Catholic burials

[lesleyhannah]

Where were catholics buried in the 18th/19th centuries in England? There are old anglican churches with churchyards full of ancient graves in every village where I live, but before municipal cemeteries I can't see anywhere specific for catholics. I know there are Jewish cemeteries in London (and probably elsewhere) so I'm curious.

thanks
Lesley

[jds1949]

As I understand it Catholics were buried in their local Anglican churchyard; there wasn't really any other choice. I have occasionally seen such burials recorded in the register with the word "Papist" in brackets as in this example from Lancashire OPC:
Burial: 3 Sep 1821 St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn, Lancashire, England
Jane Swarbrick -
    Age: 41
    Abode: Blackburn
    Notes: Papist
    Register: Butials 1818 - 1823, Page 192, Entry 1533
    Source: LDS Film 1278820


As Catholic churches were built again, from the end of the 18th century, then Catholics were buried in those churchyards. With the growth of municipal cemeteries and as the existing churchyards filled up, then increasingly Catholics were buried in those, usually in a section set aside for Catholics.

Hope that helps,

Dave Swarbrick

[paslwigr]

 
Hi Lesley,

Catholics were buried in their local Anglican churchyards until their Catholic church was able to use or acquire land of their own to start a burial ground. This happened at various times in the 19th century, but probably not often before 1829, the Catholic Emancipation Act.
Many Catholics had family graves in the local Anglican churchyard and continued to be buried there, long after their own churches had burial grounds. [I speak of the area in which I live where I know this happened] It wasn't until the late 18th century that Catholics were even supposed to have churches, and those that were built were very plain 'barn' like buildings and often appearing to fit in with other secular buildings or were 'hidden' away in quiet locations.
paslwigr

[lesleyhannah]

Thanks to you both. I did wonder - an old churchyard I was wandering round recently had a lot of Irish names in one small section, and I wondered if they were Catholic graves. I also wonder if there was any antagonism towards the catholics wanting to bury their dead in the church grounds? Would they have been put in consecrated ground, for instance? Or would there have been a bit of unconsecrated ground for non-anglicans?
Lesley

[paslwigr]

Hi Lesley,
It's an interesting point you made about antagonism by Anglicans towards Catholics burying their dead in 'their' churchyard, and one that has never occurred to me before. Perhaps some of them [in the pre-reformation churches] were aware that they, the Anglicans were being buried in what was once a  Catholic graveyard!
However I'm sure I read somewhere that Catholics conducted their burial services in the evening at the graveside, probably with their own priest not the vicar, but I'm sure these burials were all in consecrated ground - unless someone knows different.
paslwigr

[lesleyhannah]

Actually the reason I asked about the unconsecrated ground was I found one of my ancestors on a burials CD I bought, and it had U (for unconsecrated) by his name. Someone (maybe on this site, I can't remember now) said it was because he was a nonconformist. I haven't ever heard this mentioned anywhere else though, so don't know how true it is. It just seemed that if methodists couldn't be buried in consecrated ground, then it's possible that catholics also encountered hostility.

I've never heard it discussed on history programmes etc, and I'd love to know.
Lesley

[Plummiegirl]

Unconsecrated Ground is usually a site within but set aside from the Cemetary.

One thing I do know is that until quite recently (60'ish) suicides were buried here, because suicide was considered a crime.  Not just for religious reasons but a criminal offence.

It may have been used for Non-conformists, but if that was the case the unconsecrated site would be as large as the rest of the cemetary & in most cases I have seen it is usually a very small plot 50-60 graves marked + some unmarked at the most.  One I know of has only about 10 an they were all suicides.

This could prove to be a very interesting twist to your family story.