The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-28 00:00:00

THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.

BURIAL GROUND PRACTICES.

If indiscriminate mutilation and disturbance of previous
deposits, and consequent desecration of the last resting-
places of those who have preceded us, are still to be per-
mitted ; if the ashes of our deceased emintrymen are entitled
to, or obtain too frequently under the present order of things,
no respect; if the ties of relationship and affection and the
best feelings of the heart are to be outraged by a trading
sexton or a brutal gravedigger; if a system has too long been,
and continues to this hour, in operation, which most une-
quivocally tends to brutalise, to anchristianise, the officials
who execute the disgusting work, and the crowds of people
exposed constantly to such scenes ; if our very beautiful
burial-service has been too frequently disgraced by the acts
perpetrated previous or subsequent to its performance, it is
more than time that such an evil were crushed, and for ever!
It degrades religion; brings its ministers into contempt, tends
to lower the standard of morality, and is afoul blot upon our
boasted civilisation."—C. A. Walker, Surgeon, in "Inter-
ment and Disinterment."—Nov. 3, 1842.

The condition of the Spa-fields Buring-ground has
recently attracted much attention ; and though the par-
ties who profit by a continuance of that most disgraceful
and dangerous receptacle of corruption are industriously
engaged in circulating statements to the effect that the
facts already before the public arc much exaggerated,
the reality is in truth far worse than the representation ;
and that it is so the following ADDITIONAL. FACTS, for
the correctness of which I hold myself in every respect
responsible, will abundantly attest.
The practice of burning the coffins and portions of
their contents has been carried on in Spa-fields burying-
ground for upwards of a quarter of a century ; a fire
has been continually burning day and night. It has not
been possible for a very long period of time to obtain a
grave for an adult, without mutilation and disturbance
of previous deposits.
Stephen Bishop, the WATCHMAN (?) of the ground,
has performed the double office of calling the hour of
the night and burning coffins, &c., in the BONE-nousE.*
This person has executed the above-named compound
functions during seventeen or eighteen years. Some
years since he was accustomed to eat his food in the
Lone-house, durir.g the performance of his nightly tasks.
Of late he has become more fastidious, and wears a

" hand-leather," to avoid contamination from the con-
tact of the coffin-wood. Some time ago he told one of
his associates that " 'pon his soul he couldn't eat his
grub in the bone- house now." The relief-guard (the
gravediggers) entered upon their daily work in the
grave-yard as Bishop had concluded his nightwork in the
bone-house. The man has frequently " let his fire
down," and has been chidden by his employer for so
doing. lie has replied that " the wood was wet." His
master has rejoined, " You ought to save all *fie deal-
wood you can fur the purpose qf keeping up the fire."
The coffins of " still-born" children have been broken
up and used for the purpose of lighting the fire in the
bone-house; deal, of which they are composed, being
more combustible than the elm coffin of the adult.

A late " manager" of the ground has entered the bone-
house at various hours in the morning, anal has observed
—" Ah, Steevy" (Stephen Bishop, the so-called watch-
man of the ground) " has been asleep. He's let his fire
out. Why don't you take care of the deal for lighting
the fire ?"

