Title

Later History of the Eastern Churchyard

Description

History of the Eastern Churchyard, St. Peter’s Church (formerly the site of 20 Clarence St.):

BAH: STG, 8: “Naval vessels and mail steamers returning from the West Indies brought the dreaded yellow fever which swept through the town on no fewer than eight occasions between 1796 and 1864, with fatal consequences for townspeople and garrison troops alike.”

The graves in Area G of the churchyard (the Eastern section) range from 1819 to 1853 (Elmhurst, BDA PA 26; notes in Jarvis, St. Peter’s Churchyard Research File).

BAH: STG, 31–32: “In the churchyard extension, abutting Church Lane, is the Hearse House, built in the late 1850s. This building held the parish hearse when it was not in use. After St. Peter’s graveyard was closed following a deadly yellow fever epidemic in 1853, [Page break] the government built a new cemetery on the North Shore, about a mile from the church, necessitating the use of the hearse. The Hearse House matches the early Victorian Gothic style of St. Peter’s and the Sunday School. A small extension to the west was added in the 20th century.”

Burials were discontinued sometime after the yellow fever epidemic of 1853, except in special cases.

Walter B. Hayward, “The Churchyard,” in St. Peter’s Church, St. George’s, Bermuda [Green] (reprinted from Bermuda Historical Quarterly, 1954), 43, Jarvis, St. Peter’s Church Research File: “The yellow fever epidemic of 1853 led to the passage of an act forbidding any more burials in the old churchyard, and the Crown vested two acres of the western extremity of the Government park in the rector of St. George’s, subject to the same conditions as if the ground were a part of the yard of St. Peter’s.”

Based on the Hayward essay in St. Peter’s Church [Green], the cemetery did not reopen during the severe yellow fever epidemic of June 1864 (which is described in BAH: STG, 9).

W.F.S. Zuill, Bermuda Journey, 193: “The churchyard is also unusually interesting because of the sailors, soldiers, and seamen from many lands who have found there a last resting place. Burial in the graveyard was discontinued in 1853, when, probably as a result of recurring fever epidemics, it was decided to remove the cemetery to the north side of St. George’s Island. The western enclosure was the burial place of slaves, many of whose names are still to be seen engraved upon thin slabs of blue slate. So far as is known this is the only graveyard in the colony that had a special area for the purpose.”

Source

BAH: STG, 8–9, 31–32; Elmhurst, BDA PA 26; notes in Jarvis, St. Peter’s Churchyard Research File; Walter B. Hayward, “The Churchyard,” in St. Peter’s Church, St. George’s, Bermuda [Green] (reprinted from Bermuda Historical Quarterly, 1954), 43, Jarvis, St. Peter’s Church Research File; W.F.S. Zuill, Bermuda Journey, 193.

Date

1819–Circa 1855

Event Code

O

Year

1819–Circa 1855