Life & Style – Metroplus January 17, 2010

The peregrinating cemetery

The Hindu Hynmer’s Obelisk

It was 250 years ago this year that the British decided to raze the
Indian settlement, Black Town, that they had encouraged to develop
just north of the Fort’s walls on what is today the High Court
campus. And, as the settlement was cleared, the New Black Town,
today’s George Town, began to develop beyond the boundary of the
Esplanade that replaced the levelled old town to provide the Fort’s
guns a clear field of fire.

To the northwest of Old Black Town, in what is now the Law College
campus, was the first British cemetery in South India. Lockyer, who
c. l703 saw the old burial ground, wrote, `(It is) adorn’d with many
stately Tombs… Some with lofty Spires carved with different Fancies,
after the Indian manner; others in a lower Sphere gravely express the
Merits of the Person for whose sake they were erected; and all in
general have the most curious Workmanship in India bestow’d on them.’
When the creation of the Esplanade started in 1760, the cemetery too
was flattened. Only two monuments, considered non-threatening, were
spared and they still survive behind the Law College hostel, the
Hynmer’s Obelisk, where the child David Yale is also interred, and the
Powney vault. The two monuments had, in the 19th Century, been
considered isolated memorials. It was only in the 1890s that it was
discovered that they were part of a burial ground; when excavation
work began for the Henry Irwin-designed, Namberumal Chetty-built Law
College, and large quantities of bones were unearthed!

The tombstones that survived the clearing operation were moved in 1763
to St. Mary’s Church in the Fort, where they were used to pave the
courtyard. But even these suffered further damage when they were dug
out and used to serve as gun-platforms on the ramparts when Hyder Ali
threatened the Fort. Today, after having been replaced in the yard
haphazardly, only 104 survive.

The oldest British tombstone in South India, perhaps even in India…

I don’t know whether Surat or Machilipatnam have anything to say
about that. It is now part of the St. Mary’s courtyard, pieced
together after fragments of it – collaterally damaged during the
French 1758-59 siege – were found in the old burial ground. The
inscription identifies it as the tombstone of Elizabeth Baker, wife of
President Aaron Baker. She died at sea on their voyage from the Bantam
settlement in Java, from where Baker was coming to Madras in 1752 to
take charge of what had been named as the chief settlement of the
British in the East. It was a position Madras was to enjoy till it was
decided to transfer power to Calcutta in 1774. Elizabeth Baker died
during childbirth shortly after leaving Bantam, and it was three weeks
later than she was buried in Madras.

A new St. Mary’s cemetery was established on The Island c.1761, next
to what is now the Metropolitan Transport’s headquarters.

When the postman knocked…

* My reference to Blackbird fountain pens made in India by P. Orr’s
(Miscellany, December 21) has had V. Theetharappan recalling that
P.A. Sanjeevi started the Pilot Pen Company sometime before World War
II with Japanese inputs. When the Pilot Pen Company closed, Sanjeevi
opened the Pilot Theatre in Royapettah.
* Say something about the demolishing of the Binny’s headquarters
building on Armenian Street, `a beautiful heritage building,’ says
reader Rajesh Malhotra. What more can I say than what I said in July
2005, and I quote: `A landmark in George Town, the headquarters of
Binny’s, has passed into the hands of the Indian Bank-I only hope the
37,000 grounds-will not meet the same fate as so many other heritage
properties owned by Government and units in the public sector. Most of
these owners have the wherewithal to restore these properties,
preserve a bit of our heritage and still earn something from
them. But, the tendency has long been to pull down such properties and
replace them with high-rises that earn already rich organisations
substantially more. I hope that the Indian Bank will ensure that does
not happen to a significant bit of Madras commercial history that it
now owns-I hope-it will take its cue from Parry’s where restoration
has made an old landmark a striking monument to heritage.’