The collection and collation of details about the burials at St James Anglican Church cemetery, Franklin Village had their origin in two identified needs: to provide information requested frequently about family members and district pioneers buried in the cemetery and to save data to the church archives for reference by future generations.

The project has been undertaken by a group working within the Franklin Village Heritage Precinct Committee set up in 2009 to promote the extant heritage elements of the early colonial village and to ensure the future of the Franklin Village identity. The Committee comprises representatives of the Franklin House Committee, the Anglican Parish of Launceston South Council and the Kings Meadows Lions Club.

Photographs of the existing headstones and plaques in the cemetery was undertaken and are available to view on the next page. A transcript of burial records is also included

• Click here for photographs
• Click here for burials transcript

Background

The Anglican Cemetery at Franklin Village is situated in the grounds of the Anglican Church of St James at 418 Hobart Road within the Municipality of Launceston. It is approximately 8 km from the City Centre on a major southern arterial road, formerly the main Launceston to Hobart Highway. It is served by a regular Metro bus service.

The church was built in response to a petition from local residents to the newly-elected Bishop of Tasmania, Francis Nixon, to provide a regular Sunday service in the village. He agreed on condition that a suitable building be provided for the purpose. Britton Jones, a local innkeeper and brewer, donated land for a building to house a chapel "for the celebration of Divine Worship according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the United Church of England and Ireland" and for a school. A portion of the land was also to be used as a place of burial.

Residents, led by William Keeler Hawkes, Headmaster of the Classical and Commercial School opposite, assisted by a grant from the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge in London, raised funds for the erection of the building originally known as Franklin Village Chapel. On 15 April 1845 at a service attended by members of the clergy and about 300 residents the Bishop issued a licence for the conduct of services. On this occasion the cemetery was consecrated. The chapel, which also housed a village school from 1847, was built in Primitive Gothic Style and was the seventh oldest Anglican church to be built in Tasmania.

In 1926 the church building was consecrated and renamed St James. As the only burial ground in the area the cemetery contains the graves of the pioneers of the district which stretched from Kings Meadows to Breadalbane and Relbia.