Westoe Cemetery

[JaniceF]

Hello!
I'm new here and hoping someone may be able to help. I am researching my Husbands Great Grandfather who was an actor called Richard Fawcett Smith (we also have him on record as being Richard Frederick Fawcett Smith), I believe he was working in South Shields and was found dead in bed on 9th March 1881. I travelled to South Shields last week to see if there was anything about him anywhere in the records. His death was registered by the coroner and I looked through the Shields Gazette to see if there was anything in there, I couldn't find anything. The very helpful librarians in South Shields Library suggested I look at burial records (we have very little information about Richard so didn't have a clue where he was buried) - we did find that he was buried in Westoe cemetery on the 12th March 1881. I also looked through a book at the library which gave a list of all the gravestone inscriptions at Westoe and found that, according to that book, he was buried with some people called Taylor, I have not found any connection to anyone called Taylor. I then contacted via e-mail, the bereavement services who told me that Richard was buried with two ladies, one was buried in 1863 and was called Mary Elliot and the other was called Margaret Spencer Stephenson and she was buried in 1937. I don't know of any connection to either of these two ladies. Was it possible that Richard was put in a paupers grave or some sort of communal grave and if so, why would there be such long gaps before the grave was used for other paupers? There is a long time between the first burial in 1863 and the last in 1937. I think Richard was from Yorkshire but other than that and the fact he had three daughters I know very little about him. I can't find a marriage or find him on any census records (his wife, or the mother of his daughters came from Jersey). Can anyone shed any light on the fact that he seems to be buried with strangers? Many thanks in advance, Janice

[stanmapstone]

In municipal cemeteries there are Purchased Graves where the applicant purchases the Exclusive Right of Burial in this grave, effectively forming a private grave and giving the family of the deceased control of any future burials in that grave. The owner of the Right must give written permission before any burial can take place in a purchased grave. The Exclusive Right has a fixed term - usually 100 years after which time control of the grave is returned to the relevant authority. Un-purchased Graves are also known as 'Common' or 'Public' graves. The relevant authority retains control of the burials in these graves. Burial Law used to require a 14 year interval between successive burials in one of these graves, (unless the deceased were from the same family), but this law has since been repealed.

Stan

[JaniceF]

Thank you Stan. So are you saying that they are probably in a common or public grave and are totally unrelated? That makes sense but it's a shame, I was hoping that finding his burial would give us more clues as to where he came from! I suppose if he died in South Shields far away from home (which we don't know) and no-one knew where or who he belonged to, they had to make a decision as to what to do with him.

[stanmapstone]

I would think it was a common grave.

Stan

[thomassteel1]

Dear Janice F: I hope you are still tracking Richard Fawcett Smith. I have done a huge amount of work on a big family of 18th & 19th C actors & theatrical managers named Smith. Actually I fear that RFS is not connected, but I have followed him & could tell you quite a lot. He managed theatres in Jersey & Guernsey in the 60s & 70s & crops up a lot in the local papers there. I don't know anything about his marriage & I think you could lead me nearer to that. Hoping for a reply. TS