- 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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Category Archives: Rest Garden
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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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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A & AH Wilds and the Ups and Downs of Life
Amon Wilds arrived at Brighton from Lewes in 1815. With his son Amon Henry and partner Charles Busby he established a ‘builder/architects practice which significantly shaped Brighton and Hove at a time of unprecedented growth. The collected works of A … Continue reading
Posted in Architect, Builder, Churchyard, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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Laurentia Dorothea and the penniless portrait painter
Before her marriage to Francis Robertson, Laurentia Ross sat for Thomas Lawrence – then a jobbing artist, later to become President of the Royal Academy and acknowledged as the finest portrait painter of the Regency period. They were probably introduced … Continue reading
Posted in Artist, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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From revolution to nobility – the Baronesses Erskine
General John Cadwallader was a hero of the American revolution. Having waged war against Britain it seems odd that his daughter Frances should marry into the English nobility becoming Barroness Erskine. Or maybe not. After their wedding in 1799 They … Continue reading
Posted in American, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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Within the Vaults – Outlaws and Others
The Rest Garden is dominated by the series of raised vaults which were designed by Amon Henry Wilds as a part of his initial layout. The inscriptions were recorded by the council in the late 1940’s as part of the … Continue reading
Posted in Doctor, Missing Monuments, Rest Garden, Royal connection, St Nicholas
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Henry Smithers: Our most recent deceased.
Many of those remembered at the Rest Garden – especially those with the plusher resting places – were not ‘local’. From across the country and around the world they arrived, saw Brighton and died. Henry Smithers was not one of … Continue reading
Posted in Dignitary, Rest Garden, St Nicholas
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The Brighton Mortiquarian 