All Saints Cemetery was established around 1840 as the cemetery associated with All Saints Anglican Church, about 500m south of the cemetery, in Victoria Road, Parramatta. It occupies a site of about 4 acres and is laid out on either side of a central drive running through the length of the cemetery. In recent years, work has been undertaken to restore and redevelop the site and many of the fallen and broken stones have been re-erected and repaired.
According to information posted on the site, most burials took place during the latter half of the 19th century but the cemetery was used occasionally during the 20th century, the last recorded burial taking place in 1992. There are a number of inscriptions subsequent to that date but they are possibly memorials rather than indicative of actual burials. The onsite information states:
"Around 2000 people are known to buried here, some 1500 in unmarked graves. Poor, insane, abandoned, destitute and soon forgotten, most died as inmates of the Parramatta Lunatic Asylum, Parramatta Gaol, the Female Orphan School, Parramatta Orphan School and other benevolent institutions in the area. The remaining gravestones mark the resting place of Parramatta citizens from a range of social backgrounds including many from prominent families of the area."
The names of all those known to be buried here are listed on plaques mounted on a stone wall in order of their dates of death. There are several hundred inscriptions on the remaining headstones, many of which, for some reason, are not included in that list of burials. Amongst the standing stones is one over the grave of the renowned leader of the party who were first to find a way over the Blue Mountains in 1813, Gregory Blaxland.
Michael Brookhouse has kindly provided his images and listing of all visible inscriptions that he made of All Saints Cemetery between March and May 2011. Michael's pictures may be downloaded from the list of inscriptions for this cemetery. That list was compiled with reference to the NSW indices of births, deaths and marriages and to the Australian War Memorial online military rolls for additional information. It should be noted, however, that because many of those interred here were persons who were paupers or about whom little or nothing was known, the BDM data is mostly restricted to name and age only. We also found many differences and inconsistencies in the data from the various sources as to spelling of names, dates and ages that were impossible to resolve.