illuminator dot blog: Vault 61: Jane Franklin in the Catacombs of Kensal Green Cemetery.

By Logan Zachary & Alison Freebairn. April 7th, 2024.

{ ▽ Jane Franklin, nameplate and coffin. }

Jane Franklin’s final resting place is in Vault 61 of the catacomb beneath Kensal Green Cemetery’s Anglican chapel. This network of underground burial passages is referred to as “Catacomb B” (Catacombs A & Z are elsewhere in the cemetery).

This page owes a debt of gratitude to Mary Williamson, Peter Humphries, Phoebe Tombs, and Marta Magdalena.

This page is a satellite to the Franklin Expedition guide to Kensal Green Cemetery (link) and the Franklin Expedition guide to London (link).

{ ▽ Jane Franklin’s floor location in Catacomb B. }

{ ▽ Jane Franklin, floor location. }

{ ▽ Jane Franklin and her sister. }

{ ▽ Jane Franklin and her sister’s nameplate. }

{ ▽ Jane Franklin, nameplate and coffin. }

{ ▽ Jane and her sister. }

{ ▽ Jane Franklin, facing northwest. }

{ ▽ Jane Franklin, floor location. }

{ ▽ Jane Franklin, location and corridor. }

[The vault numbering is visible in the following two photographs, up near the arches. These photographs face south, back towards the central aisle. The light in the distance is Alison.]

{ ▽ Vault #61 and corridor. }

{ ▽ The hydraulic catafalque, to lower a coffin from the chapel above. }

{ ▽ The hydraulic catafalque trapdoor, seen from the catacomb. }

{ ▽ The hydraulic catafalque trapdoor, to admit a coffin. }

{ ▽ The hydraulic pump to operate the catafalque. }

{ ▽ Sir James Gambier, father of James Fitzjames. }

[Sir James Gambier, the father of the last Captain of HMS Erebus, James Fitzjames, is located in Vault 100.]

{ ▽ The corridor at Vault 100, with shadows artificially raised. }

{ ▽ A skylight at the termination of a corridor in Catacomb B. }

{ ▽ The corridor back to Jane Franklin at Vault 61, facing north. }

{ ▽ The catafalque, raised to the chapel (currently under restoration). }

{ ▽ The Anglican chapel over Catacomb B. }

James Stevens Curl referred to these catacombs in 1972 as a reminder of “the heroic age of cemetery design.”

During my visit with Alison Freebairn in January of 2024, the only light in the catacombs was a single work lamp in the central (east-west) aisle. A dozen corridors branch off this main aisle, six to the north and six to the south (Jane is in the north), dimly lit by skylights at their extreme ends. The overall effect was to be in considerable darkness just a few steps off the main aisle. We had entered accompanying a documentary film shoot, and I had a softbox light diffuser along for my photography.

The last time someone from the Franklin Expedition community recorded a visit to Vault 61 was over a decade ago, when Mechtild and Wolfgang Opel arrived in 2012. Wolfgang’s photographs from that visit have remained the most recent available, seen on their site Trimaris.de (link), and in their biography of Franklin searcher Johann August Miertsching (Weil ich ein Inuk bin, 2022).

Prior to the Opels, reversing another decade into the past, the Franklin Expedition documentary Arctic Tomb (2001) briefly showed Jane Franklin’s location in Vault 61. Visits prior to this are scarce, and photography apparently non-existent. Alison Freebairn recently flagged a 1957 letter by historian Richard J. Cyriax revealing his own visit, with the catacomb lit by only a single candle.

“Lady Franklin. Coffin in the catacombs beneath the chapel – all that you see is the head of the coffin on a shelf behind a rusty grating – the gloomiest place I was ever in – lit by a solitary candle carried by the janitor.”
[Letter by Cyriax to A.G.E. Jones, 19 Dec 1957 (LAC MG30-B54).]

Alison also observes that before this, Jane Franklin’s biographer Frances Woodward evidently visited sometime prior to 1951, based on the descriptive comment that closes her biography (Portrait of Jane): “...the coffin is visible behind the rusty bars of the vault.”

