Tag: Vilett Street

The Fortune family and those pesky grave markers

This is a tale of two disintegrating headstones and a misplaced grave marker. What began as an attempt to trace the occupants of two neighbouring graves has involved some confusing paperwork, but I’ve got there in the end.

This is a cautionary tale of relying too heavily on the terracott grave markers in the cemetery. These portable brick like markers stamped with a letter and a number can be a big help when trying to pin point a plot, however they are very often in the wrong place. Perhaps back in the working day when there was a team of staff caring for the cemetery these markers were a useful identification aid. Unfortunately today they can be more of a hindrance, leading those searching for a grave on a confusing journey.

Many of the earliest burials in the newly opened cemetery took place here in Section A in the 1880s. In this area there are many public graves with numerous unrelated occupants. Funerals have always been an expensive business for the poor and frequently they had to bury their loved ones in a communal grave without a headstone. However, there are surviving headstones in Section A, among them several like these two badly weathered examples. Sadly, the inscriptions are completely lost and so it would appear is the identity and history of those buried here.

Someone has at some point propped up two of these grave markers at the back of one of the headstones, so I decided to see if they helped unlock the identity of who is buried here.

A consultation of the cemetery map quickly revealed that these are not the numbers of the two adjacent headstones. Grave plot A555 is a few rows removed from A340, as you can see from this image. However the marker for A340 is probably in the right location. The number of the neighbouring grave is plot A341 so now it was time to hit the burial registers, firstly the grave plot register.

After some research I was able to confirm that the two plots belong to the same extended family; the first of these to be buried in the new cemetery was Sarah Fortune, wife of William Fortune. She was 81 years old and her last home was at 1 Vilett Street, New Swindon where she lived with her daughter and her family. Her funeral took place on December 21, 1881 in plot A340.

The second family member to be interred in the cemetery was Mary Pickett, Sarah’s daughter. Mary was 67 years old and her funeral took place on May 3, 1890. Her last home had been Alderley, Gloucester, which has a connection to her husband’s family. Mary was buried in plot A340.

On October 11, 1904 Kate Minnie Brond was buried in plot A341. Kate was 35 years old and the granddaughter of Sarah Fortune. Her last home was at 25 Devizes Road where she lived with her parents Richard and Charlotte Fortune, her three younger sisters and her son Wilfrid Brond.

The last burial in this plot was on December 7, 1904. Wilfrid Percival Brond aged 5 years old died just weeks after the death of his mother.

Entries in the burial registers are slightly confusing. Sarah Fortune is described as being buried in plot A340 but the entry for her daughter Mary suggests she is the only one buried there. The details for plot A341 list Kate Brond, W.P. Brond and S. Fortune. All that we can be sure of is that Sarah Fortune is buried in one of these family graves. No doubt the lost inscription on the headstones would have settled the matter.

So, now all that is left to do is discover if there is a headstone on plot A555 and find out who is buried there.

Dibsdall family

Dibsdall 2

This magnificent cross is a memorial to members of the Dibsdall family.

Susan Dibsdall is the first member of the family to be buried here. Susan was baptised on November 8, 1809 one of James and Susanna Pope’s six children to be baptised in the parish church at Sherborne, Dorset. Susan married Thomas Dibsdall at the parish church in Bedminster on May 13, 1830.

At the time of the 1841 census the couple were living in Cheap Street, Sherborne with their seven children where Thomas worked as a smith. By 1851 they were living in the Parade, Sherborne where the couple’s eldest three sons, Thomas, Charles and William, worked alongside their father as smiths. The family now comprised 11 children, but Thomas would die shortly after the census was taken that year.

In 1861 Susan was living at Green Hill with her two youngest sons Henry and Godfrey. Ten years later she was working as a housekeeper for Mary Thomas, described on the census as ‘Lady’.

By 1881 she had left Sherborne, her home for more than 60 years, to live with her son Woodford Dean Dibsdall. Woodford, who was married with his own large family, had lived for a few years in Camberwell. It is thought he moved to Swindon and a job in the Works in about 1874.

The Dibsdall family have a double size burial plot in Radnor Street Cemetery and a large memorial. Edward Dean Dibsdall died in the University Hospital London aged 19 and was buried on April 30, 1902 alongside his grandmother Susan in plot E7039. Ellen, Woodford’s wife, died in 1920 aged 81 years and Woodford in July 1928 aged 83. They are buried together in plot E7040.

Susan Dibsdall – Personal Estate £966 3rd August.

The will as contained in Writings A and B of Susan Dibsdall late of 8 Vilett Street New Swindon in the County of Wilts Widow who died 1st January 1882 at 8 Vilett Street was proved at the Principal Registry by Thomas Dean Dibsdall of 28 Lambeth road Lambeth in the County of Surrey Blacksmith Henry Pope Dibsdall of 22 Denmark Street St Giles in the Fields in the County of Middlesex Carpenter and Woodford Dean Dibsdall of 8 Vilett Street Engine Fitter the Sons the Executors

Dibsdall, Woodford Dean of 4 Sheppard Street, Swindon, Wiltshire died 18 July 1928 Probate Salisbury 20 August to Arthur George Dibsdall railway works inspector Effects £1089 12s 4d.