came into being about 1650 through the ministrations of George Fox.

Left. George Fox (1624-91) who formed the Society of Friends or Quakers (Wikipedia). Right. William Clowes (1780-1851) His grave is in the Hull General Cemetery (EnglesonBrook Museum).

The Quakers are among the older non conformist groups, the Methodists are a more recent group. The Primitive Methodists, once a splinter group of the Methodists, is represented in Hull General Cemetery by the grave of William Clowes, a founder of this group. A fuller account of the Quakers can be found 'Quakers the Quick and the Dead' (2019) else where in this blog,

Of course in any organisation, however free thinking it wishes to be, gravitates to some established order and so the Quakers have their book of Quaker faith and practice (The Book of Discipline) currently in it's 5th edition. This is revised each year at the 'Yearly Meeting' and lays out the tenets of their beliefs and conduct, the underlying ones being those of simplicity, equality between people and lack of ostentation.

The latest book of 'Quaker faith and practice', sometimes called the 'Book of Discipline'. The United Methodists have a similar book called 'The book of Discipline' by John Wesley (1784).

These Quaker beliefs are reflected in their graves which have simple head stones that do not make one person more important than another. Indeed the burial ground land is not consecrated because they believe all land belongs to God and there is no need to further assign it with religious ceremonials. Over the years the memorials in QBG have changed more than once, some times disappearing altogether but it was not until 1850 that the 'Yearly Meeting' finally suggested the marking of a grave with the name, age and death date.

The Hull Spring Bank West Quaker Burial Ground (QBG) can be found on the north side of Spring Band West opposite Bransburton Street. In passing, the name Spring Bank refers to the Julian Dyke which once ran from the springs to the west of Hull bringing water to the centre of it. In 1855, the Quakers took a 999 year lease for £100 on land within HGC for their burial ground and although the lease is still intact the Burial Ground probably closed in about 1974 with the burial of William Priestman.

The well wooded Hull General Cemetery (out lined in red) showing the position of the Quaker Burial Ground. (Goggle Earth and Chris Coulson)

The QBG covers 0.23 acres and measures 55.5 x 20 yards. It was once bigger but the Quakers donated a strip of land on the east side for the path that exists there now. In the QBG there are 85 graves with headstones and kerbs containing 140 burials. Quaker graves within a Meeting House (the local Quaker organisational structure) have an agreed physical format and because of this, within limits, Quaker memorials do not differ much within a Meeting House's jurisdiction but can do so between Meeting Houses. The only exception in the Spring Bank QBG is William Priestman who has a large slab quite which is unlike the other graves. The slabs near the south east gate are from the Spyvee Street QBG which originally belonged to the Sutton meeting before being transferred to the Hull one.

The normal format of graves in the QBG Spring Bank West, Hull and the slab memorial to William Dent. (Photos Chris Coulson)

One interesting aspect of Quaker memorials is the way the date is notated on their head stones They usually don't use the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday etc) or month of the year (January, February etc). Because of their religious beliefs Quakers avoid references to paganism and other deities. For instance non-Quakers accept the naming of the days of the week, Monday, Tuesday etc and the months of the year, January, February etc. However, not so with Quaker head stones because the days of the week and months of the year arise from either Roman or Pagan gods. Thus, Sunday the sun as a goddess. Monday was 'moon day': Tuesday is either from a Norse god or a Roman god. Wednesday, in honour of Wodan; Thursday, the Norse god Thor; Friday Norse goddess Frigg and Saturday, Roman god Saturn.

Similarly months of the year, January, Roman god Janus; February, Old Italian god; March, Roman god of war; April, from Latin 'to open' (buds?); May, Roman goddess; June, Roman god, Juno (?); July, Julius Caesar was born; August, first Roman emperor, Augustus; September, septum 7; October - octo 8; November, novem 9; December, decem, 10. Readers may wonder why our 12th month, December, means 10, not 12! The Romans got their year spaced wrongly and initially had a space in the winter without months. This was eventually corrected by adding January and February but at the end of the year. In the Gregorian calendar these moths were put at the beginning of the year.

This head stone dates the death of Sarah Good at 28th January (month 1) 1862. and her husband, John Good on 29th of November (month 11) 1876. Both use the Gregorian calendar. Compare this with Elizabeth Wells of 1676 which dated under the Julian calendar. (Photo Chris Coulson)

On 13/2/20 I started with Joanna Mitchell to examine the graves in the QBG. This is part of the Friends of the Hull General Cemetery (FoHGC) group's bigger push to record all the graves in the Hull General Cemetery as many unrecorded ones have been more recently discovered by the group.

An initial problem with the QBG survey was that as the graves are essentially all the same (even the graves of children are 'full sized') what were we to record? There are no great differences in Quaker memorials in the QBG though those in the General Cemetery differ considerably. So besides photographing them we decided to check their inscriptions against the MI book. Doing this threw up one or two interesting perhaps fundamental questions.

Gaps

A thing that has puzzled me for some time about the graves in this QBG are the empty spaces in some of the rows of graves. These can be seen in the photograph. I was 'reliably' informed some time ago that that these gaps were in fact graves but which had no head stones or kerbs. I have measured these gaps and they are indeed multiples of the width of the existing graves with head stones But why are there no memorials, head stones and kerbs? We can think up many reasons.

General photos of the Spring Bank West QBG showing the gaps between some graves. (Photos Chris Coulson)

It could be that the 'occupiers' of these graves were 'staunch' Quakers who thought that even having any memorial on their grave was inappropriate never mind the plain ones that the Hull Meeting House had decided on. However, how likely is it to have several such people buried next to each other, say 3-10 of them, in a row and so leaving a large gap between existing graves with memorials?