Regarding Jane Franklin’s funeral, the most detailed description comes from the darkly comedic recounting by the then 23 year old Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley, one of Franklin’s nephews (and later a founder of the National Trust). The account was written in a letter to his mother, and it reads precisely like a young man bewildered by his elders at a funeral. The letter is preserved in family archives catalogued by descendant Mary Williamson, who first transcribed the letter. The key passages from the letter were published in 2018 by Russell Potter on Visions of the North (link). As the funeral concludes, the young Rawnsley spots a signal from “the meekfaced little burial clerk” to set the hydraulic pump in motion, which then lowers Jane Franklin on the catafalque down into the catacomb below, “as it were in a play or in a fairy story.”

The Hour newspaper adds to this moment the visual detail that, “As the coffin was being lowered into the vault it was covered with a profusion of cut flowers and several wreaths.” The Telegraph describes the coffin as being “covered with immortelles and wreaths of fresh white flowers,” and the Morning Post adds that, “A number of immortelles were placed on the coffin on its being deposited in the recess.”

Some aging remains of these flowers and wreaths seem to still exist atop the coffin, and around it, including a folded black-bordered card. Something resembling princess pine branches (commonly used in wreathes) can be particularly noticed at the base of the metal grate in the photographs above.

A number of newspapers quote the burial inscription as: “Jane Lady Franklin, died 18th July, 1875. Aged 83.” At first glance, this appears to be the inscription from the Griffin sisters plaque, seen in the photographs on this page. The wording is initially identical, with the minor addition of Jane’s age at death. However, a few reports specify that this inscription in fact comes from a brass plate on the lid of the coffin:

“The outer coffin, which was of plain oak with black handles, the brass plate on the lid bearing the following simple inscription:— “Jane Lady Franklin, died 18th July, 1875, aged 83 years”...
[Emphasis added; The Morning Post, 24 July 1875.]

This coffin plate inscription is therefore hidden from view today, inside the recess, and underneath what remains of the “immortelles and wreaths of fresh white flowers” from her funeral.

[No newspaper account of the funeral seems to mention the outer plaque shared by the Griffin sisters, as seen today; this may indicate it was only added after the day of the funeral.]

Inside the coffin, set into Jane Franklin’s hand before the lid closed, is the handwritten copy of Alfred Tennyson’s well-known epitaph for her husband: “Not here: the white north has thy bones...” (Williamson 2020). The lines were chiseled into John Franklin’s memorial in Westminster Abbey, unveiled one week after Jane Franklin was lowered into the catacombs of Kensal Green Cemetery.

Descending into the catacomb from the chapel, the catafalque appears on your left. Turn away from the catafalque, then turn down the immediate next corridor on your left. Vault 61 and Jane Franklin are halfway down this corridor on the left.

The End.

– L.Z. April 7th, 2024.

* * *

[Postscript: An otherwise inexplicable comment from Hardwicke Rawnsley’s letter was that Jane lies “with “Barnetts” above her.” Though we did not recognize its significance during our visit, these photographs show that a sign is hung two compartments directly above Jane Franklin which reads, “Barnett 1855”. Beyond resolving the meaning of that phrase, Rawnsley’s mention of only the Barnett plaque may be read as a second indication that the Griffin sisters plaque that we see today was not in place on the day of the funeral.]

* * *

Appendix 1: The Hardwicke Rawnsley account.

Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley’s letter (RR/1/16) to his mother Catherine (daughter of John Franklin’s brother Willingham) regarding the funeral of Jane Franklin is held in the family archives of Mary Williamson, a descendant of Sir John Franklin and Hardwicke Rawnsley. Mary acknowledges her relative Rosalind Rawnsley for the preservation of the letter; Rosalind has recently published a biography of Hardwicke Rawnsley. The quotations that follow are from Mary Williamson’s transcription of the letter.

Hardwicke Rawnsley only dates the letter as “Friday.” However, as the opening line states that “My Dear Mother I attended the funeral today,” the letter can be dated to the day of the funeral, 23 July 1875 (which was indeed a Friday).

It is remarkable that we would not have this account if Hardwicke’s mother Catherine had simply been able to attend the funeral (she would be present at Westminster Abbey a week later). The following passage from the study Death in the Victorian Family (1996) by Pat Jalland puts into relief just how unusual Hardwicke’s account is.

