Burial Certificate

This printed certificate was used by prison authorities to record the burial of a prisoner who died in custody. The form required a warder to certify that they had witnessed the burial and to record the cemetery where the body was interred. It also confirmed that a religious burial service had been conducted and asked the warder to record the denomination of the clergyman who officiated.

The heading “His Majesty’s Gaol” indicates that the form was produced after 1901, following the death of Queen Victoria and the accession of King Edward VII. Earlier prison forms used the title “Her Majesty’s.”

The certificate asks the warder to record the cemetery in which the burial took place, indicating that the burial occurred outside the prison grounds. Prisoners who died in custody at HM Prison Pentridge were typically buried in nearby public cemeteries, most commonly Coburg Cemetery or Melbourne General Cemetery. After its opening in 1906, Fawkner Memorial Park also became a likely burial place.

Executed prisoners were treated differently. From the 1860s, legislation required that prisoners executed for murder be buried within the prison grounds rather than in public cemeteries. This rule was formalised in Victoria under the Criminal Law and Practice Statute 1864, which required burial within the prison where the execution took place.

The Oyster Shop Incident

In 1853 the body of bushranger George Melville was released to his family after his execution at Old Melbourne Gaol. According to contemporary reports, his widow placed the body on display in the window of her oyster shop in Little Bourke Street, attracting curious crowds.

While unusual, the incident illustrates how the bodies of executed prisoners could become public spectacles in the mid-nineteenth century. In later decades authorities moved to prevent such displays. Victorian law eventually required that prisoners executed for murder be buried within the prison grounds rather than in public cemeteries, a rule formalised under the Criminal Law and Practice Statute 1864.

Criminal Law and Practice Statute 1864