Old Sydney Burial Ground 1974

Old Sydney Burial Ground 1974 Emergency excavation in the City of Sydney Studies in Historical Archaeology No.S Old ~neyBurialGround 1974 This is number 5 in the series Studies in Historical ArChaeology published by the Australian Soclety for Historical Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, New South Wales, 2006. Genera 1 Editors: JUdy Birmingham, M.II., Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Sydney. R. Ian Jack, M.A. PhD., F.R.Hist.S., Associate Professor of History, University of Sydney. Previous Titles in this series : The Wreck of the Elizabeth Lithgow Pottery: Three early catalogues from New South Wales Further Titles in this series include Ross Bridge, Tasmania Australia may be an Extensive Wine-Growing Country (facsimile edition) James King's Pottery at Irrawang, N.S.W. The Tasmanian Aboriginal Settlement at l~ybalenna, Flinders Island Early Printed Ceramics in Australia History of the Lithgow Pottery Elizabeth Farm House, Parramatta Old Sydney Burial Ground 1974 ~ Judy Birmingham and Carol Liston Studies in Historical Archaeology No. 5 Sydney, 1976 ~ Judy Birmingham and Carol Liston and the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology National Library of Australia card number and ISBN 0 909797 05 6 Five hundred copies printed of which this is number v Ackno..vledgements The University of Sydney team 1S grateful to a number of people who made the study of the Old Sydney Burial Ground vaults possible. First to the Most Reverend sir Marcus Loane, ArchbishOp of Sydney; and to the members of the Glebe Administration ~oard for their interest in the work and their forbearance with inevitable delays in a costly building project. Then to the Very Reverend Lance Shilton, Dean of Sydney, and to the Reverend Canon A. J. Glennon for offering us the hospitality of the Cathedral at considerable inconvenience. To the Project Architect, Noel Bell, of Noel ~el I - Ridley Smith for his endeavours to find a way, finally abandoned with regret, of incorporating Vault I within the Plaza complex; and to ~lessrs. J. A. Bradshaw, Excavati on Contractors, for continuing cooperation on the site. Messrs. Fox and Associates, Architects, drew the measured plan and sections here reproduced by their permission; the Mitchell and Dixson Libraries and Uixson Galleries for permission to use the photographs reproduced as Figure 1 and Plates and 2. Miss Joyce Lanyon, Research Officer of the Forestry Commission of New South Wales 1dentified the timbers of roof beams and coffin; and Robert Irving, Architect, Un1versity of New South wales undertook the time-consuming task of removing Vault 1 piecemeal to Old Sydney Town for planned re-erection. The Sydney University excavation team consisted largely of students of Historical Archaeology, Faculty of Arts, with considerable assistance from Dr. Don Plowman, Department of Soil Science, and his colleague John Corbett. excavation notes and drawings were con tributed by Maureen Byrne, Jenny Van Proctor and others. Historical research was undertaken by Carol Liston; the reconstructions of the Vault 1 memorial and the coffin drawn by Geoffrey Neil; and photographic work was done by the Department of Illustration, University of Sydney. To all these and the many more who cared about this site I would extend also my own personal gratitude. Judy Birmingham, Director. Contents Page Acknowledgements v List of Illustratlons vi; Discovery of Early Vaults in the City History of the Old Sydney Burial Ground 2 Later Discoveries in the Old Burial Ground 11 The Emergency Excavation, April 1974 12 Vault 1 14 Vault 3 16 Vault 5 17 The Finds 18 The Glass 18 The Pottery 20 Iron Coffi n Fittings 22 Other Finds 22 Identification of the Vaults 23 Appendix A - Description of Soil Profile from St. Andrew's Cathedral. (D. J. Plowman) 24 Appendix B - Catalogue of Finds 28 Bibliography 38 vii List of Illustrations PLATES P1. 1. A view of St. Andrew's Cathedral in 1858. Pl. 2. View of George Street, looking north. P1. 3. View of Vault 1. P1. 4. Vault 1. View of interior as found. P1. 5. Vault 1. Cedar coffin with lid removed. Pl. 6. Vault 1. Interior after removal of coffin. Pl. 7. Vaults 4 and 5. Pl. 8. Vault 5. P1. 9. Vault 5. P1. 10. South baulk (west). P1. 