It is difficult to evaluate mourners’ responses to funerals, and to assess their therapeutic value or spiritual significance, because family comments on funerals in letters and diaries were surprisingly few and brief, in sharp contrast to the lengthy accounts of dying and the deathbed. It is as if the week of the funeral marked a quiet interval between the business of dying and the months of grieving. Certainly family and friends were gathered together for the funeral and had no need of letters, while they were often too preoccupied to maintain their daily diaries in any detail. It is also likely that for many mourners most closely related to the deceased the funeral came too soon after the death for them to respond in writing, since they were still too shocked. ... Press reports of funerals often provide more information than the letters and diaries of the families involved, though the newspapers reveal nothing of personal responses.

Practically every assertion here is reversed in the case of Hardwicke Rawnsley. His young age, his familial distance from Jane Franklin, and his desire to inform his absent mother all created the unusual situation that allowed his account to be written.

Near the end of the letter – and presumably at the close of the funeral – Hardwicke remarks that, “Inquisitive newspaper correspondents asked impertinent questions.” This statement is hard to credit, given the universally formal newspaper coverage. The only writer present who penned an account of the funeral that could be deemed impertinent would be: Hardwicke Rawnsley.

Mary Williamson’s transcription of RR/1/16:

Friday
My
Dear Mother
I attended the funeral today after leaving for Oxford
whither I went on Wednesday partly to see Cox the Bodleian
librarian about books for our Working Man’s Library partly
to arrange a day next week for my Mothers meeting
who are to go down there & partly to be present at what will
be my last “Gaudeamus” dinner at Magdalen, an invitation
of a years standing and Wednesday night I stayed with a
Magdalen man named “Tindal” at Aylesbury. They live at the
Manor House and Mrs Tindal writes a good deal & is some
relation to the Majendies.
I did all that was wanted of me by Sophy Cracroft.
Today the following were present
Sir G Back, Sir R Collinson, Adm Richards, Ad Cholmondley,
Mr Barrow, Mr Leigh Smith, Mr Beaufort, Dr Hocker
La Trobe, W P Kaye, Lieut Hedley, Richard Winn, Lewis Majendie
Mr Noble, Rowland Winn, Sir W Gell, Capt Hodson or Hobson.
McClintock could not come nor did I see Dr Hooker.
I remember among these particularly Captn Hodson, a bold faced
fine John Bull looking man with a determined face & blue eyes.
Admiral Richards was like a shrivelled Ruskin, he looked shy
shabby & uncomfortable, not the fine fellow he really is.
Mr Noble with whom I talked & who was pleased with a sonnet
I wrote in seeing the Bust of Sir J.F. in his studio.
He is a delicately carven-faced man with lank light hair upon
his shoulders, but looks so ill that a puff of wind would extinguish him

Bishop Nixon who read the service was introduced & talked
very nicely to me about Colonial Church work. An ugly face dark
penetrating eyes & grizzled beard, pleasant voice & a pleasant countenance.
He reminded me a little of Thring.
Among the Friends. I noticed Mr Gell & his younger son, Mr Lefroy
& his weak looking overgrown youth, Dr Dixon with a grand
Aesculapian sort of head – I over heard him say he was far fr[om] well
& obliged to lie by – Arthur Wright & Mr Wright of Wrangle
whom Noble the sculptor agreed with me in thinking must be
very like what Sir John was, There were others among them a
pleasant Mr Price in the Indian Civil who is going to lend
me some Tamil books. Fred Price is his name, he was born
in Lady Franklins’ house at Hobarton, my father knew his mother
as a girl her husband was murdered by Convicts.
Hallam T was there & we had a very pleasant talk together
as we walked home. He found A.T. the poet in his lodgings
so I did not go in. He had come across fr[om] Paris for the
funeral and goes down to Aldworth tonight.
Talking of Queen Mary he told me that “the grand speech
of Mary soliloquising about Philip & her child was thought of
by his father over his pipe, one night and written down straight
fr[om] his lips the next morning. The parts that gave A.T.
most trouble were the “Chronicler” parts. These he dictated too
to Hallam holding the Chronicles in his hand, but he corrected
finding the difficulty of keeping the verse like a Chronicle
& not allowing his muse to take the bit in her teeth.
As to the funeral. None shed a tear. How could they
when Undertakers had undertaken to do all that for one.

