Grave Restoration Project - Bulletin No 8, Mary Yeomans, 2004

We are not the only group interested in restoring graves at Wilberforce Cemetery. An article on page 23 of the Hawkesbury Crier, June 2004 reminds us of the approach taken a decade ago to restore the grave of Mary Yeomans and three of her family members.

Mary Yeomans (née Cassidy) was a close friend of Paul Bushell's first wife, Jane Sharp - both women were among the small group of convicts who came on the store ship Kitty in 1792. Paul Bushell later employed Mary’s deaf and dumb son Robert Robinson in his shoe-making business. (Louise Wilson's book Paul Bushell, Second Fleeter contains the full story.) Mary is buried with her son Robert Robinson, her daughter Charlotte Yeomans and granddaughter Maud Yeomans.

Family and friends set up a "Mary Yeomans Grave Restoration Appeal Trust" to co-ordinate the fund-raising and project. Restoration work commenced in late February 2004. After preparing the ground, the stone mason and his assistant bored four two metre holes at each corner of the grave. These were filled with concrete to form firm foundations for a new concrete slab poured on top of the grave. A new side panel for the stone box section was needed, and it was made in Hawkesbury sandstone to match the original. After inscriptions were re-incised, the whole altar monument was then re-erected.

Around $10,000 was raised privately, within the Yeomans family, for the restoration project. The Trustees were Arthur Copeland (Chairman), Jan Fitzhardinge (Treasurer), Christine Davis (Secretary), Nea F Yeomans and Athol Yeomans.

A small plaque on the altar monument briefly acknowledges the family's efforts.

Although it was not an original feature, a fence was erected around the Yeomans grave as further protection, because the cemetery itself was still not fenced back in 2004 and was subject to frequent vandalism. Cemetery security is now much improved and a similar fence will not be erected around the Paul Bushell and David Brown grave site.

The Bushell/Brown project will require a much more extensive, public fund-raising scheme - we have to restore two altar monuments plus a headstone, and labour costs have increased substantially in the last decade. We are in the process of obtaining three quotes from stone masons and will report on our progress next month.