Cemetery vs Graveyard

Question

I read this week that a graveyard is adjacent to a church (and may not contain cremation remains?) and a cemetery stands alone.  I had never made the distinction in my mind before.  Anyone know of a case that contradicts that information?  Burial Ground seems to be another common attribution for older "cemeteries".   In 6th grade i learned that when you go into a cemetery you  say  e    e    e  and have never misspelled it since! :)

Comments

In England the usual medieval term was churchyard.  But at that time it was basically an open space, usable for other purposes.  The gentry were inside the church, and the plebs couldn't afford permanent memorials.  Coffins weren't buried - they'd want the remains to disappear before they re-used the same spot for somebody else.

Quakers started burial grounds in the 17th century.  They thought memorials were too pretentious.

Things changed in the 18th century, when the better-off plebs could afford headstones.  The churchyards started to fill up, and eventually they'd have to think about allocating more land, which might not be adjacent to the church.  Spaces full of permanent graves were now a feature of the landscape, and the word graveyard seems to have entered the language in that era.

The word cemetery wasn't used much until the mid-19th century, when local bigwigs were authorized to set up committees to run public cemeteries.  There were a few commercial cemeteries before that.

Nowadays the word graveyard is atmospheric - it mostly seems to be used with word like disused, overgrown or derelict.  Or something spooky.

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We (i.e) I've just asked my husband  still call the land around the church ' the churchyard.' (As a vicar's son husband spent hours mowing one his school holidays) If they are still open, cremated remains  can buried in C of E churchyards .

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Interesting.

I have two examples... an 1823 deed "for the sole purpose of the recipients and their heirs to use as a burial ground." and another 1835 deed where "he reserved to himself and the public about one fourth of an acre of land as a burying ground."

These amazing deed finds were a gg grandfather and a ggg grandfather. Both, interestingly, were shortly after a family member died.

Answer 1

I like your mnemonic about spelling cemetery! Very clever.