14) THE TOMBSTONES FROM THE OLD EUROPEAN BURIAL GROUND (OLD ST. MARY'S CEMETERY) OF CALICUT-Curently preserved in the compound of St. Mary's C. S. I. Church (English Church), Nadakkavu, Kozhikode.

Tombstones from the old European cemetery of Calicut, now on display in the premises of St. Mary's CSI Church, Nadakkavu, Kozhikkode.

In Calicut (Kozhikode), near the Government General Hospital (former Beach Hospital) was an European cemetery. Known variously as old Dutch cemetery, old English or Anglican cemetery, old St. Mary's cemetery-Zillathodie etc., the graveyard became almost full by 1878 and was eventually closed. Today, in the site of the cemetery is a park named after the famous British administrator of Malabar, Henry Valentine Connolly. He was the Collector and Magistrate of Malabar, who held the post for 14 years before brutally murdered by four Mappila insurgents on 11 September, 1855 and was buried in the same graveyard of Calicut. 

 Conolly or Kanoli Park, Kozhikode- the site of former old European cemetery today.

Tombstone of Henry Valentine Conolly

The earliest recorded burial in the cemetery is said to be of Richard Harrison, son of Edward Harrison-Governor of Fort St. George, who died on 14 April, 1717 at the age of 20. The site is assumed to be a Dutch cemetery before the British, but no records of Dutch burials are known. According to William Logan (1887), the earliest inscription in the cemetery goes back to the 17th century; whereas Charles A Innes (1908) assigns an even earlier date (16th century), but none of them have come with any specific burial details. Roberts and Chekkutty (2017, pp. 17-28) have collected an inventory which lists 149 burials in the cemetery, the oldest are from the 18th century. In addition to Richard Harrison (d. 1717), this inventory gives the names of three more individuals from the 18th century, viz. William Burchell, d. March 1793 (1794 is the date on the actual tombstone); John Stevens Agnew, d. May 1793 and Alexander Porter, d. May, 1795. According to this list, the last person to be interred in the old cemetery is an infant named Sidney Smith, dated 28 December, 1879. Ironically, in 1905, when Julian James Cotton surveyed the cemetery, he enumerated only 14 graves, which surprisingly, include all the four burials from the 18th century. Another noted burial in the site is Ensign Robert Anderson Wyse, who was killed by the Mappila rebels at Manjerry in 1849 (see my previous posts on his burial monument). Robert Hodges Peirce (d. 28 November, 1878), co-founder of the famous Peirce & Leslie Co, and two of his infant children were also buried in this cemetery. He was one of the last to be interred in this cemetery.

Memorials for Robert Hodges Peirce and his two infant children in the walls of the St. Mary's CSI Church, Kozhikode

Apparently, in 1958, the Calicut Municipality removed all the crumbling gravestones and converted the place into a 'Conolly Park'. However, it is not clear if the tombstones were shifted to the St. Mary's English church immediately or it was done later. In a report (see here), the transfer of the tombstones to the English church happened only in 1997. Today, 22 tombstones from the old cemetery are on display in the premises of the St. Mary's CSI Church (English Church) at Nadakkavu, Kozhikode. Out of which, 18 tombstones are arranged horizontally on a slanting concrete platform joining the western compound wall of the church, in a section south to the western gate of the church. Conolly's tombstone is kept in a vertical standing position and preserved separately by inserting to the same compound wall, north to the western gate of the church. On either side of the main (west) door of the church are memorials for Robert Peirce and his two infant children who were buried in the old cemetery. However, whether these markers are actual tombstones retrieved from the old cemetery or they are just memorial tablets added afterwards needs to be scrutinized. On a positive note, the sculptor's identity is revealed at the end of the stone tablets as 'C. S. Trotter, Madras', a name seen in tombstones made during the mid-to-late 19th century in South India. Nevertheless, it is unusual that Cotton failed to observe these grave markers in the old cemetery in 1905.  Eastwick (1879) states: "the English burial ground, which is close to the pier (of Calicut) is now so full (1878) that it is about to be closed, and land has been purchased for a new cemetery" and that "many of the inscriptions on the tombs have become wholly obliterated or illegible". 

