An overview of some of the notable early European settlers buried in the Richmond Cemetery and detailing their contributions to the town, their families, and their final resting places. Including John Sheat, James Blair, John Wallis Barnicoat, and others whose legacies are reflected in local street names.
In the mid-1850s, six acres of land were purchased from W. O. Cautley to establish a public cemetery in Richmond. The land was surveyed by Thomas J. Thompson, who was appointed a trustee, along with John Young, Jacob Batey, Thomas Butler, and William Harkness. The cemetery was open to all, and paupers' burials were conducted free of charge. The first burial took place on 18 October 1856.
A mortuary chapel seating around 60 people once stood inside the cemetery gates on the south side but was demolished around 1940. The cemetery was taken over by the Richmond Borough Council in 1894.
Richmond's first Borough Council 1891
Standing from left in the photograph, John Croucher, Joseph Best, Alfred Sheat, James Blair (Town Clerk). Seated from left in the photograph, are Samuel Fittall, Joshua Papps, George Talbot (Mayor), and William Harkness.
As you walk through Richmond Cemetery, many of the names you see on the headstones may already be familiar—not from history books, but from the streets you travel every day. The roads, streets and avenues of Richmond carry the names of influential figures, pioneers, and community leaders who left a lasting impact on the town they helped build.
In 2024 Cheryl Carnahan, Sylvia Rumball, Karel Wallace and Dennis Bush-King, members of the New Zealand Society of Genealogists Nelson Branch, researched the people behind those street names, and conducted a tour of the Richmond Cemetery. offering visitors an opportunity to explore the gravestones and uncover the stories of those laid to rest.
We invite you to take your own tour through the cemetery using the document they compiled. Accessible here:
Included in the above document are the names of the following individuals buried in the cemetery, along with the stories behind the streets named in their honour.
Story by: Cheryl Carnahan, Sylvia Rumball, Karel Wallace and Dennis Bush-King