11. Vault 3. Pl. 12. South baulk. LINE DRAWINGS Fig. 1. Map of the town of Sydney, 1836. Fig. 2. Plan showing St. Andrew's Cathedral, Town Hall, Deanery, Schoolhouse and Old Burial Ground. Fig. 3. Vault 1. Section of East end. Fig. 4. Vault 1. Plan of top. Fig. 5. Vault 1. Plan of interior. Fig. 6. Vault 1. East end Elevation. Fig. 7. Vault 1. Plan and Elevation. Fig. 8. Vault 1. Plan and Elevation. Fig. 9. Vault 1. Cedar coffin ~econstruction). Fig. 10. Vaults 4, ~ and 3. Plan. Fig. 11. Vaults 4, 5 and 3. Section. Fig. 12. Vault 5. Plan of Eastern part. Fig. 13. Vault 5. Plan of \~estern part. Fig. 14. Vault 5. Section through collapsed vault. Fig. 15. Vault 5. Roofing beams. Fig. 16. Vaults 3 and 5. Glass bottles. Fig. 17. South baulk (West section). Fig. 18. Vault 3. South face. Fig. 19. Vault 3. Wine glass base. Fig. 20. Vault 3. Table memorial (reconstruction). Fig. 21. South baulk (East) section. NB The plans, sections and details of the vaults, especially Vaults 3, 4 and 5, were made in the field in conditions which made accuracy extremely difficult. Those where no scale is indicated were sketched only. Time, which antiquates antiquities, and hath an art to make dust of all things, hath yet spared these minor monuments. Sir Thomas Rrowne, Urn Burial Old~BuriaI Ground 1974 DISCOV~RY OF EARLY VAULTS IN THE CITY With the uncovering late in March 1974 of an early brick vault, a structure which must be the oldest example of Australian colonial architecture in the city of Sydney, attention was focussed briefly once more on the earliest official burial ground in Sydney. On Saturday r~arch 30, a bulldozer working about eight feet below the present ground surface of the St. Andrew's Cathedral precinct dislodged the north-west corner of an underground brick chamber. About half the vaulted brick roof fell into the cavity, partly covering a collapsed wooden coffin. On Tuesday, April 2, a team of students from Sydney University prepared to in vestigate and record the vault prior to imminent destruction by the contractors. Due to public interest aroused by the find the vault was given a reprieve and our work continued for a period of four days during which time we recorded the remains of three other vaults and part of the early enclosure wall. The vault was covered to prevent wind and heat erosion, but in May was removed brick by brick by RoDert Irving for proposed re construction as part of the Old Sydney Town Proj ect. 2 HISTORY OF THE OLO SYDNEY BURIAL GROUND The Old Burial or Burying Ground, sub sequently also called the George Street, Cathedral Close or Town Hall Cemetery was not the first area set aside for the disposal of the European dead in the new colony. The earliest ones \from 1788-1793) were much closer to Sydney Cove, one near St. Phillip's Church with another at Dawes Point; other sites were probably used on an ad hoc basis. \1) The land ad joining the Military Barracks \Clarence, Erskine and Margaret Streets) was also used until late 1792, when new officers' quarters were planned. "Their situation being directly in the neighbourhood of the ground appropriated to the burial of the dead, it became necessary to choose another spot for the latter pur pose and the Governor in company with the Reverend Mr. Johnson set apart the ground formerly cultivated by the late Captain Shea of the Marines." (2) Captain Shea had died of consumption in 1789 and at his request had been buried on his own land. Its convenient situation together with the fact that it had thus already been used for burial doubtless aided its selection. This was to be the Old Burial Ground which was to serve as Sydney's official cemetery from 1793 until January 27, 1820, when it too was closed, and superseded by the New Burial Ground at the Brickfield, subsequently known as the Sandhills Cemetery or Old Devonshire Street Ground. The Old Burial Ground was an area of about two acres, sit uated in what is now the northern part of the block bounded by George, Bathurst, Kent and Druitt Streets. At that time it lay just outside the settlement of Sydney which for many years did not extend beyond Market Street. \1) Johnson, K.A., "Sydney's Earliest tlurial Grounds, Pt. 1, 1788-1792", Descent, iv, 3, 1969. pp.1D4-6. \2) Ibid., p.106. 3 Uuring its twenty six years of use it was estimated that some two thousand bodies were interred in the Old Burial Ground. (3) Figures derived from the St. Phillip's Register in general support this. (4) Reliable figures for 1792 to 1800 give 478 deaths, and for 1809 to 1820 1,159 deaths. The nine year gap is caused by badly kept records after the departure of the Reverend R. Johnson. There was no regular clergy for St. Phillip's Parish until the arrival of the Reverend W. Cowper in 1809. Most of the early burials were those of convicts. The dead of the various regiments on duty in Sydney were also buried there, as were their womenfolk and families. The New South Wales Corps had an area near the corner of Druitt and George Streets. On the Kent Street side were the tombstones of N.C.O.s of 46th and 48th Regiments, and in the south-west corner, near the old Presbyterian Church, were those of the 73rd Regiment.

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