CRICH PARISH

which consists of the villages of Crich, Fritchley and Whatstandwell.

Quaker burials at Toadhole Furnace

© "The Quakers of Fritchley" by Walter Lowndes (1986)

Pages 213 – 223

NAMES OF DECEASED MEMBERS AND ATTENDERS AND THEIR PLACE OF BURIAL OR CREMATION.
The Quakers, in the infancy of their Society were buried in their gardens or orchards, or in fields and premises of one another. They had, at that time, no grave-yards of their own, and they refused to be buried in those of the Church, lest they should acknowledge the validity of the human appointment of the priesthood, the propriety of payment for gospel labour and the peculiar holiness of consecrated ground. This refusal to be buried within the precincts of the Church was considered as the bearing of their testimony for Truth. In the process of time, they raised their meeting houses and burial grounds; sometimes these were at a distance from each other, such that, in later years, they chose to be buried in local cemeteries and, today, an increasing number choose to be cremated.

photo of toadhole furnace

The burial ground at Toadhole Furnace Meeting House, photographed 1980

Many Fritchley Quakers are buried in the burial ground attached to Toad Hole Furnace Meeting House which is about six miles from Fritchley. In 1897 the 'Derbyshire Archaeological Journal' said this of the Meeting House and burial ground.

QUAKER CEMETERY AT TOAD HOLE FURNACE.
This spot lies about midway between the Peacock Hotel and Hall Field Gate, and so snugly sequestred is it, that, unless pointed out, but few travellers would discover its situation, the meeting house being quite at one with an adjoining cottage and contiguous buildings. No memorials mark the humble grave mounds, and the Cemetery would not be recognised as such by a casual visitor. No register is kept, and a few loose certificates in custody of the chapel keeper are the only memoranda of the departed members interred in the little grass plot close by. As there were only sixteen of these at the time of my visit, the readers of the Journal will pardon the Editor for preserving their names in a more permanent manner.

Mary Brandreth, aged 80 or more, June 1,1862
Samuel Bramley, 2nd December 1866
Samuel Bramley, 17th May 1869, the father of Peter Bramley
Isaac Sargent, 3rd May 1871 aged 92 years
Margaret Kelsall, 3rd January 1872 aged about 60
Sarah Bramley, wife of Samuel, 23rd August 1877 age 82
Ann Bramley, daughter-in-law of Sarah and Samuel, the wife of Peter, 18th November 1877
Hope Roots, 8th December 1877
John Helmsley, 20th December 1879 aged about 80
Jane Sargent (sister to Isaac), 29th August 1882
John Sargent (son of Isaac), 29th December 1883
Anders Evertson (from Norway), 21st May 1883
Peter Sadler Wake, 30th June 1883
Thomas Drewry, of Fritchley, 21st August 1884
Ann Wake, 5th July 1884
Ann Brown, aged 92 (date?)

(As these are merely certificates of registration of death by the district registrar, it is probable the interment in each case took place a day or two after the date on the certificate).

On the lintel of the meeting house door is engraven "Matthew Hopkinson, 1745". He is said to have been the owner of Ufton Fields in Oakerthorpe. The place is very cheerless within. There is an upper chamber for the female members. Meetings are held once a quarter.

From other records it appears that Toadhole Furnace was the last Meeting House to be added to those used by Chesterfield Quakers during this period . It appears that the land was purchased by Matthew Hopkinson of Shirland Park from Richard Kirkham in 1741. The building was completed and was handed over to Matthew Burgess of Grooby Lodge, Leicestershire (Matthew Hopkinson's son-in-Iaw),John Rodgers of Alfreton, Richard Rodgers of Alfreton, Jonathon Fletcher of Wessington, Joseph Fletcher of Wessington and William Draycote jr. of Southill in 1744 as trustees. The stone over the doorway was carved with the inscription 'Matthew Hopkinson 1745'. In answer to the Yearly Meeting Queries, the Quarterly Meeting replied in 1745 that a meeting house had been erected, but that no meeting had been settled. When Matthew Hopkinson was issuing instructions for his burial he requested 'that I may be taken to the toadole furnes, and be laid by the stairs that goes upon to the outter wall, as nere as can be and not lett them down’. His burial, in 1748, was the first recorded at the burial ground and is marked by a headstone at the foot of the stairs. Since then a number of families have used the burial ground , many of them from Fritchley
Meeting.

Since 1883, Fritchley Quakers have considered the possibility of having their own burial ground. Furnace was some distance away and was to them associated with the 'larger body' of Friends, the London Yearly Meeting. They raised this matter again in 1885, then in 1913, and finally in 1922, but no burial ground was acquired. Several Fritchley Quakers were buried in the burial ground adjacent to Bakewell Meeting House and others in local cemeteries. Only five cremations have been recorded.

