- Examining the heritage and history of Brighton through the lens of its oldest burial ground. Providing a Gazeteer of St Nicholas Gardens, tomb by tomb.
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Mortiquaria
- Corporal Staines – The Musical
- The Return of the Gent
- Francis Robertson and the Death of Kings
- Things fall apart
- Life Before Death and the Final Status Update
- Fanny Ricardo and the Father of Free Trade
- The Girl Soldier, The Poet and the Highwaymans Mother
- We Know Where The Bodies Are Buried
- John Walters – The Man Who Worked Too Hard
- Colonel Trickey and the End Of Time
- Richard Pahl and the Baby Blitz
- Mary Coupland and the Wall of Death
- Hard Times at Brighton – A Matchmans’ Tale
- Edward Colman and the ‘Job for Life’
- Martha Gunn and the Kings Evil
- A & AH Wilds and the Ups and Downs of Life
- Hanover Chapel Vault: Enough to Wake the Dead
- The Lady Eldona At Her Tower
- A Life Too Full To Fit – Sake Dean Mahomet
- Coded Mortiquaria
- Hilbers the Blood Royal Homeopath
- Laurentia Dorothea and the penniless portrait painter
- From revolution to nobility – the Baronesses Erskine
- Within the Vaults – Outlaws and Others
- Henry Smithers: Our most recent deceased.
- James Justinian Morier and the Adventures of Hajji Baba
- Sir Matthew Tierney: ‘The Bloody Baron of Brighthelmstone’
- Ghosts of the stones: if not the bones
- How to Empty a Graveyard
- How to Fill a Graveyard
- Smoaker Miles: Phantasmagoria, Swimming with Dr Johnson and other stories
- Stanley Stokes and the Lynch Mob – East Street 1836
- Captain Custard and the Northern Extension
- Lord Byron, Class War and the price of a Decent Send Off
- Buried ‘neath the snow
- Sir Richard Phillips and the skull of Cardinal Wolsey
- The Deathly Pyramid
- ‘The Log of a Jack Tar’; James Choyce 1777 – 1836
- John Rowles and the Battle of Tar Tub
- The Honest Hairdresser
- Conversation with the dead
- Graveyard Hauntings
- A Rest Garden Factuary
- Into the Labyrinth
- The Double Death of Anna Maria Crouch
- Mr Weiss and his Instrument of Certain Death
- Corporal Staines
- Martin Archer Shee (1789 – 1850)
- Funerary Violin and the Forgotten Vault
- Historical disorder
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Author Archives: mortiquarian
Corporal Staines – The Musical
A soldier returned injured from war, unable to get work and settle into civilian life, makes for himself a home an a bit of wasteland next to the local graveyard, and ekes out a living dependent upon the kindness of … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, Missing Monuments, Naval, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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The Return of the Gent
At the start of 2017, one of the remaining box-tombs at St Nicholas Rest Garden collapsed. The council Parks department needed to take swift action to make the monument safe, and removed the brick pier and inscripted side pieces and … Continue reading
Posted in Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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Francis Robertson and the Death of Kings
The very first post on this site pondered the origins of the Bound Man – a lowered box tomb bearing these little figures beneath a coat of arms, but too worn to make any sense of it. Advice given at … Continue reading
Posted in Rest Garden, Royal connection, St Nicholas
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Things fall apart
Sacred to the memory of Elizabeth, widow of Edward Gillett died August 29th. 1859 aged 91 years, also Elizabeth Miles, sister of Mr Edward Gillett, died November 9th 1852 aged 72 years, also of Mr Edward Gillett Gentleman who departed … Continue reading
Posted in Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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Life Before Death and the Final Status Update
Many aspects of life have been touched by technology and changed irrevocably, and it seems reasonable that this should also hold for aspects of death. If the life of Sake Deen Mahomed (for example) had coincided with the advent social … Continue reading
Posted in Author, Churchyard, Royal connection, St Nicholas
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Fanny Ricardo and the Father of Free Trade
Born Wilkinson, Fanny endured a tyrannical childhood at the hands of her father – known to the wider family as ‘curmudgeon Wilkinson’ who had a detestable disposition “which makes him unwilling to give pleasure to any human creature unless he … Continue reading
The Girl Soldier, The Poet and the Highwaymans Mother
Pheobe was born in Stepney in 1713. At just 15 years of age, she enlisted herself into the Fifth Regiment of Foot (Now the Northumberland Fusiliers) so as to remain with her lover Samuel Golding who also served with … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, Military, St Nicholas
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We Know Where The Bodies Are Buried
The clearances which have taken place at St Nicholas Ground over time – but most significantly around 1950, removed many the monumental markers from the central areas, relocating them around the perimeter of the sites or removing them from the … Continue reading
Posted in Artist, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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John Walters – The Man Who Worked Too Hard
It is said that one cannot serve both God and Mammon – architect John Walters made a fairly good go of it though, starting with Mammon, in the shape of the Auction Mart on Bartholomew Lane The extent of trade … Continue reading
Posted in Architect, Churchyard, St Nicholas
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Colonel Trickey and the End Of Time
in 1783, when the Prince of Wales first came to Brighton he was a supporter of the Whig party, and the political face of the town adopted his politics as they adopted the Prince. Although, when in 1811 – as … Continue reading
Posted in Churchyard, Military, Political, Radical, St Nicholas
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The Brighton Mortiquarian 