St. Mary's CSI or English church, Nadakkavu, Kozhikkode

Only 22 tombstones have survived from the old cemetery, and yet not all these epitaphs are complete, because many inscriptions have worn away with time and the letters are faintly visible; some are broken and their fragments lost. The eulogy verses written in some of the epitaphs are beyond recognition. Nevertheless, since they contain usual Biblical verses, Latin phrases etc. used in typical headstones, by identifying the key words, I could retrieve the illegible texts. The biggest challenge was to identify the blurry or obliterated numerals representing dates and ages of the deceased. Thanks mainly to the inventory in Roberts and Chekkutty (2017), I could fill the missing gaps in the difficult grave markers. I am hereby uploading the close-up images of all the 22 tombstones. Among the tombstones from the 18th century, it seems only that of William Burchel (d. 8 March 1794) has survived. Interestingly, it is the only non-rectangular (oval shaped) tombstone in the lot and also one of the best preserved. The latest tombstone is for an infant named George Andrew Frederick Daniel, who died on 21 March, 1882. The youngest interred in the cemetery are the two children of Robert Hodges Peirce, both died at the age of 6 days! Here I have the epitaphs of all the tombstones and their complete inscriptions added along with the corresponding images. 

Following is the list of the 22 tombstones in the ascending chronological order of death (i.e from the earliest to the latest burial).

No	Name	Date of Death	Age
1	William Burchall	8 March, 1794	36
2	Eliza Babington	25 May, 1822	33
3	William Milnes	24 November, 1830	29
4	Daughter of Robert & Margaret Nelson	3 June, 1836	2 months
5	Samuel Adolphus Rehe	14 November, 1837	48
6	Jane Fraser	12 August, 1838	26
7	Christie Hewett	6 March, 1839	24
8	John Shaw Grieve	6 April, 1846	33
9	Harry Gough	22 April, 1846	27
10	Harriet Buchanan	7 August, 1846
11	John Fullerton Brown	30 January, 1848	47 years 9 months 4 days
12	Robert Anderson Wyse	28 August, 1849
13	Frank Arthur Bolton	29 May, 1855	16 days
14	Henry Valentine Conolly	11 September, 1855	48
15	William Ebery	6 December, 1859	57
16	Jessie Caroline	10 March, 1863	6 days
17	Thomas Gwynn	11 August, 1864	65
18	Sarah Montgomery	19 August, 1864	20
19	Charles Gore	17 July, 1871	6 days
20	David Joseph	16 June, 1878	9
21	Robert Hodges Peirce	28 November, 1878	51
22	George Andrew Frederick Daniel	21 March, 1882	4 months 27 days

13a) WHERE WAS ENSIGN WYSE BURIED-MANJERI OR CALICUT (KOZHIKODE)?

In the previous post, I discussed about the burial monument of Ensign Wyse at Manjeri in the Malappuram district. What is odd about this grave is that the epitaph appears to be from a later period. Moreover, it is unusual that the first name of the deceased is not given in the tombstone. Interestingly, an 1879 document (Edward B. Eastwick, Handbook of the Madras presidency-with a notice of the overland route to India, 2nd edition, p. 295) gives the location of Wyse's grave in the English burial ground of Calicut (Kozhikode). In this report, we learn his full name as Robert Anderson Wyse, described as an Ensign who was killed on 28th august, 1849, while leading a detachment of the 43rd Regiment N. I. against some insurgents. Similarly, in the inventory collected by Roberts and Chekkutty (Malabar II Christian Memorials, 2017, pp. 51, 113), Robert Anderson Wyse was buried at the old St. Mary's cemetery in Calicut.  We learn that Wyse was appointed as an Ensign in the 43rd Regiment of the Native Infantry on 27 August, 1844 (East-India Register and Army List, 1849, p. 94). 