I got there about one o’clock & found men standing in a close
darkened room looking like sick cranes on a wet Marshland night.
Violent hands were laid on one by men who knew y[ou]r name
& all about you apparently. Y[ou]r hat was robbed, y[ou]r name shouted
& then after spending an hour and ½ in this black company
your name was shouted again [much] crape was pinned upon you
as soon as certain ties of relationship were acknowledged & after
another lapse of time black gloves & hats in crape mourning
were put into y[ou]r hands & you were put into a C spring coach
of decent black. A Wright & his brother Hallam T & self were
in one coach & we walked off. I got an horrid headache fr[om]
the motion. H W was duller & more mysterious than ever
the other Mr Wright chatted cheerfully & the long
procession of 10 coaches & several carriages reached
at length Kensal Green. Up we passed thro’ rows of medley
monuments, broken pillars, sad angels, tombs with [photographs]
let in and glazed, with sculptured busts & painted faces
It was grotesque but horrible. Unlovely conceptions & Costly hideousness.
We alit at the doors of what looked like an Egyptian court in
the Crystal Palace, & were ushered thro a mob of enquirers
into the vaulted room. The coffin was placed on a dais in
the middle – the old Admirals retired on either side. It was
sad to see how they felt for her who had bade them venture
so much & who was now but as the clay in the street - & we sat
down in seats opposite the coffin. The Bishop of Tasmania Bishop Nixon
mounted to the pulpit & read impressively the service for the dead.
Sophy Cracroft bore up wonderfully. Then the meekfaced little burial
clerk gave a signal & lo the mechanic grief was to be out done

by hydraulic machinery, for slowly & surely down went dais
coffin & all as it were in a play or in a fairy story
thro the ground, down down till it reached the vault
beneath thence it was taken by strong hands and haled off
thro a dim taper lighted gallery to its niche where
as it were in a pigeon hole all that is left of Lady Franklin
lies beside her sister. And those of us who cared were then
summoned thro a wicket gate down a winding stair and
found men with murky lanterns & sad stolid faces
waving us thro the dimness to where they had laid her.
We passed pigeonholes with their dead occupants & their names
engraven on the iron gratings that close them until here with
“Barnetts” above her, piled to the roof, resting in the
lowest pigeonhole, was the solid light oak coffin head
contrasting strangely in its newness with the rusty weather
eaten black coffins beside & above.
Inquisitive newspaper correspondents asked impertinent
questions, & jostled & sad alas was glad to get outside
once again again inside the rumbling coach.
& back at the House.
There was such a want of rest about the place, people pushing
railway engines crying, the great London Roar all round,
& the glare of the thousand cold stupid monuments
all made it sad, sad because not once could one think
of who one went to bury, and the mockery of the honour done
to day cut into one.

The repetition “again again” in the final lines is accurate to the original, with no hint of punctuation between. “A.T. the poet” presumably refers to Alfred Tennyson. In perhaps a prelude to his life’s work, it is surprising to read Hardwicke’s characterization of Kensal Green Cemetery as being too loud, today regarded as a refuge of quiet in the city.

Unusually, Rawnsley states that, “McClintock could not come”, whereas newspaper reports list Leopold McClintock as one of the pall bearers, arriving in a carriage with fellow Franklin searchers Ommanney, Richards, and Collinson. Perhaps similarly, Rawnsley comments that “nor did I see Dr. Hooker,” who is also listed in newspaper accounts, though Rawnsley does list seeing a “Dr. Hocker.” [Rawnsley is unaware if William R. Hobson (who discovered the Victory Point Record) is “Hodson or Hobson.”] McClintock is certainly absent from the unveiling of the bust of Franklin at Westminster Abbey just eight days later, which would lend credence to the possibility that he may have attended the funeral in name only. However, in a public editorial (as well as private marginalia), William Parker Snow states that he shook McClintock’s hand at Jane Franklin’s funeral (RGS WPS-16-3).

