The Friends’ Burial Ground
The Religious Society of Friends, a Christian group were formed in the mid-seventeenth century in northern England. They are often known as ‘Quakers’. George Fox was the person who started the movement and he visited Pembrokeshire in
The Friends’ Burial Ground is one of the most interesting structures in Lambston and is located on the hill (known as ‘The Mount’ at the end of Mount Lane. It comprises an 80 m avenue of trees, mainly beech. This ends at a square, walled enclosure which itself is surrounded by a hedgebank and trees. In the past there were gates at the entrance off the road and at the end of the avenue, but now the site is not gated.
A Burial Ground here in 1661?
The date on the metal plaque on the entrance to the Quaker Burial Ground is 1661. I do not know quite on what authority what date is given; the notice itself must be nineteenth or twentieth century. It seems surprising that a burial ground should be formed as early as 1661 in rural Pembrokeshire. However, we know that George Fox visited Haverfordwest in — and again in — and reported large gatherings. Also one of the earliest instructions from the Friends was that the meetings should find their own burial place . At that time too the town of Haverfordwest was of much greater importance than it is today. It would have been a significant place to direct missionary work for the new beliefs. These points make a 1661 date quite possible and it may be that the date was taken from one of the (now illegible) gravestones.
The Quakers of Haverfordwest………emigration, closed
Why here?
The Lambston Friends Burial Ground is associated with the Friends’ meeting house in Haverfordwest. (It is sometimes known as ‘The Mount Burial Ground’ sometimes as ‘East Hook Burial Ground’, ‘ Lambston Burial Ground’ or even ‘Portfield Gate Burial Ground’). The meeting house was originally on Quay Street but later on the junction of High St and Quay Street where the Shire Hall was later erected. The burial ground seems a long way out of town at a time when most people would be walking. However the Quakers in Haverfordwest, as elsewhere in the UK, were persecuted by the authorities and perhaps a more remote site was less likely to see interference. T
The burial ground is on land which had formed part of the East Hook Estate and in the seventeenth century, this was occupied by the Bateman family. ____ Bateman was clearly a supporter of the Quaker movement because in — he was arrested along with other Quakers. It is likely that this sympathy led him to make land on his estate available for use as a burial ground.
A document of — relates to a lease of
An Avenue and a walled enclosure?
The site is unusually complex for a rural quaker burial ground. In general quakers favour simpler enclosures. Could it have been an adaptation of an earlier structure? Well we know that the layout was very much as it is today from a plan drawn in —- and from descriptions of the site in ———-. The outer boundary is mainly a traditional Pembrokeshire hedge-bank. However closer examination shows that there is what looks like a splayed entrance of worked stone on the East side.
People Buried here
Quaker tradition frowned on gravestones and where they did exist there was a requirement that they should not demonstrate degrees of wealth. They should all be simple. Today there are only four gravestones visible all in the northern part of the ground. One is flat on the ground, two against the north wall and one freestanding. It is of course possible that some are lying flat and are hidden under vegetation. Two of the stones cannot be read today but one, which appears to be the oldest, has a skull and bones motif which was a popular ‘momento mori’ symbol in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. One stone leaning against the base of the wall is to Sarah Staines Mathias of Haverfordwest and is dated 1861. The most recent, lying down, is to George Phillips of Dew St in Haverfordwest who died in 1889.
Quaker Burial Notes
The Quaker burial records which I have been able to find are in the Glamorgan Archives but only span 1862 to 1889 and they only record four burials at Lambston. One of these may well be in error because the burial of Elizabeth Starbuck from Milford is also recorded as in the Steynton burial ground. Two of those listed have legible gravestones.
The very small number of burials recorded is because, by the date of the Burial Notes (1862), the Quaker Meeting House in Haverfordwest was ………………..The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries probably saw many more burials up to the point where the Quakers of Haverfordwest joined their bretheren in moving to Philadelphia. T Mardy Rees in The Quakers of Wales, comments “Westhook [sic] was the early Macpelah of Quakers in the county” p119. This seems to imply that at an early stage it was a burial resource for many other groups around the county. The reference to Westhook is probably a typographical error or a misreading of Nesthooke which was often given as the name of East Hook in early documents.
| Name | From | Died | At Age | Comment | |
| Sarah Staines Mathias | St Marys Haverfordwest | 1861 | 85 | Gravestone is there and legible | |
| John Mathias | Dew St Haverfordwest | 1868 | 3 weeks 6 days | ||
| Elizabeth Starbuck | Milford | 1869 | 60 | Wife of Alfred Basset Starbuck but the fuller burial note says she was buried in Steynton | |
| George Phillips | Dew St Haverfordwest | 1889 | 67 | Piece on him in Pembrokeshire Life – maybe last burial in the burial ground. Gravestone is there and legible
http://newspapers.library.wales/view/3062220/3062223/11/quaker%20AND%20mount link to 1890 Pembrokeshire Herald article also article in Haverfordwest telegraph 1914 copied in folder |
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| Glamorgan Archives DD/SF 38 | |||||