Title: Subscribers to the Corpse House in Kilbride Graveyard and Subscribers to a wall around Kilbride graveyard
Dates: 1831 and 1873
Description: This database comprises two lists of subscriptions towards works at Kilbride graveyard. On 29 January 1831 a meeting was held in Kilbride graveyard of those who had some claim to burial rights here. It was agreed ‘That a vault should be erected for the reception of the dead until such time as they are unfit for dissection.’ Among the rules drafted was that any body placed in the vault (also known as a corpse house or mort-safe) should be removed at the end of six weeks; a body not removed by the family by then would be removed after seven weeks and the family would forfeit any future right to the use of the building. Malcolm McConnell and Francis Lawson were given the keys to the vault. The names of those subscribing towards the construction of the vault were printed.
On 15 March 1873 a meeting was convened in Kilbride graveyard and presided over by Rev. F. C. Young, the Church of Ireland rector of Kilbride. It was ‘unanimously agreed to build a permanent wall round said ground, and raise the amount for erecting the same from the persons who held burying in it. ‘ The names of those supporting this venture were published in A list of the persons who paid for building a wall round the Kilbride Burying-Ground which was printed by Arthur Cameron in Ballyclare.
Source: This database was created originally in 2012 for the 'Doagh Ancestry and Townlands Project'
Compiled by UHF for the 'Doagh Ancestry and Townlands Project'