Bibliography.

The following sources are cited by author’s last name, followed by newspapers sorted by publication date, then concluding with miscellaneous sources.

Curl, James Stevens.

1972. The Victorian Celebration of Death.

“Certainly the catacombs under the Anglican chapel are awesome. In the dark vaults thousands of coffins, once clothed in rich-hued velvets secured to the wood by brass studs, lie in serried rows. There is a large number of children’s coffins. Some of the wood has rotted; and the lead lining may be seen. Today the catacombs are an extraordinary reminder of the heroic age of cemetery design.” [Chapter 3: The first great metropolitan cemetery in Britain.]

This quotation seems to have been removed from a more recent edition of this book.

Curl, James Stevens (editor).

2001. Kensal Green Cemetery. The Origins & Development of the General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, London, 1824-2001.

Amongst much else, this book contains a half dozen images of the catafalque.

Flanagan, Bob.

2009. Catacombs in Britain – a Nineteenth-Century Experiment. Subterranea, December 2009, Issue 21 (link).

This article shows a photograph of the catafalque prior to restoration, and another of the catafalque in a half-lowered position carrying a coffin.

Freebairn, Alison.

2024. Richard J. Cyriax and His Franklin Graves Photography. Finger-Post.blog, 18 February 2024 (link).

Freebairn here first published details of Cyriax’s visit to Catacomb B, along with an image of the original letter (held by Library and Archives Canada, LAC MG30-B54).

Freebairn, Alison & Zachary, Logan.

2019. A Franklin Expedition Guide to Kensal Green Cemetery. Finger-Post.blog (link), first edition published 22 November 2019.

Freebairn, Alison & Zachary, Logan.

2023. The North-West Passage at Kensal Green Cemetery. The Telamon: The Magazine of The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery. Issue 94, 2023.

Jalland, Pat.

1996. Death in the Victorian Family.

Opel, Mechtild and Wolfgang.

2022. Weil ich ein Inuk bin. Johann August Miertsching. Ein Lebensbild.

Opel, Wolfgang.

2012. Lady Franklin und der Kensal Green Cemetery. Trimaris.de, 15 May 2012 (link).

The article debuting Wolfgang Opel’s photograph of Jane Franklin’s location in Vault 61 of Catacomb B.

Potter, Russell A.

2018. Lady Franklin’s Funeral. Visions of the North, 13 December 2018 (link).

The first publication of Hardwicke Rawnsley’s account of Jane Franklin’s funeral, as well as a second photograph by Wolfgang Opel of Jane Franklin’s location in Vault 61 of Catacomb B.

Williamson, Mary.

2020. Jane Franklin and the Westminster Memorial (Parts 1 & 2). Visions of the North, 21 August 2020 (link), and 11 September 2020 (link).

Woodward, Frances.

1951. Portrait of Jane: A Life of Lady Franklin.

“She was buried at Mary’s side, in the catacombs beneath Kensal Green Chapel; the coffin is visible behind the rusty bars of the vault. Even in that tenebrous place her name evokes a brightness.” [End of book.]

Newspaper articles:

24 July 1875.

The Morning Post. Page 5, column 4, “The Late Lady Franklin.”

“The funeral cortége reached the chapel of the cemetery at a quarter-past two o’clock, where the body was removed from the hearse, and the coffin, having been covered with the pall, was supported by the following bearers:— Rear-Admiral Sir Francis L. M’Clintock, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Collinson, Admiral Richards, Admiral Ommanney, Mr. Leigh Smith, and Mr. John Barrow. The body having been placed on the bier in the centre of the chapel, and the mourners having taken their seats, the burial service was read by Bishop Nixon, assisted by the Rev. Charles Stuart, chaplain to the cemetery. The chapel was filled, the majority of the congregation being ladies. ... The outer coffin, which was of plain oak with black handles, the brass plate on the lid bearing the following simple inscription:— “Jane Lady Franklin, died 18th July, 1875, aged 83 years,” was finally deposited by the side of Lady Franklin’s sister, Lady Simkinson [sic], in the old catacombs under the chapel. A number of immortelles were placed on the coffin on its being deposited in the recess.”

