St Saviour Southwark

[Just Kia]

The Wimbush family had a vault "under the organ" in the Church of St Saviour Southwark.
This vault is mentioned in some documents I have copies of, so I emailed St Saviour to see if I could get any further info.
They emailed me back to tell me that there have been many changes to the Church including teh rebuilding of the Nave which is where the Organ would have been (apparently) due to the roof having caved in and the building being open to the elements for sometime. And that "there is no legible ledger stone or other commemoration within the Cathedral today which relates to the Wimbush family".

I would think that a family would have to be fairly well off to have not just a vault but and vault inside the church in the mid-late 1700s and thus that there should be something to identify that this vault exists or existed.
As "there is no legible ledger stone or other commemoration" what would have happened to the bodies within the vault? Would the vault have been sealed at some point? Would the vault still belong to the family? What if a member of the family wished to be buried there?

[Valda]

Hi


Most London churches have had the bodies removed from their vaults and reburied in cemeteries

http://www.burial.magic-nation.co.uk/bgstsavioursouthwark.htm

The church (made into a cathedral in 1905) should know when the vaults were emptied (if they have been, but judgeing from the 1839 description of the two large church vaults this seems extremely likely) and where the reburial took place.


Regards

Valda

[Just Kia]

Thank you, Valda.

I have emailed the LMA to see if they hold the records for interment into this vault or records regarding the emptying and reburials.
It is interesting to see that this was one big vault used by multiple families, from the will I had thought it was a private family vault. I guess that the "under the organ" then refers to the "where" within the vault the Wimbush family were interred.

[Valda]

Hi


The LMA will hold the church's burial register. It might specify on the register whether the burial was in the churchyard or the vault but registers don't always give that information.

http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=15358&inst_id=118&nv1=search&nv2=basic


Regards

Valda

[Just Kia]

Thank you for the link, will have a good look at that.