Cemeteries in Calcutta

Calcutta cemeteries listed in the Bengal Obituary¹ are:

1. St John's Churchyard - from 1709 and maybe earlier.
2. South Park Street Cemetery - "The Great Burial Ground of Chowringhee" - opened on 25 August 1767.
3. North Park Street Cemetery "New burial ground Chowringhee" - probably opened in 1799 - on the opposite side of the road to South Park Street but no longer in existence. It was the final resting place of Richmond Thackeray (father of novelist), Lt Col James Achilles Kirkpatrick (the White Mughal) and other well known persons.
4. The Mission Cemetery - "The Mission Burial Ground, Chowringhee, commonly called Mr Kiernander's" - opened in or by 1773 for the wife of Rev John Zachariah Kiernander but no longer in existence.
5. Tiretta's Cemetery - "The French or Tiretta's Burial Ground, Park Street" - earliest record 1796, also no longer in extistence.
6. Bhowanipore Cemetery - "The Military Burial Ground, beyond the General Hospital was opened in the year 1782-3"
7. Lower Circular Road (at 184 Acharya Jagadis Bose Road) - "The New Burial Ground, Circular Road" was opened on 29 April 1840 for the remains of Captain E T Milner's child. This cemetery is still in use. However, the condition of the older graves in general is not good.
8. Scottish Cemetery (3 Karaya Road) - "The Scotch & Dissenters Burial Ground - was purchased in 1820.
9. Armenian Church & Cemetery - the Armenian Church of St Nazareth built 1724 has a burial ground attached to it.
10. Greek Church & cemetery - the Greek Church of the Transfiguration of Our Blessed Redeemer on Mount Tabor was consecreted 6 August 1781, but demolished and a new one built at Kalighat in 1926. "Greek cemetery at 105 Narkeldanga Main Road is forlorn" (NB: Interestingly I have a CD of pictures of Greek gravestones which was given to me, but need transcribing).
11. Portuguese Church & burial grounds of which there seem to be several, the most notable may be the Portuguese Burial Ground at Boithakhana, opened on 8 February 1786.

3, 4 and 5 above adjoined opposite the South Park Street Cemetery which has been recently restored to a good standard. The sites of these cemeteries are now occupied by tall buildings.

There are Roman Catholic cemetries at 22 Convent Road and 169 Baliaghata Main Road.

Also mentioned are:

• The Jewish Cemetery at 45 Narikeldanga Main Road
• 5 Chinese Cemeteries

Burial grounds were also located at Dum Dum, Barrackpore, Serampore, Chandernagore, Chinsurah, Bandel and Howrah (epitaphs from which are represented in The Bengal Obituary - see Notes below). Many maritime related burials took place at Howrah, where St Thomas' Church and Cemetery were established in 1833.

Records

Bengal Past and Present: Journal of the Calcutta Historical Society, available at the British Library has a list of burials based on the original registers in Calcutta, two articles written by Rev W. K. Firminger. They are probably mostly covered by the Ecclesiastical Returns in the B.L., however there may be some additional entries which never made it to England (e.g. the ship carrying the returns to England was lost). There are also some biographical details.

• Burials 1713-1755 Volume 10 (1915) pages 257-284 (author not known)
• Burials 1759-1761 Volume 5 (Jan-June 1910) pages 136-142
• Burials 1762-1774 Volume 6 (July-Dec 1910) pages 92-126.

Notes

1. The full Bengal Obituary (1851) can be viewed online at archive.org or Google Books

External Links

• Christian Burial Board The Christian Burial Boards online search facility for access to grave records and pottahs of burials dating back to the 1700s

• This link and this link from the India List are about Lower Circular Road Cemetery

• Scottish Cemetery Kolkata The official blog for the team who went to Kolkata in 2008 to survey the Scottish Cemetery for The Kolkata Scottish Heritage Trust

• Photographs of Scottish Cemetery, Park Street Cemetery, St Andrew's Church BBD Bagh, Bishop's House

• Mullickbazar grave of Economist founder James Wilson, died 11 August 1860, in this link from the Telegraph, Calcutta

Historical books online:

• Asiaticus : In Two Parts. Part One, Ecclesiastical, Chronological and Historical Sketches. Part Two, the Epitaphs in the Different Burial Grounds in and about Calcutta by John Hawkesworth 1803. (80 pages) (Google Books)

• The Complete Monumental Register: Containing All the Epitaphs in the Different Churches and Burial Grounds in and about Calcutta by M Derozario 1815 (230 pages) (Google Books). Index of names.