It has frequently occurred that the poor creatures who
have brought children to be buried (" still-born") have
left, as a pledge for the eighteenpence fee they lacked, a
shawl, an apron, or even duplicates, whilst the following
Machiavelian trick has been often practised :—The corpse
being taken into the parlour of the " manager," he has
removed it from the coffin, and has endeavoured, by the
exercise of a little tact, to elicit from the attendant or
nurse, as the case might be, whether the child had
breathed; if so, he refused to bury the child unless the
fee of four shillings was paid—threatening the party, if
they demurred, that he " would compel them to bury it in
a regular way, by an undertaker."
It has been a common practice to remove the grave-
stones from the "common" into the "best" ground. A
double object was thus accomplished—the ground had
a more respectable appearance, in consequence of the
array of tombstones; freer space was left for the
digging-up, levelling, and raking over the " worst "
ground, whilst an additional charge was demanded from
the relatives of every new-comer.
The stone designating the family-grave of -- has
been removed about thirty yards from the place it once
occupied, and the coffins of three other persons occupy
the original grave.
The stone marking the grave of -- has been re-
moved.
The family grave of -- was shifted from its posi-
tion in the " worst" to the " best" ground; the differ-
ence in the charge for interment in the latter being four
shillings extra. The stone has been replaced, for spe-
cific reasons.
The stone marking the family grave of -- has been
removed about twenty-two yards from its original site.
The stone marking the family grave of -- has been
removed twenty yards from its original position.
The family grave of has been charged to the
surface with the bodies of others not connected in any
degree with the original purchaser, and this grave thrice
filled and thrice " cleaned out" within the last ten years.
The bodies interred in the family grave of —, of
street, have been mutilated ; upwards of two feet in
length of the coffins and bodies have been chopped off.
A highly respectable family, residing in —, pur-
chased a double family grave in Spa-fields burying-
ground. This grave was marked by a head and a foot
stone. The grave was opened some time since, for the
reception of a deceased member of the family. A tier
of eight or ten coffins was found projecting in every
direction, and filling up half this double grave. The
coffins and bodies of adults and children were remorse-
lessly cut through, and upwards of five hundred weight
of coffin-wood taken out of the grave and burnt. The
original occupant of this family grave, —, was " doubled
up and thrust into the mud, &c., at the bottom of the
grave, out of which upwards of forty pailsful of a most
sickening compound were baled. His coffin was taken
to the bone-house, the fire being alight at the time. The
" manager" has frequently been on the watch through the
wicket of the large gates of the ground, and, as soon
as the mourners have made their appearance with the de-
ceased, he has shouted to the gravediggers, " Make
haste—they're coming ;" earth has been quickly thrown
over the floor of the grave, the body deposited, and
within half an hour—even before the funeral service was
concluded—the coffin has been covered by the water.
Water containing, in solution or suspension, portions of
human remains, has been almost constantly " bucketed"
out of the graves, more especially those situated in the
" best" ground. The earth covering the coffins and
their contents in the immediate vicinity has been pierced
in every direction by the boring-rod, for the double
purpose of getting rid for the instant of the fluid ma-
terial removed from the graves, and for promoting the
more rapid decomposition of the bodies.
The body of a male relative of an ex-gravedigger of
twenty years' practice in Spa-fields burying-ground has
been mutilated, and his coffin burnt.
The " head man" in this ground, Tom Smith, an
hereditary gravedigger, has committed the most fearful
and unheard-of atrocities on the bodies of the dead.
The long hair of the women has been cut off and sold to
the hair-dressers ; " rails" (teeth) have been taken from
every corpse affording them of sufficient quality to stimu
late his cupidity ; whilst the materials in which the
bodies of the dead have been clothed by the hand of af-
fection have been, in hundreds of instances, torn off by
this midnight prowler.
On December 23, 1843, I attended at the Clerkenwell
Police-court, for the purpose of substantiating the above
and other allegations, and should have endeavoured to
do so had not the sitting magistrate, Mr. Greenwood,
peremptorily declined interfering in the matter of a me-
morial that found its way into the Clerkenwell Police-
office, although, I believe, it did not come under his offi-
cial cognisance.
I had the first intimation of the complaint then made
from the Times of December 21, 1843. It is probable
that the audacity of the manager, Mr. C. Bird, and his
attempt to intimidate, under a threat of legal proceed •
ings, induced me to give several hours of time, at much
inconvenience to myself, on that occasion, although,
from a sense of duty, I accepted a challenge I had nei-
ther desired nor provoked. The memorial, in my pos-
session, is signed by about a hundred and fifty of the
neighbouring inhabitants, and contains, among others,
the following allegations:—
" The inhabitants of the aforesaid places" (Garden-
walk, Exmouth-street, Northampton-road, Northampton-
row, Vineyard-walk, Fletcher's-row, Chapel-row, and
parts adjacent) " have been annoyed from the unpleasant
and exceedingly unwholesome smell arising from the
'burning in the bone-house of coffins in the Spa-fields
burying-t;round ; and from the nauseous fumes which,
at such times, impregnate the air, your petitioners firmly
believe that human bodies are consumed therein ; and
your petitioner James Wilson, humbly maketh com-
plaint, that he standeth in constant dread of being burnt
out, in consequence of the aforesaid bone-house being
joined to the back of his house, from the chimney of
which bone-house flames occasionally arise to a great
height ; and on last Thursday (December '2l, 1843) the
bone-house was actually on fire, which caused the adja-
cent inhabitants to remove their goods in great terror."
In March, 1843, or thereabouts, I caused to be pre-
sented the following petition to the House of Commons.
Upwards of 500 signatures were attached thereto.
" To the Hon. the Commons of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament as-
sembled.
" The humble petition of the undersigned resident in-
habitants of Exmouth-street, Northampton row,
Chapel•row, and adjoining neighbourhoods,
" Showeth—That your petitioners are forced to com-
plain of, and are constantly annoyed by, the disgusting
practices employed in the Spa-fields burial-ground.
" That many of your petitioners have repeatedly wit
nessed the most shameful mutilations of the dead.
" That it is a common and almost daily practice to
break up and consume the wood of the coffins (not yet
decayed) in large quantities in an out-house in this place.
That many hundred tons weight of coffin-wood have been
thus disposed of.
" That your petitioners are frequently sensible of a
most disgusting smell, which they have no doubt arises
from the surface of this grave-yard, and from the burn-
ing of the wood of the coffins ; and that your petitioners
have every reason to believe that the health of themselves
and families has been affected from the above causes.
"That, in the judgment of your petitioners, this bury-
ing-ground does not contain more than eighty-seven
thousand one hundred and twenty square feet of sur-
face. That your petitioners believe that, on a yearly
average, two thousand bodies have been pretended to be
buried in this ground. That this place has been em-
ployed as a burying-ground more than half a century.
That it appears that not more than 1,500 bodies can
be decently and properly interred in an acre of
ground ; and that consequently upwards of fifty thou-

The following sign-board is placed on the right-hand
side of the entranfe, in the grave-yard, near the bone-house.
It is supported by a pole wedged in between two ledgers
(upright gravestones) :—" Take notice. The watchmen in
this ground are provided with lire-arms. Take off your
pattem."