The Glebe Burial Grounds Traditional Cache

The Glebe Burial Grounds

Reputed to be one of the the oldest cemeteries in the Hunter Region, Major Mitchell instructed Assistant Surveyor White, on 5 September 1834, to add 22 acres to the 18 already marked out as the glebe at Maitland. White reported on 15 November 1834 that he had measured the glebe but had excluded an acre from it containing a stone quarry and had made up the difference by including a part of the garden attached to the Government Cottage.

Mitchell disapproved of those alterations and told White to reverse them, but shortly thereafter was overruled by Governor Bourke who ordered the quarry to be excluded from the glebe. As the glebe had to be 40 acres, a deficiency therefore existed of 1 acre, 2 roods and 6 perches. A small parcel of this extent was marked on the opposite side of the burial ground from the glebe. The 40-acre glebe thus extended further up the hills than did the earlier 18 acre glebe.

It now included a large portion of the Mounted Police paddock and also a spur of the old line of road to Wisemans Ferry that served the stone quarry. Evidence of this road, which is marked on early plans, is still distinguishable in the form of a shallow cutting in the glebe gully.

The burial ground itself was marked out, cleared and fenced in 1829. By 1832, however, it had fallen into an overgrown state of neglect and the catechist, Lieut. Wood, complained to the Archdeacon that, "there being no sexton, any persons having a corpse to inter placed it where and in any direction they pleased". Even deceased Roman Catholics made their way, informally, into the burial ground. The subsoil was so hard that the graves were scarcely more than two feet deep, "attracting native dogs to the spot & causing a noxious effluvia to passengers on the road". A sexton was appointed in May, 1832.

The burial ground was extended in 1835, consecrated in 1843 (on the same day as St Peter's Church) and extended, again, in 1850, by fencing the former access road to the quarry.

The earliest gravestone in the cemetery dates from 1828, the burial having been moved there from elsewhere in 1835. The headstone of Andrew Sparke marks the first identified original burial in November, 1830.

Subsequent monuments are notable for their quaint spelling, lurid descriptions and other idiosyncrasies. They provide a valuable insight into life - and death - in colonial NSW.

The Glebe Cemetery is the resting place of several notable pioneers of the district including, reputedly but unmarked, Colonial Architect Francis Greenway.

The cemetery remained in regular use until 1892. Title to was transferred to Maitland City Council in 1994.