From woolcombs to whitesmithing

The 'Deceased Search' within the Independent Section of Rookwood Necropolis, indicates that there are three plots within this enclosure: OG/774, OG/776, and OG/780. Resting in OG/776 is James Perry, the patriarch (1826-1908). Resting in OG/778 is Ann Perry, the first matriarch (1824 - 1873), as well as James J. Perry (1851 - 1895), their second child. Resting in OG/780 is Charles Perry their third child (1852 - 1905), together with his four day old son, Charles James Perry (August 1878).

Ann Matts married James Perry in Leicester, England in October 1847, and they sailed for Australia in the 'Thetis', aged just 21 and 23, arriving on 27th May, 1848. Although James' father, William, had been a woolcomb maker, James was on his way to becoming a whitesmith. A whitesmith is a person who works with "white" or light-coloured metals such as tin and pewter. Unlike blacksmiths (who work mostly with hot metal), whitesmiths do the majority of their work on cold metal (although they might use a hearth to heat and help shape their raw materials). Whitesmiths fabricate items such as tin or pewter cups, water pitchers, forks, spoons, and candle holders and it was a common occupation in pre-industrial times.

Between 1849 and 1857, James and Ann produced five children, three sons and two daughters. Their first child, Clara, married James Freeman, yet is buried in the adjacent OG/774). They all must have been close, as after Ann's early death, James married Marie Louise and produced three more children. Yet here he is, buried with his first family. The other explanation could be that, during the last years of his working life, there were a number of depressions, and his business in Arncliffe kept on going broke, and his second family had to all muck in and take in whatever work they could find, including Marie Louise. Already owning a substantial plot, with rights to bury more within the self-same plots, would have proved irresistable.

Although Ann died in 1873 aged only 49, James lived until 1908, dying at his premises in Wickham Street, Arncliffe at the age of 82. I was unable to track down photographs of James with his first family which given it was 1847 to 1873, is probably understandable. However, from Ancestry.com I sourced much information uploaded into public trees by a grandson of James' youngest son, Adolf. The individual portrait here is James in 1877 at his wedding to Marie Louise.

Taphophile Tragics # 41

Mary Jane and George have slipped their earthly shackles. Rookwood Necropolis, Sydney, New South Wales

* * * * *

Welcome to the 41st week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 9:30pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 9:30pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

At the moment, there are three posts a week to this blog:

Mon - Research of an individual from the details on their headstone;
Wed - An example of funerary symbolism and its meaning; and
Fri - 'Six-Feet-Down-Under' highlighting an Australian cemetery/graveyard.

Join me if that sounds of interest.

Funerary Objet d'Art - Christ the King

This post is participating in the ABC Wednesday meme.

This is the memorial stone for Jeremiah Kiley, his two year old daughter, Margaret, and his mother, Norah. It is located in Rookwood Necropolis, which is its own suburb in Sydney, New South Wales. Jeremiah was born in Caldaly, County Limerick, Ireland. He died in the suburb of Glebe on 28th December 1888, aged 45 years.

Isn't the crown fabulous? It has a large stone placed within, to ward off damaging blows. Look at the pleated 'silk' as the background. So sumptuous. There are two things here to note in way of symbolism: the crown; and the pointing finger. I have read so many variations upon the significance of the crown, but think they all point toward an individual's acknowledgement that Christ is the paramount ruler, that he is King and the individual accepts Him as 'ruler'. The hand with the single finger pointing upwards symbolises the individuals ascension into heaven. I will always be on the lookout for a hand with a single finger pointing downwards.

Taphophile Tragics # 40

I stumbled across this dedication during the Rookwood Necropolis Open Day yesterday, where I barely managed it out of the Independent Section. I wonder who 'F. Jenkins' was, yet admire the love they held in their heart for all those years.

* * * * *

Welcome to the 40th week of Taphophile Tragics.

Your contribution is most welcome. Please ensure that you include some details of the cemetery in which you took your photographs, and link directly to your post, rather than simply to your blog in general. This week, Mr Linky opens at 9:30pm Monday, Sydney time (GMT+10), and closes at 9:30pm on the Friday. When you can, please visit the other contributing bloggers to show your appreciation of their endeavours. Due to time zone variations and overcrowded schedules, some contributions are made later than Tuesday/Wednesday. As per usual, we are working with the Linky with thumbnails, and displaying the oldest entry first, with no randomising.

At the moment, there are three posts a week to this blog:

Mon - Research of an individual from the details on their headstone;
Wed - An example of funerary symbolism and its meaning; and
Fri - 'Six-Feet-Down-Under' highlighting an Australian cemetery/graveyard.

Join me if that sounds of interest.

