Everyone loves a nice little mystery, an unsolveable conundrum, and a reflection on times gone past. These mysteries are often deliberately construed as having the meaning lost to the sands of time. Mysteries like this are drawcards, talking points and ways to engage bystanders in history, often repeated with theatric affect. Throw together two dead children, a grave and an alleged mystery and you have a winning combination.
It is remarkable how many times these following two sentences have been repeated without anyone stopping to question the veracity. “Our Little Earnest & Poor Anthony” is the inscription on the top of the Vault of the Unknown Children and is the only clue to the identity of these children. The burial register has no record of the burials and hence may have taken place between the years 1851 when burials began and 1862 when the burial register commenced.” Even this transcription is incorrect. As can be seen below, Ernest is spelled in the usual manner, not as “Earnest”. The mere fact that the grave does not mention the surname of the children seems to have put off anyone doing even basic research.
Spearing children tomb, Wangaratta cemetery, May 2024. Copyright, the author
Top of the Spearing children vault, May 2024. Copyright, the author.
In fact, the Wangaratta Cemetery CD of burial register transcriptions does solve this ‘mystery’. These comments about “Our Little Earnest [sic] & Poor Anthony” also mention the grave number – Church of England Section 1, Grave 375S. For the most part Wangaratta Cemetery from at least the early 1860s was well laid out, and mapped, meaning that if a grave can be physically located, it can be identified by the section and grave number and linked back to the records of the plot number. Of course this depends on the cemetery sexton filling out who was in which grave, even if he had omitted the actual burial register entry for these children. In many burial cases these details have been completely omitted. From the Plot register we can see the following for the three graves numbered 375 in Church of England Section 1.
Section CHURCH OF ENGLAND NO. 1 Plot 375 SPEARING, EARNEST I?; Age 0 years 4 months; Buried 6 Feb 1867.
Section CHURCH OF ENGLAND NO. 1 Plot 375 HOYSTED, LUCY; Age 8 years 9 months; Buried 15 Aug 1882; Resided TAMINICK
Section CHURCH OF ENGLAND NO. 1 Plot 375N THORPE, GEORGE; Age 74 years; Buried 24 May 1963; Resided WANGARATTA
Section CHURCH OF ENGLAND NO. 1 Plot 375C WILSON, JAMES; Age 75 years; Buried 9 Oct 1896; Resided BENALLA
Section CHURCH OF ENGLAND NO. 1 Plot 375C HOYSTED, ROBERT; Age years months; Buried 1 May 1886; Resided WANGARATTA
We can likely rule out George Thorpe in the entirely seperate grave 375N as having any relevance, and likewise the occupants of 375C named Hoysted and Wilson. Lucy Hoysted who was registered in a grave beginning with 375 was likely interred with Robert Hoysted, her younger brother. We know we are talking about the correct location as the Thorpe grave can be seen to the right of the Spearing grave when facing Tone Rd.
So that leaves only “Earnest” SPEARING. Ernest George Taylor SPEARING was the son of James Henri Brougham SPEARING and his then common law wife Bessie TAYLOR. James was separated from his legal wife Sarah BRIGDEN, who did not die until 1887, despite James claiming he was a widower when he eventually married Bessie Taylor bigamously in1869. James and Bessie’s son Ernest was born around October 1866 in Beechworth, where his father was the licensee of the Commercial Hotel and Secretary of the Beechworth Fire Brigade. When Ernest passed away in February 1867 the family were living in North Wangaratta and JHB SPEARING was the licensee of the Council Club Hotel in Wangaratta. The unfortunate demise of this child then gives a neat little time frame for the family’s move to Wangaratta.
And what of “Poor Anthony”? He was a younger brother of Ernest, passing away in October 1872. Anthony’s death was registered by the Deputy Registrar at Wangaratta as Anthony Rothschild Spearing. He died aged just over 50 weeks from bronchitis. Either poor writing in the burial register or a transcription error means that Anthony’s burial was recorded on the CD as taking place in grave grouping 392 with no specific plot noted. Another son – Edgar B – was buried in May 1875 but again the cemetery register was blank on his burial location. It would seem a reasonsable assumption that Edgar was also placed in the tomb with his brothers.
Part death certificate of Anthony Rothschild SPEARING. This document notes his burial date as the same date as his death, within Wangaratta cemetery.
Despite the good folk who transcribed the cemetery register over 20 years ago, connecting the vault with the Spearing children, they nevertheless on a page on the very same CD perpetuated the exact same myth as above – that the children must have died before 1862 and their names were unknown. A brochure for a tour of the cemetery also uses the myth of the “unknown children”. This has flow on consequences to other tourist writings that make the same claim over and over. This is a lesson to amateur researchers who think that something must be true when it is stated frequently. The fact is that ALL of those statements used the exact same INCORRECT source, or they just copied from each other without question, and none thought to interrogate the PRIMARY SOURCE. In this case the primary sources were death certificates and cemetery data. So the “mystery” is not a mystery at all. It is a matter of not letting facts get in the way of a good story.
Do you know of other Wangaratta or local cemetery “mysteries”?
