Jeanette Pickersgill (30 November 1813 – 20 March 1885) was an English painter, She was the first person to be legally

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

in the United Kingdom, at Woking Crematorium in Surrey.

Life

She was born Jeannette Caroline Grover in 1813 in Amsterdam. She married the artist Henry Hall Pickersgill on 20 July 1837 at

St Anne's, Soho Saint Anne's Church serves in the Church of England the Soho section of London. It was consecrated on 21 March 1686 by Bishop Henry Compton as the parish church of the new civil and ecclesiastical parish of St Anne, created from part of the pari ...

. He died 7 January 1861. She published a volume of poetry in 1827 entitled ''Tales of the Harem''. She exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1848 and 1863. The 1881 Census lists her as an annuitant living at 59

Dorset Square Dorset Square is a garden square in Marylebone, London. All buildings fronting it are terraced houses and listed, in the mainstream (initial) category. It takes up the site of Lord's (MCC's) Old Cricket Ground, which lasted 23 years until the ...

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

in London. On her death ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' described Pickersgill as "a well-known figure in literary and scientific circles".

Cremation and aftermath

Pickersgill was cremated six days after her death. The great concern at the time was that the person may not be actually dead, and the thought of being burned alive was too shocking for the Victorians to contemplate. Due to this concern, two doctors certified that Pickersgill was dead. The cremation took one hour and 15 minutes. The notes in the cremation register record that the remains were later taken, in the 20th century, to

Golders Green Crematorium Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000 (the equivalent of £135,987 in 2021), ...

's East Columbarium. By year's end, only three cremations had taken place out of 597,357 deaths in the UK. At that time cremation was championed by the

Cremation Society of Great Britain The Cremation Society of Great Britain (now known as The Cremation Society) was founded in 1874 to promote the use of cremation as an alternative means of dealing with the bodies of the dead instead of burial which until then was the only option. T ...

. By 1901, with six crematoria established, only 427 cremations took place out of 551,585 deaths - less than one-tenth of one percent. However, by the end of the century (2000), over 240 crematoria were in use. Over 70% of the deceased were cremated (437,609 out of 611,960 deaths).The Cremation Society of Great Britain - National Cremation Statistics 1960-2009
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickersgill, Jeanette 1813 births 1885 deaths 19th-century English painters 19th-century English poets Artists from Amsterdam Cremation Death in the United Kingdom Dutch emigrants to England Writers from Amsterdam

Life

Cremation and aftermath

See also

References