1840: Bolton Street Cemetary

April 7, 2023

By AHNZ

Finally managed to visit Bolton Street Cemetery in the weekend before last (ferry hold-ups gave me more time than expected…)

Very tidy yet you can feel its age. The graves of many historical figures I know are here including James FitzGerald, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, William Wakefield, and Alexander Turnbull. Theirs are very modest compared to the graven fanfare of Harry Holland.

It worked out that the last grave I reached was Richard Seddon’s. Huge! Dwarfing everyone else’s.

Isn’t it curious that the Lefties, the “workers”, have the most elaborate and flamboyant memorials of all?

The Cemetery is named after the street, the street is named after the New Zealand Company immigrant ship Bolton. It was one of a number of ships owned by Thomas Brame Oldfield (1788-1848) of London.

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Ref. New Zealand Company Ships, Wiki

Ref. Lloyd’s Register of Shipping (1840,) The Internet Archive

Image ref. Bolton Street Cemetery,  AHNZ Archive (2023)

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