To see Plan of cemetery click on Cemetery Heading
 on green menu bar above.

"the grave's a fine and private place…" exploring Hastings Cemetery

Why not rest, relax and reflect awhile, sitting on the OHPS / FoHC seat, located on EL, and take in the magnificent view.

• To find information you can use the Google search above, or there is an alphabetical index to the people on the website under the heading People - Stories Index A - Z [https://friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk/storiesaz.html]

  All names are included in this index

New Stories

• Lee, Anne - widow (third wife) of Rev. Samuel Lee D.D., Sister of Elizabeth Vores q.v.

• Phillips Sarah, William & son Stephen, fishermen, Stephen drowned at Great Yarmouth

For Updated S tories see below

• Plot AB – Summary

See here for map of cemetery - https://friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk/plan.html

To give you some idea of the diversity to be found when exploring history in Hastings cemetery information for one plot has been extrapolated.

There are 57 extant memorials recorded by Friends of Hastings Cemetery in this plot, 12 of which are unreadable. [ See https://friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk/A%20-%20G%20database.pdf ]

Professions identified:

 Priest

 Reverends – 5, 1 a Jewish convert

 Knights – 3

 JP’s – 2

 Military – 5

 Naval – 1

 Architect

 QC

From the register – plots C03 to C23 mainly mixed infant burials 1857 and 1877/78

Places of Origin (not including Hastings)

AB A16.  Gallop, William Arch. & Harriet – 

local fisherman and mariner and his wife

AB A17.  Wells, Eudo, Sir Mordaunt and his wives - 
Eudo was Mordaunt’s elder brother, he was in the navy and died in south east Asia. Sir Mordaunt was a somewhat controversial judge in Calcutta. Sir Mordaunt Wells. 1817 - 1885. Charlotte Mary Wells. wife of Sir Mordaunt. died aged 42 and was buried at Calcutta 1860. Elizabeth Mary Wells, wife of Sir Mordaunt, died at Hastings 30th April 1885

AB D24  Gant, Major John Castle
 - Solicitor, lived locally, died Chiddingly, buried with his aunt, Eliza Rebecca Gant, in Hastings Cemetery; lived to 100.

AB E01 - Goldberg, Rev. John Benjamin & Isabella 
- a rabbi who converted to Christianity and became a missionary.

AB E23/24 Gant, William John & Family 

- William John Gant came to town as surveyor to the St Leonards Commissioners; he designed the Fishermen's Church of St Nicholas Augusta Caroline Gant, Aged 34 Also William Herbert Langham GantAged 7 months, Percy Francis Gant, Aged 8 month Beatrice Augusta Gant Aged 26, Augusta Caroline Gant Aged 24, William John Gant, FRIBA, Husband of the first named Augusta Caroline Gant, Isabella Gant, second wife of William.

AB F26 - de Wesselow, Francis

friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk › dewesselow

Francis Guillemard Simpkinson, a naval officer and artist. Trained at the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, and spent thirteen years at sea as a topographical draughtsman.  Nephew of Sir John Franklin's wife. n May 1844 he was ordered to Van Diemen's Land  to place himself under the orders of Lieutenant Joseph Kay (son of the architect of Pelham Crescent. St. Mary in the Castle, and several other homes in Hastings) Befriended by John Skinner Prout the leading artist in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania).

AB I16. Wiggins Memorial

Sacred to the memory of. Captain Francis Chantrey Wiggins. 70th Reg. D.M. Bengal Army. who died 5th June 1861. aged 38. Thy Will Be Done.

AB K24  Yorky Smith

The first burial Plot  9 ft (inc wife). The first burial, on December 2, was that of the wellknown local builder John (Yorky) Smith, who died November 23.

Ironically, he had strongly opposed the cemetery being on this site. – N.B. No memorial extant

AB K25  Tyhurst, Edward & Mary Ann
 - local hatter, draper and tailor; Excellent masonic symbolism - all

seeing eye, sun, moon and stars, and square and compasses

AB L08  Ginner, Will & Anne

 - coal merchant, owner of the Pelican, probably the most famous collier on Hastings Beach.  He was a JP and Mayor in 1854, 1858 and 1862
friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk › ginnerw2

AB L15.  -Kent, Maria Penelope

friendsofhastingscemetery.org.uk › kentmp

MARIA PENELOPE Eldest daughter of William Corbett & Penelope Kent of Whitchurch, Shropshire who died at St. Leonards on Sea March 13th 1865 aged 22

Recent Stories:

Australian connections in the Cemetery -  a partial list, those not linked have not been written up.

Browne, Margaret & Dr. John Harris - Pastoralist in South Australia, member of Sturt’s expedition, and much more, ably supported by his wife

Cannon, Martin M and Eliza - first marriage in Australia, children born there.  A geneological mystery

Icely, Caroline Charlotte - eldest daughter of a family listed in “Australian Royalty: Geneology of the colony of NSW

Minet Family - Leah Fortrie and daughters Geraldine Helena, and Delia Jane Parker - Mother and sisters of Cecilia Tubbs q.v.  Geraldine and Delia spent some years in the Antipodes and in Victoria were involved variously in Theosophy. Spiritualism and Geraldine in a failed mining venture.

SEARCH >

• Cemetery Walk
• To explore on your own, see Trail Leaflet under menu heading above - HOME (or pick up a copy from the Hastings History House, 21 Courthouse Street)

Available from Hastings History House, 21 Courthouse Street:

• Relighting the lamps: some First World War Stories

• The Grave’s a fine and private Place: Exploring History in Hastings Cemetery