St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster

[Nostalgic_One]

Has anyone looked for graves here?  What was your experience like?  Any useful advice?

[Valda]

Hi


St Martin in the Fields is in the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square

Present day photograph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:St_martin_in_the_fields_exterior.jpg


London Burial Grounds gives extensive information on churchyards in London (link given in the burial guide on the London and Middlesex Rootschat boards).


http://www.londonburials.co.uk/


St Martins in the Fields (further information with pictures in the guide)

'The extensive burial ground, containing an estimated 60-70,000 burials,  was emptied and replaced by Duncannon Street and buildings to the South in 1827/30. At the same time burial vaults around and under the church were greatly extended.  These were cleared in 1937. Full English breakfasts are now served where coffins once mouldered.'

'The old burying ground adjoining the church has been broken up for the purpose of making improvements in the city of Westminster; the dead were disinterred, and their remains removed to vaults, called catacombs. This circumstance is commemorated by the following inscription, on the north side of St. Martin's church'

The additional burial ground in St Martin's Lane was demolished in 1871 to make way for the northern extension of the National Gallery.

The description of the state of the additional burial ground in Drury Lane makes particularly unpleasant reading and gives ample reason why churchyards in what is now central London were closed by the 1850s because of health reasons and public cemeteries replaced them. It is a paved over public garden.

There was additional burial ground for the church purchased in 1805 in Pratt Street St Pancras.

'In use until 1856, at first for St Martin's parishioners (mainly the poor) then later for other parishes.
Now a not especially exciting open space, with gravestones around the edge. To the south these have been arranged in a rather odd herring-bone pattern for no obvious reason. Over 18,000 burials recorded at the site'



Regards

Valda

[Nostalgic_One]

Hmmm, is there any hope of finding what I'm looking for do you think?  Specifically I'd like to find details of a gentleman who was buried in there in 1832 (I suspect probably together with other family members).

[Valda]

Hi


If you mean a gravestone or burial site in a churchyard extremely unlikely. Were the family wealthy? Did they leave wills? They would need to be of some wealth to be buried together considering the pressure St Martin's burial grounds were under with the sheer number of burials (on top of burials) in the relatively small size of the churchyards and catacomb space St Martin's had access to by 1832. Pre 1832 any family burials may have been in the then cleared old burial ground - the original churchyard - built over by 1832.

Westminster Archives does hold some work done on monumental inscriptions at St Martins in the Fields mainly in the church and crypt but also some from what survived at the Drury Lane and Pratt Street (known as the boneyard) burial grounds by the 1990s.

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/workspace/assets/publications/Info-Sheet-08-Monumental-Inscript-1278423843.pdf

St Martin in the Fields burial registers are held at Westminster Archives. There was a separate register for the Pratt Street burial ground. There are some Bishops Transcripts (copies made of the register and sent to the Bishop each year) available to be searched. There is no indication in the BTs where each burial took place and whether these are all the burials. In 1832 a large number of the 636 burials listed in the BTs were from the workhouse.

http://www.westminster.gov.uk/workspace/assets/publications/Info-Sheet-01-Anglican-Regs-1271422893.pdf


What was the man's name? Have you found his entry in the burial register?


Regards

Valda

[Nostalgic_One]

I'm looking for a Ewen Mackintosh, listed as a gentleman and landlord living in Haymarket.  I have burial records from Ancestry for him, his daughter Mary Ann Clark Mackintosh who died in the same year (1832), and his wife Elizabeth Mackintosh who died in 1853.  All were buried in St. Martin in the Fields, despite Elizabeth having moved away from the area quite some time previously.  I'd rather optimistically hoped that there might be a family vault full of fascinating info!  I'd especially like to find clues to wife Elizabeth's parentage.  As you say though, it sounds extremely unlikely. 

I guess the next step is to track down those monumental inscriptions.  Thank you for the info on those.

[Valda]

Hi


Presumably the son?

London Gazette 5th March 1844

JOHN HERMAN MERIVALE, Esq. one of Her Majesty's Commissioners authorized to act under a Fiat in Bankruptcy, bearing date the 9th day of November 1816, awarded and issued forth against Ewen Mackintosh, of the Haymarket, in the county of Middlesex, Army Accoutrement Maker, Saddler, Dealer and Chapman....

and the father 25th May 1819

The, Commissioners in a Commission of Bankrupt, hearing date the 9th day of November 1816, awarded and issued forth 'against Ewen Mackintosh, of the Haymarket, in the County of Middlesex, Accoutrement Maker, Saddler, Dealer and Chapman...

a further hearing in June 1819 to see whether he could absolve his debts.


Records at The National Archives of his bankruptcy
B 3/3393 Mackintosh E 1816


The family don't seem to have left any wills.


His partnership in the Haymarket with Richard Birnie was dissolved 19th March 1802.

His wife Elizabeth seems to have been born in Herefordshire

1851 census HO107 1581 folio ?
5 Elizabeth Place Asylum Road Camberwell
Elizabeth Mackintosh 76 Head Widow Annuitant Hereford Pl N.K.
Catharine Mackintosh 29 Daughter London Pl N. K
plus 1 servant


Regards

Valda

[Nostalgic_One]

Thank you so much.  This is all fascinating.  I did not know until today that Ewen owned Mackintosh & Co. saddle business which - supplied the royal family - passed to him by his father Alexander Mackintosh. 

Where did you find details of the partnership with Richard Birnie?  I would love to know more.

[Valda]

Hi

London Gazette

http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/home.aspx?GeoType=London


Regards

Valda

[Nostalgic_One]

Thank you.  This is all extremely interesting.