Church Yard Burials
These occurred in the early years and according to Mr Fred. Halcomb there were four suburbs up to 1856 when the practice was stopped and burials effected in registered cemeteries.
Two graves remain at St Andrew’s both with headstones, one inscribed “In memory of Ann, the beloved wife of James Williams, who died Dec 8th, 1852, aged 35 years.”, and originally situated between the church and the rectory necessitating its transfer to the present position on 14th August 1999 when the Parish Centre was under construction. The other gravestone inscribed “To the loving memory of Maria Adelaide, the only (beloved) daughter of William Rodolf Thomas and Maria Caroline Thomas, who (died) 16th March 1853 aged 2 years 6 moths. Suffer little children to come unto me for they shall inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Halcomb mentions two other burials in the grounds, one “close to the south angle of the nave” of a Mrs Margaret Garton (great-aunt of Miss Barnard, of Stephen Terrace), died March 1853 aged 73 years, and one, of Mark, infant child of Robert and Sarah Williams, born 24 Sept. 1853, aged 4 months, “beside the large stone pine on the south-west, which was blown down in 1901.”
The adjacent sketch indicates the approximate positions of the four graves but there is no substantial record of the sites of the latter two mentioned above. It is possible that re-interments could have occurred at or about the time that burials in the grounds ceased.