24 July 1875.

Hampshire Telegraph & Sussex Chronicle. Page 8, column 5, “Funeral of Lady Franklin.”

This newspaper suggests the line breaks for the brass coffin plaque as follows:

The coffin bore the plain inscription—
JANE, LADY FRANKLIN,
Died 18th July, 1875.
Aged 88.

As they report the age at death incorrectly (83, not 88), the accuracy of these line breaks may be questioned.

24 July 1875.

The Hour (London). Page 6, column 2, “Funeral of Lady Franklin.”

“As the coffin was being lowered into the vault it was covered with a profusion of cut flowers and several wreaths.”

24 July 1875.

The Times (London). Page 7, column 4, “Lady Franklin.”

“The outer coffin was of plain oak, with black handles, the brass plate on the lid bearing the following inscription: “Jane Lady Franklin, died 18th of July, 1875, aged 83 years.””

24 July 1875.

The Telegraph (London).

“A large crowd of persons, who preserved the utmost order and decency of demeanour, patiently waited till one by one they could descend the stairs from the chapel floor and view the coffin, covered with immortelles and wreaths of fresh white flowers. The rain, which had been threatening for some time, fell heavily as the mourners were on their way home and the scattered crowd was emerging from the cemetery gates.”

Miscellaneous sources:

Comments from William Parker Snow on Jane Franklin’s funeral can be found in one of Snow’s scrapbooks of newspaper clippings (RGS WPS-16-3) held by the Royal Geographical Society, London.

On the page marked 248, Snow appends the following comment in the margin to the Telegraph article (24 July 1875) on Jane Franklin’s funeral, near a section that had listed “men of note in Arctic history” who were in attendance:

“also W. Parker Snow who though known to be there, ill, footsore, and suffering want, yet could not be mentioned. He was however cordially recognized by Adml.s McClintock + Collinson + Mr Barrow + Capt. Chey...”

On the following page, marked 249, is a letter to the editor by Snow regarding the funeral, dated July 26th, titled “The Late Lady Franklin,” published in an unnamed newspaper:

“In the silent pressure of the hand that greeted me from several of those distinguished Arctic chiefs and heroes, I forgot everything for the moment but the mournful ceremony we were attending. ... There likewise was another gallant admiral, whose name alone, McClintock, suffices as an embodiment of all that is heroic and daring in the cause of Arctic science and humanity. He, too, had I first met in that same icy Melville Bay, and cordially did he, with others, silently greet me now.”

Cyriax’s letter (LAC MG30-B54) to A.G.E. Jones regarding his visit to Catacomb B, dated 19 December 1957, is held by Library and Archives Canada.

Hardwicke Drummond Rawnsley’s letter (RR/1/16) to his mother Catherine regarding the funeral of Jane Franklin is held in the family archives of Mary Williamson, a descendant of Sir John Franklin and Hardwicke Rawnsley. Mary acknowledges her relative Rosalind Rawnsley for the preservation of the letter. Quotations in this article are from Mary Williamson’s transcription of the letter. See Appendix 1 for further information.

The Franklin Expedition documentary Arctic Tomb (2001) was written and directed by Nigel Turner for the History Channel. This documentary put practically every noted Franklinist alive onto the screen, including Louie Kamookak, Dave Woodman, Anne Keenleyside, Margaret Bertulli, Roderic Owen, Jim Savelle, Robert Grenier, George Hobson, Fergus Fleming, Francis Spufford, Chauncey Loomis, Ranulph Fiennes — and with Owen Beattie and Ann Savours thanked in the credits. A recording has been preserved by Franklin buff and raconteur William A. Greenwell (link). Unaccountably, and despite filming inside Catacomb B, the documentary makes the following claim (emphasis added): “When she [Jane Franklin] died in 1875, she was laid to rest in this catacomb, with a space next to her reserved for Sir John.”

The Griffin sisters’ plaque inscriptions:

Daughters of John Griffin Esq

Lovely In their lives

in death they were not divided

Mary

Lady

Simpkinson

Died

dec 18

1854

Jane

Lady

Franklin

Died

July 18

1875

– L.Z. April 7th, 2024.