Holdsworth Vick White Arnot Anderson

Joseph Holdsworth is buried in a cul de sac in the Newton Kyme churchyard. The question I've had is whether it was like that at time of burial and if there was a reason for the placement and if so whether choice existed. The answer is inconclusive due to proximity of critical events and lack of documentation about the date of the wall constructed between Fairfax property and churchyard from the church. Finalization of the 1846 tithe maps and Joseph's burial occurred within a few weeks of each other. The map showed that what had originally been a straight line boundary dipped down in the 1846 map so that the boundary between church land and Fairfax land followed the line of church wall whereas it had previously been quite a few meters out providing greater churchyard land. A document written by a church rector claimed the change occurred during the term of one of his predecessors.

Esther WILKINS (daughter) of Darrington, near Pontefract, was present at the death and registered it.

At that time typhoid was a nasty prolonged illness which is no doubt why Esther was summoned to nurse her mother. It is caused by the ingestion of food or fluid infected by a specific bacterium which entered the food chain due to poor hygiene or poor sanitation. Leeds was growing rapidly during Mary's life there resulting in reduced open land and gardens and increasing numbers of small sized housing and commercial developments most of which had limited washing and sanitation in close association with wells providing water for all purposes.