19) TRACING THE OLDEST EXTANT EUROPEAN GRAVE IN CALICUT (KOZHIKODE)- RICHARD HARRISON, DIED 14 APRIL, 1717.

The Cemetery of St Mary's CSI Church or English Church, Nadakkavu, Kozhikode. The grave of Richard Harrison is in the foreground.

In a previous post [see here], I discussed about the old extinct European cemetery in Kozhikode. A total 22 tombstones from this graveyard are preserved in the courtyard of the present St Mary's CSI Church (English Church) at Nadakkkavu. Among the 149 burials recorded in this cemetery, the oldest are four graves from the 18th century, viz. Richard Harrison, d. 1717; John Stevens Agnew, d. 1793; William Burchell, d. 1794; and Alexander Porter, d. 1795 (Cotton, 1905; Roberts and Chekkutty, 2017).

However, since only the tombstone of William Burchell is preserved in the courtyard of the English Church today, the remaining three are believed to be lost with their graves in the old cemetery. At least, this was my assumption until I bumped into the fully intact grave (not just the tombstone) of Richard Harrison in the cemetery of this church. Thus, the grave of Richard Harrison, who died on 14 April, 1717 at the age of 20 has survived and it is located in the English cemetery of St Mary's CSI Church at Nadakkavu. 

 The Grave of Richard Harrison [ d. 14 April, 1717]

How a grave from 1717 is found in the cemetery of a church established in 1864 needs to be addressed. According to the inventory collected by Roberts and Chekkutty (2017), the Nadakkavu English cemetery had 249 burials and it was active between 1880 and 1905 only. Almost all the graves listed in the inventory are dated from 1880 onward. There is also no evidence suggesting a European cemetery functioned at Nadakkavu 150 years before the church was established there. Moreover, all available records indicate that Richard Harrison was buried in the old English Cemetery near the modern Government General Hospital (Beach Hospital) of Kozhikode where 'Connolly/Kanoli Park, Customs Road' is now. Therefore, how did this unique grave from the old cemetery ended at Nadakkavu remains a mystery.

The epitaph is bilingual and is divided into two sections, Latin and English. Cotton (1905) has the full inscription as given below. 

LATIN

Sub hoc marmore reponuntur relliquiae RICARDI HARRISON armigeri qui natus circiter viginti annos e vita excessit XIV Aprilis MDCCXVII.

ENGLISH

Here lyeth the body of Richard Harrison, Esq., who departed this life the 14th of April 1717, aged, about 20 years.

Cotton [1905] presumes Richard to be the son of Edward Harrison, Governor of Fort St. George [Madras] from 1711 to 1717. He also mentions of A. Richard Harrison, who was the name sake of the deceased, whose name appears in the list of seafaring men “not constant inhabitants", who were allowed to make Fort St. George their head-quarters.

The tomb was discovered quite unexpectedly while I was examining the graves in the cemetery at English church. The blackened epitaph was covered under dirt and vegetation and even after cleaning, the inscriptions were barely visible. In fact, it was only afterwards while going through the photographs, the unusual size and style of the letters got my attention, and upon closer look it turned out to be one of the oldest European graves reported from Calicut, one that was long thought to be lost. In the upcoming post I will cover the grave monuments of this interesting cemetery in the English Church at Nadakkavu, Kozhikode.

REFERENCES

Cotton, Julian James (1905)-List of Inscriptions on Tombs or Monuments in Madras
Roberts, John Cantwell and Chekkutty, N P (2017)-Malabar II: Christian Memorials Wynad to Travancore 1498-2014