At Rest In Keld
We continue to transfer the Chapel and Institute archives to online and searchable formats. The most recently completed work is the transcription of burial records to the Find a Grave genealogy website. Volunteer David Pemberton shares what he’s learnt.
I was drawn into this project when helping my friend Margaret defend her brother’s grave from the rabbits. Talking with her I realised how important the memorials are in a closely knit community. A few headstones have fallen, some are becoming illegible, many burials have no grave marker, and there is a worry that the single copy of the written records may one day be lost. I decided to photograph, digitise, and transcribe the memorials and burial records. At the outset I was unaware that this would become an absorbing and fascinating route into Keld’s history.
To set the scene and the scope. Keld’s graveyard lies to the north and east of the chapel, the main or ‘new’ ground is an east-facing slope of 125 plots. On a fine day the contrast between the green of the surrounding hill crests and the blue of the sky seems to mirror the temporal to spiritual delineation of the graveyard itself. A little over 250 people are buried or commemorated at Keld. The earliest is recorded in 1827 and the graveyard continues in use to this day.
The most pressing task was to photograph the headstones in case of further deterioration or falls. A perfect spring morning provided the ideal light for high definition images. I imagined this to be a quick job, pausing only to pay my respects at the graves of the two people I had met. But soon other names were resonating with my knowledge of local history: Cooper Metcalfe the quarryman from Yorkshire Cottage (E Pontefract & M Hartley) and Susan Peacock famous landlady at Tan Hill, to name but two. And where the name was unfamiliar, the poignancy of the inscription could bring me to a halt, ‘In memory of Alice Scott of Keldside. Who died March 15th 1860, aged 17 years. Erected as a token of affection by her bereaved husband Richard Alderson Scott.’
Photography complete, there was a need to index and share the images. In researching my own family history, I had benefited from the Find a Grave genealogy website. Keld already had an entry and 33 graves had been recorded. I’m sorry to say I have had frequent cause to curse this original contributor for the inaccuracy of his entries and the delay it takes to change records that are not my own. I still haven’t been able to get Find a Grave to correct the name he gave for Keld. The upside of Find a Grave’s lackadaisical approach is, however, that one is free to make unhindered use of their good record structure in creating new entries. Find a Grave periodically transfers its information to Ancestry which I hope will bring our records to people researching their family history.
I’ve never been a ‘collector’, but as I uploaded photographs and transcribed inscriptions to the Find a Grave record template, I realised that I was missing information. I was gripped by a need for completeness: accurate dates of birth and death; linking husbands and wives, parents and children; maiden names; and plot numbers. Worse, I had a sense that people were missing – ghosts in a graveyard. I was sent a partial transcript of the chapel’s burial book, but this only deepened my sense of unease. Did no one die between 1837 and 1890, and where were the children? It was time for me to step away from my laptop and lay hands on the original documents.
The principal document is the ‘Keld Chapel Graveyard Burial Record New Ground Only’, comprising pages within a more general record book. The entries are in the hand of every minister or official until recently. The layout is simple: ruled and numbered by Rev William Crombie at the time of the first burial in Plot 1 of the New Ground. ‘In loving memory of Robert Alderson of West Stonesdale, who departed this life July 5th 1890, aged 76 years.’ Robert a bachelor, had previously lived with his brother Charles at Frith, but by the time of his death was lodging with James Harker and family, leaving a personal estate of £1,158 9s.
It was the New Ground record that I had already seen in transcribed form. What had been omitted from the copy were Crombie’s pages with the heart-breaking title, ‘Record of infants’ burials in the short lengths new ground.’ The short lengths are a wedge-shaped part of the burial ground not large enough for adults. This sense of practicality extends to the entries in the register, which are uncomfortable to modern eyes. Typically sparse is this undated entry by Reverend Crombie, ‘John Peacock’s infant, Thorns, still born’. The mother’s name unmentioned, though doubtless her connection with the child was more profound. I have tried to research these burials to dignify them with more identity. Infant Peacock may never have been named, but the mother was Eleanor Peacock, and he or she was buried between 1887 and 1899.
The archives also hold death certificates dating from 1868 and – rather randomly inserted in another general book – the burial records made by Rev James Wilkson from 1838. The death certificates and Wilkson’s records gave me a lead into the burials in the Old Ground, to the north between the chapel and the community orchard, where almost no headstones remain. Wilkinson’s records convey a great sense of the person – both his and that of the deceased:
“1863 June 19th James Brown departed this life in the 55th year of his age; he was truly a man of God his religious experience was very exemplar; he had many conflicts and trials, but all tended to lead him to a closer attachment to the Saviour. His last days were attended with much bodily weakness and affliction, but his desire was to glorify God in all things so that in him could he see unmistakeable proofs and satisfactory evidences of the faith of Christianity, on July 5th a funeral service was preached from Acts 11-24 to a large and deeply affected congregation.”
By now I felt I had located the records from 1838 to the present day, but a mystery surrounded the ministry of the Rev Edward Stillman. I could only find three burials recorded by Stillman. In 1827 he buried Thomas Bradberry late of Ravenstonedale – Thomas Bradberry married Jane Alderson and they had four children baptized at Keld. In 1830 Edward’s wife Grace Stillman was buried by Rev John Allison, though the record is in Stillman’s own hand. In 1833 he buried Ann Scott wife of Ralph Scott. The next record is Edward Stillman’s own burial in 1837 conducted by Rev Daniel Davis of Low Row. Grace and Edward Stillman were interred in the chapel and a memorial plaque was placed on the east wall to the right of the pulpit.
Did Keld have a burial ground during Stillman’s ministry?
Help to resolve this came from Gillian Figures and Duncan Bythell, both long time historians of Keld. Gillian pointed me to Joan Moody’s memoir of her time at Keld which referred to Edward Stillman buying land as a burial ground. Duncan observed that much of Keld Chapel’s written history is best taken from James Wilkson’s records. So I returned to the old papers and found Wilkson’s 1854 handwritten account of the history of Keld Chapel. He states that after Edward Stillman had paid off the ‘heavy debts’ incurred when the manse and chapel were rebuilt, he went on to buy a piece of land behind the chapel as a burial ground. No specific date is given for this purchase, but the rebuilding was completed in 1818 and it took ‘many begging excursions’ to repay the debt, and presumably sometime thereafter to build up sufficient funds for a land purchase. Nine years from 1818 to Stillman’s first recorded burial in 1827 seems about right.
Why are there only four burials from 1827 to 1838? I think this is explained in two ways. The first, that after the death of his wife in 1830 Edward Stillman’s health declined and his congregation shrank. The second, that the local practice had been to bury at St Mary’s Muker; families probably continued to do this, perhaps to keep a link with other relatives already buried there. Gillian has researched a sample of Muker burials and has found Keld people known to be members of Rev Stillman’s congregation.
The final evidence is physical practicality. The Old Ground has about 60 graves from between 1827 and 1890: given the area of the land, sixty seems its likely capacity. My conclusion is that regular burials at Keld did not start until Wilkinson’s ministry in 1838, and if that is so we now have a near complete record.
I continue to research the burials at Keld and improve the biographical information. Additions and corrections to the existing records can be suggested via the Find a Grave website. If I have missed anyone please email me so that I can create and manage the new entry. The most recent burial at Keld has not been recorded, I’m waiting until the rabbits have been beaten and a good photograph can be taken.