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Lower Hutt's hidden cemetery - Grave story #23

2/16/2021

6 Comments

 
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New Zealand has many lost or hidden cemeteries. We’re going to see which ones we can find.

Bridge St Cemetery, Lower Hutt.
It’s a tiny peaceful little spot. On the corner of Lower Hutt’s Bridge St and Marsden Street is the remains of a cemetery.
Through a little gate into a tree-covered yard with pretty flowers and a few notable
memorials, the Wesleyan (or Methodist) Cemetery seems like you are stepping out of a city into a place out of time.

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While it is still maintained, some graves have been lost to road widening - with a memorial stone now naming those whose final resting place has been disturbed.
There are 51 graves recorded there but it is likely there are more than 100.
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Of the few headstones that remain there are the names of families that were instrumental in the founding and development of Lower Hutt, the Sanson family, Frethey family, the Knights and William Bassett, shoemarker of Petone and his wife Mary, along with a poignant memorial to Thomas “William” Webb, a private with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force army who died at sea on board the troopship Mokoia on December 21, 1917 at the age of 27 headed for Europe, however he never saw battle. He died of illness aboard ship.
He is also on the memorial at Karori Cemetery.
The Knights, William and Mary Ann and their five oldest children were some of the first settlers in Petone arriving on the Duke of Roxburgh in 1840 from Cornwall.
Son James Penrose Knight was a borough councillor and his son Willoughby was deputy mayor.
If the names are familiar to those from Lower Hutt its because there are a number of street named for them, Penrose St, Knights Road, Willougby St and Frethey Grove.
The little cemetery, still cared for by Hutt City Council, is all that remains of the original Wesleyan church on the banks of the Hutt River established in 1845 and stood nearby for only a few years before moving to Laings Road.
There are drawings of the original church in the Alexander Turnbull Library done by Marion Swainson.
Do you know of one of these ‘hidden’ cemeteries?
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6 Comments
Gibbes Walker Jordan
7/14/2022 06:51:11 pm

Death in 1881

Reply
Kathy
3/9/2023 12:09:39 am

Nice to see this. Charles and Naomi Hunt, memorialised here, are my great-great-great-grandparents.

Reply
Eyvonne Knight
9/12/2023 01:25:07 am

Thankyou, I am 8th generation descendant of the original settlers
I look forward to visiting

Reply
Sharon
9/19/2023 03:53:11 pm

I have a ancestor that is buried at Wesleyan in 1897. His name is Edward Taylor. He is not on the list of graves that were moved nor the graves that are currently still there

Reply
Cherie Cliff
10/2/2024 06:40:13 pm

As a genealogist wonderful to see my great great aunt Mary Ann Knight nee Fairweather born 18/11/1834 in Glasgow Scotland on this Memorial. We are looking for the burial for the burial of Robert Thomas Fairweather 1803-1851 & Barbara Fairweather 1805-1851 are they at this cemetery? Many Thanks

Reply
Deb link
10/3/2024 02:08:02 pm

Hi Cherie - I hope you see this. I did a search for what records remain for the little cemetery - they are by no means complete. Yes there is a possibility that Robert and Barbara were buried here, but I suspect there is no way to know now. I note that both were said to have died in Wainuiomata in 1851 but I can find nothing in past papers that tells me what happened to either of them. Some sites lists them as missing graves - although I think that they are just lost in time. Sorry I could not be more help. Deb

Reply



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  • Home
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