Since my last article, I have been corrected that the first Anglican burial was in fact in 1858, not 1856, the Catholic graves are still the responsibility of the Catholic Church and that the Presbyterian graves were given to Auckland Council in 2013. The Devonport Museum has an earlier Anglican burial list.
When you think about who may be buried in one of the cemeteries on Mount Victoria, certain prominent names immediately come to mind. Eruera Maihi Patuone, who died 19 September 1872, has a headstone in the Anglican cemetery. There are also two of his sons without headstones; Hori Hare Patuone who was buried 8 April 1878 and another but unfortunately un-named who was buried 7 December 1886.
There are four of the Alison family buried there. Alexander and Jane were the parents of Ewen Alison, with Alexander buried in the Presbyterian or general cemetery 30 June 1887 and Jane who died 4 February 1893. They have a headstone. Also buried there are John (1883) who was Alexander's brother and Roderick (22 February 1882) who was one of Ewen's brothers. The remainder of that generation are buried at O'Neill's Point Cemetery.
There are three of the Duder family buried in the Anglican cemetery on Mount Victoria. Thomas died 15 August 1875 and his wife Margaret died 31 October 1879. Also buried with them is Frederick Thomas who died 8 March 1888 aged just five years old.
There are also three of the Wynyard family. Captain Gladwyn John Richard Wynyard of the 58th Regiment died 11 February 1871 and buried with him in the Anglican cemetery were a baby Gladwin who was buried 3 July 1886 and Mary Ann (nee Tuhi) who was buried 6 June 1906.
Perhaps the biggest family buried there is the Burgess one with four separate headstones all near each other. There is Isaac James (buried 31 August 1904), his wife Sarah (died 9 May 1916), daughter Elizabeth (died 21 September 1867), Isaac's mother Elizabeth (died 1 April 1869), William Henry (died 8 March 1912), Margaret his wife (died 18 November 1894), William Isaac a son (died 4 June 1869) and Henry Isaac (died 22 January 1875).
Others are just known by a surname, with no other personal details, while two are just listed as 'Māori adult', buried 4 May 1877 and 'Māori child', the latter buried in the Catholic cemetery 4 February 1888. As with other cemeteries of this time, not all burials had headstones or were named on the family headstone, even if they were buried with the rest of their family. There are at least 616 separate burials in the three cemeteries, but there could well be others as yet unidentified due to paucity of records.
However, what is also notable is who isn't buried there, as their deaths were too early for that cemetery. Although Joseph Burns was hanged in Devonport (at that time Flagstaff) for the 1847 Snow murders, he was buried in the Victoria Street gaol on the city side and then re-interred with others in the Symonds Street Cemeteries. Robert, Hannah and Mary Snow are also buried in the Anglican section of Symonds Street Cemeteries. Kirk Page in 1982 wrote a fictionalised account of the Snow murders 'A tangled web', while Terry Carson has recently written 'The axeman's accomplice; the true story of Margaret Reardon and the Snow family murders'. Page underplays, while Carson perhaps overplays the role of Burns' common law wife Margaret Reardon in the killings. Patuone's whanau were initially blamed for the murders and then Burns blamed Thomas Duder. It's still a mystery whether Burns did act alone as he later contradicted himself and blamed Margaret Reardon instead.
By David Verran