From the Monthly Meeting records, the first Fritchley Quaker to be buried at Furnace was John Helmsley in 1880 and the last was Thomas Pye in 1956. In June 1959, Patricia Woore, a London Yearly Meeting Friend and wife of Alfred Woore was buried at Furnace. Although her husband was a member of Fritchley Meeting, she was only an infrequent attender at the Meeting. Between 1880 and 1959, forty members and attenders were buried at Furnace.

The following list of deaths and places of burial or cremation has been compiled from the record books or from information supplied by older members who are still associated with the Meeting.

Date
Forename
Surname
Age
Place of Burial
18/12/80
John
Hemsley
80
Furnace
25/12/81
Louisa
Gilkes
Bakewell Meeting House
02/03/82
Matilda
Rickman
82
Bakewell Meeting House
26/08/82
Jane
Sargent
90
Furnace
14/06/83
Anders
Evertson
Furnace
27/12/83
John G.
Sargent
70
Furnace
08/04/84
Sarah Ann
Needham
Knaresborough
26/12/85
James
Glover
67
Liverpool
30/01/87
John Bowman
Blake
7
Loughborough Cemetery
20/09/88
Catherine
Sargent
75
Furnace
01/04/94
Catherine Louisa
McCheane
12
Not recorded
09/01/95
Jane
Crisp
Belper
20/03/97
Sikke
Evertson
76
Stavanger, Norway
10/12/97
Benjamin
Bishop
85
Not recorded
16/03/98
Thomas
Drewry
85
Fleetwood
17/02/05
Elizabeth
Wake
50
Selly Oak, Birmingham
22/02/06
Mary Ellen
Fritchley
53
Furnace
14/10/06
Alfred Carter
Hinde
9
Selly Oak, Birmingham
23/02/08
William Amos
Hill
29
Furnace
09/01/09
Elizabeth
Marsden
Furnace
22/02/09
Elizabeth
Swindlehurst
Furnace
08/03/11
Philip
Wake
7
Lodge Hill, Birmingham
15/04/11
Caroline
McCheane
70
Borden, Saskatchewan, Canada
11/05/12
Lucy
Brookes
96
Temple Hill, Dublin
14/04/13
Mary Ann
Blake
Brinklow Cemetery
01/01/14
Henry T.
Wake
82
Furnace
09/02/14
Hannah
Brayton
61
Furnace
09/12/14
Mary Rebecca
Armatage
Nottingham
15/01/15
Lydia Barclay
Sargent
61
Furnace
02/12/16
John
Sadler
62
High Flatts
26/07/17
Horatio
Blake
74
Brinklow Cemetery
30/01/22
John Sadler
Davidson
43
Furnace
06/05/22
Francis Mary
Watkins
65
Furnace
02/01/24
William
McCheane
Borden, Saskatchewan, Canada
08/02/24
Ruth
Tomlinson
Belper
24/02/25
Mary
Davidson
83
Furnace
07/08/26
Edward T.
Newbold
Crich
22/08/27
Ellen Kirkham
Watkins
72
Furnace
14/10/28
Thomas
Davidson
78
Furnace
05/12/28
Arthur Wilfred
Ludlow
18
Belper
06/02/29
Agnes Duguid
Cutts,
Aberdeen
09/02/29
Jesse
Darbyshire
79
Furnace
15/10/31
Mary Elizabeth
Pattinson
Belper
??/10/31
Henry
Sargent
80
Furnace
20/05/32
John Newton
Argyle
Ripley
30/05/32
Elizabeth
Ludlow
23
Belper
18/7/32
Catherine Doubell
Smith
76
Furnace
11/09/33
William J.
Fritchley
79
Furnace
Alfred S.
Sargent
Furnace
31/01/34
Hugh
Wake
74
Borden, Saskatchewan, Canada
23/03/34
Mary
Land
Lodge Hill, Birmingham
19/04/34
Edward
Watkins
86
Furnace
12/12/34
Sophia Gough
Shepherd
84
Clevedon
14/10/35
Jemima Bowman
Blake
61
Rugby
27/03/36
Gopsil Brown
Burtt
Furnace
23/10/36
Thomas
Mander
Furnace
27/11/36
Philip
Darbyshire
55
Furnace
31/07/37
Jane
Lloyd
84
Furnace
04/06/38
Elizabeth
Darbyshire
91
Furnace
09/07/38
Louisa
Pye
82
Furnace
18/01/39
Ian
Curzon
19
Ripley
04/05/39
Joseph
Burtt
76
Furnace
21/01/40
Henry
Lloyd
87
Furnace
20/07/40
George
Smith
Nairobi, Kenya
25/08/40
Alfred
Tomes
60
Belper
21/01/41
H. Whiteley
King
Furnace
22/02/41
Rupert
King
Blackburn
22/01/42
Edwin C.
Hood
84
Belper
21/02/42
Emily D.
Moody
57
Walford, Nr. Ross
29/10/42
Carl
Patterson
Visitor, Buried abroad
11/03/44
Elizabeth May
Burtt
75
Furnace
18/11/44
Margaret
Wake
85
Borden, Saskatchewan, Canada
09/03/46
Alfred
Curzon
58
Ripley
15/12/48
Pricilla Mary
Burlingham
90
Furnace
19/01/49
Percy T.
Moffat
76
Rochdale, after cremation
23/10/51
Ellen
Moffat
Not recorded
30/04/51
Lucy Bradshaw
Watkins
72
Belper
19/02/52
Henry
Darbyshire
27
Crich
25/02/52
Dorothy L.
Watkins
65
Furnace
04/08/52
Lucy E.
Smith
58
Furnace
09/12/52
George
Allen
85
Pontshill, Ross-on-Wye
Late 1954
Robert
Patterson
95
Harvorhill, Suffolk
27/11/54
Edmund
Hatcher
94
Countesthorpe Cemetery
24/04/56
Joseph A.
Woore
80
Furnace
12/06/56
Thomas
Pye
90
Furnace
12/09/56
Emily
Burtt
Whitley Bay
27/05/58
Henry
Darbyshire
72
Crich
08/05/59
Susanna Kelsall
Blake
71
Countesthorpe Cemetery
11/06/59
Patricia
Woore
84
Furnace
09/05/60
John Wake
Joad
17
Belper
10/12/60
Henry
Blake
88
Countesthorpe Cemetery
03/04/61
Arthur Bradshaw
Watkins
76
Cremated at Markeaton, Derby
28/04/62
Lucy
Clarke
Lodge Hill, Birmingham
16/06/62
Maria
Watkins
93
Cremated at Markeaton, Derby
21/12/62
Mary Millie
Watkins
80
Cremated at Markeaton, Derby
22/12/62
Arthur H.
Ludlow
80
Belper
24/05/64
Ruth
Smith
70
Bakewell
26/01/69
Elizabeth
Darbyshire
78
Crich
27/05/69
George W.
Davidson
Nairobi, Kenya
09/07/70
Elizabeth
Davidson
Nairobi, Kenya
15/02/71
Charles H.
Tomes
62
Cremated, then interred at Belper
11/09/71
Emmie
Curzon
Buxton
06/09/72
Jean
Smith
70
Cremated at Markeaton, Derby
12/11/74
Catherine Sargent
Ludlow
94
Belper
09/02/80
Lydia
Tomes
89
Cremated at Markeaton, Derby, ashes taken to Belper Cemetery

Most of the Fritchley Quakers buried in the burial ground at Furnace had no headstone to indicate the place of interment. However, in later years small headstones with a simple inscription were used. This minute concerning Thomas Davidson and dated 2nd, 7th month 1930 is the only reference to headstones on record and may be of some interest.

'The Clerk has received a letter from R. Keith Lindsay, Clerk to the Notts. and Derby Monthly Meeting suggesting that a stone be placed to mark the grave of our late dear Friend Thomas Davidson. The Clerk informs us that he has replied to the Monthly Meeting Clerk to the effect that "we feel sure Thomas Davidson would not have wished it and that we feel that it would make an invidious distinction between his grave and those of other of our dear Friends buried there". This was approved by the Meeting.'

It was not long after this minute was recorded that this 'distinction' became apparent, for a headstone was erected over the grave of Henry Sargent who was buried in October 1933, and soon after, over that of William Joseph Fritchley in 1933. Twenty years later, Henry Smith arranged for a simple headstone to be placed over the graves of his wife, Lucy E. Smith, who died in 1952, and that of his mother Catherine Doubell Smith who died in 1932.

Under the present 'Church Government', Friends are at liberty to adopt the use of place headstones in any burial ground , it being distinctly understood that in all cases they are to be erected under the direction of the Monthly Meeting, so that, in each particular burial ground, such uniformity is preserved in respect to materials, size, form and wording of the stones as well as the mode of placing them, as may effectually guard against any distinction being made in that place between rich and poor.

Quakers in general also felt that the use of gravestones and their inscriptions, was not the proper manner of honouring the dead - they conveyed no merit of the deceased by which his example may be followed. They convey no inspiration and no record of the power and divine grace in human life. It is right that all his good actions should live in the memory of those close to him and, if they be of value to those that follow, they should be prepared in some form of written testimony. Fritchley Meeting prepared several of these testimonies and a number were printed and, today, they have found their way into Quaker homes or are held in the archives of Quaker Libraries.

The library at Fritchley Meeting has, in its archives, testimonies to the lives of John G. Sargent, Thomas Davidson, Jesse Darbyshire, Catherine Doubell Smith, Edward Watkins, Catherine Ludlow and Lydia Tomes.