Although this burial ground of Calicut is extinct today, a few of the tombstones have survived and are preserved in the compound of St. Mary's CSI church (also known as the English  church) at Nadakkavu, Kozhikode. Fortunately, we have the headstone of Wyse in this precious lot. It is a riddle as to why the tombstone of Wyse is preserved in Calicut, while he was killed and apparently buried at the site of his death in Manjeri. The tombstone in Manjeri clearly states that his remains lie in the grave built over there. Could it be that the monument in Manjeri is only a memorial erected at the site of his death, and the remains were taken to Calicut and buried at the old Christian cemetery there. In the upcoming post, I will be focusing on the tombstones retrieved from the extinct old cemetery of Calicut, which include the headstone of Ensign Robert Anderson Wyse as well. The most famous burial at this lost cemetery was that of Henry Valentine Conolly, who was the Collector and Magistrate of Malabar from 1841 to 1855.

13b) THE LONE BRITISH GRAVE MONUMENT OF ENSIGN WYSE (DIED, 28TH AUGUST, 1849), MANJERI, MALAPPURAM

 

Inside the compound of Government Boys’ Higher Secondary School (HSS) at Manjeri in Malappuram district is a solo grave monument. It is supposedly the tomb of Ensign Wyse from the 43rd regiment of Madras Native Infantry (M. N. I.). The regiment was under Captain R. P. K. Watt and was brought from Calicut to defeat the Mappila outbreak of Manjeri in 1849. Wyse was killed by the Mappila insurgents across a paddy field adjacent to the Kunnath (Mathrukunnu) Bhagavathi Temple in Manjeri on 28th August, 1849 and was apparently buried near the site of his death.  

A letter from the Assistant Magistrate, Charles Collett to H V Conolly, Magistrate of Malabar, written on the same day (28th August, 1849) has a first-hand report of the incident. The letter says:  "Ensign Wyse preceded his men out of the paddy fields, some three or four men followed, the rest evidently hung back, and though there was a good deal of firing, strange to say, it did not appear to be with any effect; the first insurgent, though frequently fired at, was not hit, and in fact, was killed by Ensign Wyse, with his own hand. Others now came down upon Ensign Wyse, and I am informed that one of them seized him by the jacket, and he received a wound, when he appears to have fallen and was of course quickly put to death; but by this time, three of the insurgents had fallen, and now those men in the detachment who alone had emulated their officer, fell, one of them having first gallantly bayoneted the man who gave Mr. Wyse his death wound" (Correspondence on Moplah Outrages in Malabar, for the Years 1849-53, 1863, pp. 8-9). Two years later, another report in Allen's Indian Mail, dated, Saturday, November 1, 1851 (p. 653), has the following details: "About fifteen Moplahs rushed out from a mosque, in which they were posted, when nearly all the Sepoys, though outnumbering the fanatics four to one, fired at random, and, without waiting for a collision, fled, leaving Ensign Wyse and six gallant fellows who stood by him to be cut to pieces".

The grave has certainly undergone restoration as evident from the cement coatings and the inscriptions that are probably added afterwards. In fact, when William Logan recorded the grave in Malabar Manual (1887, vol. 2, p. 365), he found it had no inscription. Today, the grave bears two set of inscriptions, the one on the cemented top is very brief and has the writing: 

"ENSION WYSE
28 AUG 1849";

whereas the inscription inserted in a black marble stone on the side of the tomb reads: 

"HERE LIE
THE REMAINS OF
ENSIGN WYSE
OF THE 43RD REGIMENT M. N. I.
WHO WAS SLAIN NEAR THIS SPOT
ON THE 28TH AUGUST 1849".  

If indeed this is the actual grave of Ensign Wyse, it's a miracle that the isolated monument remains intact even after 175 years. The tomb is situated near the western compound wall of the school on an elevated spot that can be reached after climbing 12 steps beside a palash tree (Butea monosperma).