Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries

  It's New Year's Eve so let's reflect on who has been revealed in Rookwood Cemetery Discoveries in 2023. The year has been filled with many published blogs about people who chose a life of service helping others as well as those who chose not to; tragedies that were heartbreaking and secrets and scandals that shocked us. A view of the Old Catholic section - author's own collection  My most popular blog was the one devoted to Lucy Farrow, mother of John Villiers Farrow, Hollywood producer and film maker and grandmother of Mia Farrow. The next most popular was that of the murder of Leticia Frances Cavanagh and followed by the Banka ferry disaster and slaughter of innocents. You also liked the story of the "bad" mother of Macdonaldtown, Sarah Makin. Henry Shiell, the City Coroner, was a popular read as was one about the secrets and scandals found in Section One of the Old Anglican Section. It seems I will need to find more titillating material to engage ...

  It was the feature in last Sunday's Sydney Morning Herald about an upcoming talk by Elliot Lindsay at Woollahra Hotel about Murder and Mayhem in the eastern suburbs of Sydney in 19th Century that made me recall a man at the very centre of the end of these people’s lives. This talk is one of the first of a packed National Trust's Heritage Festival to be held over the next month and there are many walks, talks and exhibitions available; more on that later as I introduce you to a prominent but largely forgotten member of Sydney Society. HENRY SHIELL Henry was born on 10 August 1826 on the island of Montserrat, in the West Indies, the son of James Phipps Shiell and his wife Elizabeth. James Shiell was the Comptroller of Customs for Montserrat and died when Henry was seven years of age. The family had owned sugar plantations and slaves from the early 1700's and after the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act, Henry's grandfather, Queely Shiell, received a vast sum in co...