I have included a plan of Furnace burial ground with the location of many of the graves. In addition to these, the following members or attenders of Fritchley Meeting are also interred in the burial ground.

Isaac Sargent (Father of John G. Sargent)
John Hemsley
Jane Sargent (Sister of Isaac)
John G. Sargent
Anders Evertson
Peter Sadler Wake
Ann Wake
Catherine Sargent
Elizabeth Marsden
Thomas Mander

plan of quaker burial plots

I have been unable to locate the place of their interment.

There are twelve headstones some of which are difficult to read; here
they are as I saw them in 1979.
Matthew Hopkinson died 1748
Mary E. Fritchley Age 53 22/02/1906
George Fell Shackleton (Ireland) Age 37 19/07/13
Henry Sargent Age 80 ??/10/31
Catherine Doubell Smith Age 76 18/07/33
William J. Fritchley Age 79 11/09/33
Pricilla Mary Burlingham Age 90 15/12/48
Lydia Ann Swindlehurst Age 82 10/03/51
Lucy Evelyn Smith Age 58 03/08/52
William James Swindlehurst Age 89 31/03/196?
Samuel King Age and date obliterated by erosion

There is one other stone with all information totally obliterated.

photo of quaker burial stones

The burial ground with the headstones of Lucy E. Smith and Catherine Smith in the foreground and in the background

The book "The Quakers of Fritchley" by Walter Lowndes is still available from the Fritchley Society of Friends. It is well illustrated and an interesting read.

We are grateful for their permission to use extracts from the book.


The following transcript of Toadhole burials was done by Heather Eaton and is reproduced with her permission.

NC a= Non conformist

PARISH
NC
VOL
ENTRYNO.
SURNAME
FORENAMES
DAY
MONTH
YEAR
AGE
OTHER
145
a
1
1
DRAYCOAT
WILLIAM
20
October
1758
36
145
a
1
2
FLETCHER
JONA
9
December
1758
[ - ]
145
a
1
3
ROGERS
JOHN
5
March
1766
66
145
a
1
4
SUTTEN
ANN
23
April
1767
40
145
a
1
5
FLETCHER
JOSEPH
30
June
1767
61
145
a
1
6
SUTTON
ANN
1768
2
145
a
1
7
FLETCHER
ANN
December
1771
60
145
a
1
8
JOHNSON
THOMAS
15
August
1778
64
145
a
1
9
WALKER
ANN
16
April
1779
5
145
a
1
10
WALKER
MARY
18
April
1779
3
145
a
1
11
SUTTEN
ANN
28
February
1786
47
145
a
1
12
JOHNSON
THOMAS
17
April
1786
8 mo
145
a
1
13
JOHNSON
MARY
19
December
1788
71
145
a
1
14
WILLIAM
JOE
8
March
1789
25 dy
145
a
1
15
WALKER
JOHN
11
March
1792
21
non member
145
a
1
16
NEWTON
THOMAS
18
May
1793
1
145
a
1
17
WATSON
JOHN
19
June
1793
65
145
a
1
18
BEARDALL
HANNAH
14
August
1793
24
non member
145
a
1
19
SUTTON
JEREMIAH
9
January
1797
6
145
a
1
20
WILLIAMSON
EDWARD
22
January
1797
71
145
a
1
21
WALKER
JOHN
14
February
1800
59
non member
145
a
1
22
NEWTON
DIOCLESIAN
16
July
1801
39
145
a
1
23
SUTTON
JOSEPH
18
July
1804
71
145
a
1
24
METCALF
ELIZABETH
10
May
1805
90
145
a
1
25
HODGKINSON
MARY
26
February
1807
61
non member
145
a
1
26
WALKER
MARY
30
January
1812
73
145
a
1
27
LISTER
JOHN
19
December
1813
52
non member
145
a
1
28
BROWN
JOHN
29
May
1816
88
145
a
1
29
BROWN
SARAH
21
July
1820
6
145
a
1
30
JOHNSON
ANN
12
August
1820
80
145
a
1
31
BROWN
ANN
6
June
1821
70
145
a
1
32
BROWN
ELIZABETH
9
July
1823
55
145
a
1
33
JOHNSON
JONATHAN
30
March
1825
80
145
a
1
34
SUTTEN
JOSEPH
27
January
1826
33
145
a
1
35
DAVY
ELIZA
3
January
1827
26
145
a
1
36
BROWN
SUSANNA
7
September
1829
45
145
a
1
37
BROWN
WILLIAM
8
April
1830
77
non member
145
a
1
38
BROWN
EDWIN
30
November
1831
22
145
a
1
39
BROOKS
LYDIA
25
November
1832
68
non member
145
a
1
40
BROWN
JOHN
28
February
1836
80
non member

Kerry's notes of Quaker Burials

Thanks to Heather Eaton for the above.

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