PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Mr. John Wood, a writer in the Council House. The monument over this grave was levelled some years later, when an addition was made to the ground, and the oldest tomb that remained was that of Mrs. Sarah Pearson, aged 19, who died on the 8th of September, 1767. It would appear, however, that the ground at this time had not been consecrated, for, on the 18th of May following, the chaplain, the Rev, William Parry, submitted a letter to the President and Council representing that the great distance of the New Burial Ground from Calcutta, "which I am required to consecrate for immediate use (if required), obliges me to request that you would please to make such an allowance for bearers to attend duty there as you may judge necessary and sufficient for that purpose." The allowance the Board judged sufficient for the reverend gentleman's palkee-bearers was thirty rupees a month, which amount was accordingly added to the chaplain's salary.
Palkee-bearers were at this time regular members of every household staff of servants, and a simple little joke of a clerical brother of Chaplain Parry, the Rev. J. Z. Kiernander, who spoke of his palankeen and bearers as his "coach and four," served to point a moral for many who took the worthy pastor in a literal sense, as even
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