eHive Object Details

Name/TitleElizabeth Stevens : Old Melbourne Cemetery, c. 1920

About this objectA photograph of a broken, fallen stone with a triangular top, which lies over the remains of Elizabeth Stevens. Two small roundels containing a four petaled flower are carved on either side at the top of the stone. There is a low edging or kerb to the grave seen to the right of the image, and long grass takes over in the background. Selby tells us the stone is near grave #165, a blank stone, in the index. Both graves are located in the south-east corner of the Episcopalian section.

Elizabeth's inscription tells us that she was the wife of George T. Stevens, a butcher, residing at Batman's Swamp. It also tells us that she came from Leddington, Rutlandshire, but information about the grave in Selby's book says that she came from Seddington. Neither place existed in Rutlandshire in the 1800s, but a Lyddington does.

The inscription reads: (438, nr. 165, in Selby's grave index, p. 383, OPMHoM)

SACRED (Gothic Script)
To the Memory of
ELIZABETH Wife of GEORGE T. STEVENS
Butcher. Batmans Swamp. Melbourne
who died 26th Decr 1852
Aged 51 Years (Gothic script)
Native of Leddington, Rutlandshire
-------
I shall go to her, but she shall not
return to me. 2 Saml 12th & 23ve vse

George Thomas Stevens was issued with a slaughtering license in Melbourne, January 1850. He was in business with John Dickins. George remarried in 1854 to Anne Rankin. In March 1858, Mrs Anne Stevens, widow of Mr George Thomas Stevens, deceased June 1855, aged 44, was involved in a court case concerning one of her deceased husband's paddocks situated in Flemington Swamp and used as a slaughter yard.

This image is attributed to Everard Studley Miller who photographed many graves and tombstones in the Old Melbourne Cemetery (established in 1837) around 1920 as part of a project led by Isaac Selby to record and commemorate all aspects of Melbourne's second cemetery (the first being at Flagstaff Hill). The RHSV holds original glass negatives and albums of the photographs from this project.

One of the many glass slides purchased from retailers or specifically made for illustrated lectures given by Isaac Selby between c. 1930 and c. 1955 to raise money for the Old Pioneers Memorial Fund. The date 1918 is written on the border of the slide.

For more information about this image contact Royal Historical Society of Victoria.

MakerMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Maker RolePhotographer

Measurements8.2 x 8.2 cm

Period1910-1920

Object TypePhotograph

Subject and Association KeywordsSelby, Isaac, 1859-1956

Subject and Association KeywordsMiller, Everard Studley, 1886-1956.

Subject and Association KeywordsOld Melbourne Cemetery (Melbourne)

Subject and Association KeywordsBatman's Swamp (Melbourne, Vic.)

Subject and Association KeywordsMonuments and memorials

Subject and Association KeywordsStevens, Elizabeth, 1801-1852

Subject and Association KeywordsWomen

Named CollectionImages collection

Object numberGS-TM-41

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved