Visit the Southampton Quaker Burial Ground originally opened in 1662.
A Quaker meeting began in Southampton after a visit of George Fox, one of the founding Quakers, in 1655. Early Friends (Quakers) did not wish to be buried in churchyards nor were they welcome there as dissenters from the established Church of England. George Embree senior bought the Quaker burial ground, known then as the ‘burying ground’, in The Avenue in 1662. The first recorded burial was in 1671. The Holyrood Parish Register in 1689 uses the name ‘cabbidge garden’ in a reference to the burial of a member of the Quaker meeting.
The original burial ground was about half the present size, the dimensions being 68 feet east to west and 62 feet north to south. In 1840 additional land was quickly secured sufficient to double the area. In their testimony for plainness, early Quakers did not permit gravestones. Permission was refused to ‘raise a stone’ over a grave in 1698. The earliest listed headstone in the burial ground is dated 1817. When stones were eventually permitted, instructions were given about their size, thickness and plainness, specifying that only the name, age and date of death would appear on the stone.
There are 31 recorded burials in the old ground between 1671 and 1700; then 29 in the 1700s, and 31 from 1801 to 1840. Funerals have been conducted in the current Meeting House in Ordnance Road from its construction in 1884 up to the present day.
Event Times
Saturday 14 September: 10:00am-4:00pm
Booking Information
Pre-booking: Not required.
Address & Directions
Brighton Road, Southampton, Hampshire, SO17 1XR.
Corner of Brighton Road and The Avenue.
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Organised by:
Southampton Quakers
Header image: Southampton Quaker Burial Ground_credit Southampton Quakers