Widow's weeds

John McArthur was only 35 when he died at his home in Nelson Street Annandale. Only 35, and with a wife 7 months pregnant with their third child. I have not been able to find a coroner's report, so I will figure he had a heart-attack until something more informative jumps out in front of me. Mary McArthur was born McFarlane: they don't fall far from the tree, these canny Scots! There were two things about her that I really needed to know: when she was born; and did she remarry. The dearly departed John was born in Patrick, Scotland; perhaps Mary was a native of Scotland, too. So aged in her early 30s (conjecture, conjecture) Mary was a widow with three small girls: Maggie born in 1884, Jane in August 1885; and Jennetta in June 1887. But worse was to come ...

In July 1892, Maggie died in Parramatta Hospital as the result of burns accidently inflicted, according to the coroner's report. A house-fire would be ironic, considering her departed father, John was a builder, as was HIS father, Peter. They lived in the same set of terraces - Kilmartin Terraces - in Nelson Street Annandale. But the coroner's report did not specify the type of fire. To compound all this, another son of Peter McArthur died in October 1888, once again at his home in Kilmartin Terrace. Ready for this? Archibald, Peter McArthur's oldest son, lost his 23 year old wife in 1884. Talk about not being able to take a trick! I never did find out when Mary was born, nor if she remarried. However, I could not find a date of death either, so figure she did remarry. All this gets very complicated, yes? That is very final, that 'Farewell'. Death is a bit like that.

Six-Feet-Down-Under: St Stephen's Graveyard, Newtown

The graveyard surrounding St Stephen's Anglican Church in Newtown is also known as the Camperdown Cemetery, even though it is just a small portion of the original Camperdown Cemetery, established in the 1840s, and the recipient of some of the removals from the Devonshire Street Cemetery when that cemetery closed in about 1900. On the map down below, the entire park greensward was the original Camperdown Cemetery, but in 1938 everything outside the sandstone walls of St Stephen's was removed, and most ungraciously at that. Headstones are laid along the inside of the sandstone walls to this day. Many of the remains ... remained; unless individual families wished to reinter their ancestors in either Waverley Cemetery, Botany Cemetery, or Rookwood Necropolis.

It does have a great feel to it, this graveyard. Dark and gloomy. And unlike nearly any other cemetery I have visited in Australia, most of which are like and airy, with neatly trimmed lawns and riots of cut flowers. St Stephen's is populated with great, gnarled Port Jackson fig trees, their roots twisting and turning into the soil, and their massive canopies blocking out the sun and the air, with a shadow that admonishes the merest sliver of grass that pokes it head out of the compacted clay. Moisture lies in the uneven ground, mud sloshes, and mould and fungi flourish. All of which has a predictable affect upon sandstone, which is a porous rock to begin with. I have tried to show this aspect of St Stephen's with my selection of images.

View Larger Map

View Larger Map

This is not to condemn this cemetery, which has a piercing beauty which I have described in an earlier post on another blog. It is an engagingly historic graveyard, with memorials not only from Devonshire Street but also from the original Old Burial Ground at the Town Hall. Many of the memorial are sans remains, but the feel of the place is authentic. And there is also St Stephen's, the building. I am but a little old lady, with a stick, and noone thinks twice when I sidle into a church doorway. And I am left in peace, to wander and wonder. As I did on this earlier occasion when the only people around was a bunch of electricians.

I continue to return to Camperdown Cemetery for personal reasons. To endeavour to locate the memorial to Ann Maund, which is prone and has not disclosed it resting place to me in my three previous visits. Darn it! Ann Maund is my 4x-great-grandmother on my mother's side. And a tough old biddy she apparently was. She arrived in the colony with her convict husband, Joseph Puckeridge, in 1801, her two children dying on the journey. When Joseph died in 1818, having 7 young children, she quickly married again, had three more children and died in 1850, aged 71. I have seen a photograph of her memorial, but not seen it with my own eyes yet. But I will, I will ... eventually.

Funerary Objet d'Art - Manly

A with so many of these symbols, I can read and read, but it still comes down to a guess. The combination of these two symbols lead me to think they are of masonic import. The Masons have an 'Order of the Eastern Star' to which both males and females can belong (with qualification). The OES does have a five-pointed star, but it is inverted which this one isn't. Each star point represents a different heroine of the Bible and degree of the Order, and each one represents a different virtue. 'Worthy Matrons' in the order are permitted to wear a crown symbol. The crown is a symbol of sovereignty, honour, glory, victory (especially over death) and the crown of Christ's righteousness. The symbolism could come from Paul's comment about winning the crown of life. However, I am open to a different interpretation.

To be found in Manly Cemetery, New South Wales, Australia