Jane Deans' Stand for Religious Freedom at Barbadoes Street Cemetery

See how packed in these graves are? And the plot map confirms it, they really squeezed them into every possible spot here. You'll also notice the iron railings are quite prominent, and a lot of the headstones are vertical slabs. It’s actually quite sheltered here, thanks to a number of yew trees.

This is the Addington Cemetery, and it was opened in 1858. It was also known as the ‘Scotch Cemetery’ back then. The Presbyterians bought these five acres on Selwyn Street to use as a graveyard. This was part of Rural Section 66, which was originally granted to J. R. Buchanan.

The Presbyterians were led by people like the Rev. Charles Fraser, who arrived in 1856, and laymen such as John Craib Angus, William ‘Cabbage’ Wilson, and the ironmaster John Anderson. Their church, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian, was then on St. Andrew’s Corner, opposite Hagley Park and the Christchurch Public Hospital. It’s now in the grounds of Rangi Ruru School.

They bought this land because of Jane Deans. She was a Presbyterian, and when the Church of England said they were going to consecrate their section of the Barbadoes Street Cemetery, she wanted her husband, John Deans I, exempted. He had died in 1854. She was told that if she didn't like it, she could have John dug up and reinterred elsewhere. This inspired the Presbyterians to buy this land instead of using the limited area granted to Dissenters in the Barbadoes Street Cemetery.

Even though St. Andrew’s owned it, this cemetery became Christchurch’s first public graveyard. They advertised it as "open to all persons of any religious community and to the performance of any religious service at the burial not contrary to public decency and good order." They didn't try to keep people of different denominations in separate areas.

They also expected the cemetery to make money. Any revenue coming in was to be used for things like buying building sites for religious or educational purposes of the Presbyterian Church, helping those in distress within the parish, building schools and churches, and even establishing bursaries in the Academy or College connected with St. Andrew’s Church. That Academy, by the way, was the ancestor of Christchurch West High School, which is now Hagley High School.

Eventually, like the Barbadoes Street Cemetery, this Addington Cemetery was vested in the Christchurch City Council.