Another reason for gaps is that plots could have been pre-purchased but not used. The first grave in the most easterly row of graves has the burial of Mary Anne Heward, who died in May 1855. This lady appears to be the earliest burial but only by six months, as six graves northwards along this line, lies Sarah Kitchen who died in November 1855, six months later. However, between these two burials lies a William Morton who passed away September 1908. This was just over 50 years after both Mary Heward and Sarah Kitchen had died. So you have graves of 1855, 1908 and 1855 in that order. William Morton's wife was buried with him in 1926, though this fact is not germane to our augment. This seems to indicate that people were not buried in order of death. If this were so the dates of death would be sequential which they appear not to be. What is the explanation for this?

Well, the most obvious one is that the Quakers buried here had a choice of plots. It is possible, as in the main cemetery its self, plots were marked out and you had the choice of any plot which was available. Also it is very likely, as in the main Hull Cemetery, you could purchase the burial plot in advance of death, a practice that occurs today in some Anglican church yard burials. The reasons for 'advance purchase', seen else where in the world as well as in Britain, is the comforting knowledge to the living that they have a place to be buried in when they die. Also if it was to be a family grave it would have to be deep enough for the other bodies and pre-purchase would pre-warn the cemetery owners of the need to dig a deep grave at the first death. Vacant plot - perhaps the person destined for a previously purchased plot left the area and died and was buried elsewhere, leaving a blank, unused plot in the Hull QBG. Could this be another reason for a blank plot?

Add to this the idea of staunch Quakers who wanted no headstones etc and we could get what appear to be additional blank graves and then add to this people who could not afford the memorial! Perhaps there are unidentified bodies (perhaps from the war) and we have more blank graves. Add again unsold plots and so on.

Unfortunately speculation like this can run riot and eventually become non productive. But what is the chance of having all or even some of these reasons combined to produce the larger gaps we see? However, the fact remains there are these apparent gaps in the QBG lines of graves. The next step may be contacting the main Quaker resource centre in London who I am told hold many records to see if they have records covering the Hull QBG. .

Quaker headstones and dates

Simplicity, equality and lack of ostentation underpin much of the Quaker's beliefs. These resonate in their burial grounds where the graves are simple, all the same and plain and without references to say civic or local/national office or preferment. James Reckitt and Henry Appleton MD are the exceptions in Hull's QBG.

This is the Quaker head stone for James Reckitt and his wife, Kathleen, who predeceased him. Besides the Quaker dating system two things are worth noting. James is titled Sir and Bt (Bart). Bart is an old fashioned system of honours recognition. It stands between a Knight and Barron. This rather sets him aside from other Quakers in the QBG.

The local Meeting which oversees the activity of Quakers in an area decide, within the national guide lines (Quaker faith and practices) on the local form of graves. So graves, though conforming to the ideas of simplicity, equality and lack of ostentation, can differ between areas. The photographs show some variations. Some like the ones in Darlington are simple upright slabs, others like the ones in Spyvee Street (ex Sutton) and Ackworth are or where simple horizontal slabs while those in Spring Bank West (Hull General Cemetery) have horizontal sloping head stones with stone kerbs. Regardless of whether an adult or child they are all of the same size. Some like Ackworth have a mixture of types -- vertical and flat.

Left the vertical headstones in Darlington QBG and a flat head stone from Ackworth QBG. The Ackworth QBG has some vertical head stones. Photos by Chris Coulson (left) and Ben and Diana Rothwell (right).

A general view of Spring Bank West QBG looking south, showing the type of headstone and kerb used (Photo Chris Coulson

Because of the association of days and months with paganism Quakers have adopted numbers rather than words to indicate death dates. Sunday is 1, Monday 2 etc, or they say the 26th (day of the month). January is 1, February 2 and so on. However, dating before and after the mid 1700s has a problem. This is because of the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Up to the mid 1700s we adopted the essentially Roman Julian calendar which had 10 months. The Romans realised something was amiss but it took some time to alter things as well as spread across Europe. This calendar change actually has implications when translating dates on Quaker headstones which could be notated under either the Julian or Gregorian calendar depending on the death date. The table below indicates where the problem lies and allows us to correct for the problems caused by the two calendars

This table shows the difference between the Julian and Gregorian calendars (Chris Coulson)

It should be noticed that pre 1752 (Julian calendar) Oct was month 8 and post 1752 (Gregorian calendar) it was month 10. So a Quaker headstone pre 1752 have a different dating system to post 1752.

The picture of Elizabeth Wells headstone, in the QBG Hull, is dated 1676 so it's under the Julian calendar. She died the 28th day of August but under the Gregorian calendar (the one we use) this would have been 28th day of June. One might say that this is of no consequence but to Genealogists it is important and, for instance, could lead to claims of 'born out of wedlock'

The head stone for Sarah Good, (Gregorian calendar) say her death was the 26th day of 11th Month which is November. The 11th month was unnamed in the Julian calendar though the Romans recognised there was something wrong with 'their year'. However, converting from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar was not a simple or clear cut affair and did take some time to be accepted across Europe

In the QBG within the Hull General Cemetery our survey reminded us that there are actually variations among the inscription on headstones. While the Quaker norm is to use numbers rather than names day and the month there are examples in this burial ground of doing the opposite.

These two headstones show, unusually, the use of the month rather than numerals. Henry Appleton has his medical qualification which sets him apart from the other deceased Quakers. (Photo Chris Coulson)

The question arises - were these non conforming nonconformists or perhaps weren't Quakers at all. There is an example of a QBG in Wales having non Quakers buried in them. In the case of Henry Appleton above he has his qualification recorded which is unusual, again, like James Reckitt it sets him apart.

Like death is a mystery so there are still mysteries to be unravelled in the QBG off Spring Bank West.

Chris Coulson

Feb. 2020