Infants of the 19th Century: Child Graves in Ross Bay Cemetery

View Ross Bay European Infant and Children Burials in a larger map
    For our memorial monument analysis we examined ten graves in the F section of Ross Bay cemetery. This is one of the original areas of the cemetery created in 1872 rather than the parts that were added during the 1890 expansion. The majority of the grave markers in this area are from the 18th century or early 19th century with a few modern exceptions.
   We chose this section because we were interested in child mortalities in the 19th century so it was logical to examine one of the older areas of the Ross Bay Cemetery.
    Unfortunately, because section F was traditionally the poor section of the cemetery many of the graves, child and otherwise, wouldn't be marked. Since we cannot record these graves, our results might not be correct. Also, we didn't have a comparative sampling of children's graves from later years to compare the monuments to so we couldn't get a contrast for our results.
Research Questions:
1. What was the average age of the deceased infants? What could this indicate about the families they came from?
2. Are there any trends in the decoration of the grave monuments?
3. Were they buried alone or with family and what might this indicate about he economic status of the people that buried them?

 When he lower area of section F at the Ross Bay Cemetery was traditionally used for destitute citizens, criminals and suicides (Adams, 1998: 22) which makes it probable that at least some of the grave monuments that we examined belonged to the lower class citizens of 19th century Victoria. The grave monuments themselves were simple in design consisting mostly of shouldered or simple tablets, plaques or scroll-faced markers (Adams, 1998: 43).
  Fortunately, most of the inscriptions on the tombstones were still legible so we were able to collect the ages of all the children at the 10 monuments we examined. All but one (Edward Sehl aged 4 years and 8 months) of the infant burials we found were aged one year or less; many of them only survived a few months. The short life span of the 12 infants recorded at these memorial sites suggest at several possible trends in their lifestyle. Several died within a few days which might have been due to undernourished mothers or inhospitable birthing conditions. The short lifespans of the others could be due to malnourishment and childhood diseases with no medical treatment. Birchenall mapped the trend between poverty and increased mortality in statistics taken between 1640-2000 in Whales (2007). He noted that increases in child mortality was linked to malnutrition in their parents. Neglect is another possible cause of infant mortality but it seems unlikely in these cases since the families went to the trouble of memorializing them.
      Other than the simplistic nature of the memorial monuments, there weren't many commonalities observed between markers. One trend observed on three of the stones is a small lamb. The lamb is only found on graves markers dedicated to solely children rather than monuments also dedicated to adults. This might be meant to denote the innocence and/or youth of the individual buried there.
   Another trend is markers dedicated to more than one individual. Four of the grave monuments are dedicated to at least two individuals; one actually has 5 individuals inscribed on it. This could reinforce the modest means of the people who funded the inhumations since placing multiple individuals in one plot or at least commemorating them on one monument would be more cost effective than placing them in individual places.
  Overall, the monuments are suggestive of people of modest means due to the shape and, sometimes, the multiple individuals inscribed on them. The short lifespans on the children commemorated are evidence of a harsh lifestyle both their own and that of their parents.  
 Adams, J. 1998. A historic guide to Ross Bay cemetery. Victoria, BC: Morriss printing company ltd.
 Nirchenall, J.A., 2007. Escaping high mortality. Econ Growth 12: 351-387.