Death in the Diaspora: British and Irish Gravestones (Studies in British and Irish Migration)

As the British expanded their empire from near colonies such as Ireland to those in remote corners of the world, such as Barbados, Ceylon and Australia, they left a trail of physical remains in every parish where settlement occurred. Between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, gravestones and elaborate epitaphs documented identity and attachment to both colony and metropole. This collection by leading migration historians and archaeologists seeks to explore what this evidence tells the twenty-first century reader about the attachment remote British and Irish migrants had to ‘home’ in life and death. As well as making public statements about imperial allegiance, the bereaved carved in stone the reunification of disparate families in death. Such mourning left an important seam of material culture that has hitherto received scant comparative analysis by scholars. Focusing on nodal areas of British and Irish trade around the world, each chapter reveals the social, religious, political and personal milieu of remote migrants in all continents where the British and Irish lived, worked and ultimately died. A pioneering comparative study of migrant death markers across the British and Irish worlds and what they can tell us about notions of 'home'Sets out an innovative agenda for comparative analysis of death markers in different parts of the formal and informal British EmpireProvides analyses based on hundreds of thousands of gravestones and memorial markers in the UK and Ireland, Australasia, Asia, Africa and the AmericasInvestigates the effects of religious identities in death and how they differ between memorials in Britain and IrelandAs British and Irish migrants sought new lives in the Caribbean, Asia, North America and Australasia, they left a trail of physical remains where settlement occurred. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, gravestones and elaborate epitaphs documented identity and attachment to their old and new worlds. This book expands upon earlier examination of cultural imperialism to reveal how individuals, kinship groups and occupational connections identified with place and space over time.With analyses based on gravestones and memorial markers in the UK and Ireland, Australasia, Asia, Africa and the Americas, the contributors explore how this evidence can inform 21st-century ideas about the attachments that British and Irish migrants had to 'home' - in both life and death.The book explores aspects of sociolinguistic difference evident in death markers and offers some insights into how growing literacy amongst migrant communities shaped the form of grave epitaphs. It expands upon earlier analyses of cultural imperialism to see how individual families and kinship groups identified with place and space over time and discusses how post-medieval archaeology from a range of death landscapes highlight difference rather than uniformity - including influences by Dutch, Jewish, Muslim and non-religious norms upon memorialisation practices. It also reveals how women and children, often marginalised voices in imperial scholarship, were as likely to be provided with more elaborate death markers than their male counterparts and challenges ideas of chain migration by demonstrating that families often moved to different, rather than similar, destinations overseas A pioneering comparative study of migrant death markers across the British and Irish worlds and what they can tell us about notions of 'home'. Sets out an innovative agenda for comparative analysis of death markers in different parts of the formal and informal British Empire. Provides analyses based on hundreds of thousands of gravestones and memorial markers in the UK and Ireland, Australasia, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Investigates the effects of religious identities in death and how they differ between memorials in Britain and Ireland As British and Irish migrants sought new lives in the Caribbean, Asia, North America and Australasia, they left a trail of physical remains where settlement occurred. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, gravestones and elaborate epitaphs documented identity and attachment to their old and new worlds. This book expands upon earlier examination of cultural imperialism to reveal how individuals, kinship groups and occupational connections identified with place and space over time. With analyses based on gravestones and memorial markers in the UK and Ireland, Australasia, Asia, Africa and the Americas, the contributors explore how this evidence can inform 21st-century ideas about the attachments that British and Irish migrants had to 'home' - in both life and death. The book explores aspects of sociolinguistic difference evident in death markers and offers some insights into how growing literacy amongst migrant communities shaped the form of grave epitaphs. It expands upon earlier analyses of cultural imperialism to see how individual families and kinship groups identified with place and space over time and discusses how post-medieval archaeology from a range of death landscapes highlight difference rather than uniformity - including influences by Dutch, Jewish, Muslim and non-religious norms upon memorialisation practices Death in the Diaspora 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 List of Figures and Tables 8 The Contributors 10 Acknowledgements 11 Series Editors’ Introduction 13 1 Introduction: Death in the Diaspora: British and Irish Gravestones 16 2 Forgetting and Remembering: Scots Ulster and Ulster Scots Memorials in Eighteenth-Century Ulster, Pennsylvania and Nineteenth-century New South Wales 29 3 Imposing Identity: Death Markers to ‘English’ People in Barbados 1627-1838 67 4 Looking for Thistles in Stone Gardens: The Cemeteries of Nova Scotia’s Scottish Immigrants 96 5 Scottish Gravestones in Ceylon in Comparative Perspective 123 6 Irish Memorialisation in South Australia, 1850-99 142 7 Memorialising the Diasporic Cornish 170 8 Documents in Stone: Records of Lives and Deaths of Scots Abroad and in Scotland 191 9 Conclusion 216 Index 221 Pioneering comparative study of how and why migrants from Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales displayed attachment to home on headstones and memorial markers erected across the British World between the 17th and 20th centuries.