History - The 18th and 19th Centuries
COUNT ZINZENDORF
In 1750 Lindsey House (on Cheyne Walk) with the Beaufort Ground was purchased by Count Zinzendorf and the Moravians, as well as a stable block and garden adjoining the Ground, from Sir Hans Sloane. The entire site was intended to become a Moravian Settlement ‘Sharon’, with Zinzendorf residing in Lindsey House. After the death of Zinzendorf in 1760, the Moravians abandoned plans for ‘Sharon’ and retained only the Close primarily as the Burial Ground of their main congregation, based at Fetter Lane in the City of London.
The Terrace
Sigismund Augustus von Gersdorf, a relative of Count Zinzendorf, designed and built the terrace, completed in 1753.
Studios 1,2, 3, and the Chapel are formed of what was largely the original More stable block. The stables were converted to a Chapel. The façade was modified in the early C19th when converted to use as the Clock House School, a Church of England school for needy boys, from 1812 to 1906. There was a large clock in adjacent Milman’s Street, which gave the school its name. The mortuary building which is now the Chapel and the Burial Ground continued to be used by the Moravians for burial services while the Clockhouse School was open. The present façade is C19th and there was a further modification of the school’s five bays by the Gillicks in the early C 20th, to form three entrances. The back wall, piers and roof are in their Tudor location. The roof is red tiled and the facade is of red brick and of high quality. The extraordinary Tudor oak roof trusses and the back walls are certainly More’s. Beams in both Studio 1 and the Chapel, predate the facing of the exterior.​
The Manse first appears in plans and an elevation of 1834 – a simple brick built, slate roofed cottage of a pair of rooms on the ground floor with kitchen and stair at the back. A space of 5’9” between it and Studio 1 has now been filled in. The building appears to be intact and entirely of the early C19th though built into the earlier walls with some modification to the roofline and piers on the north side. The Gillicks built the porch at the entrance.
BURIAL GROUND OR GOD'S ACRE
The Burial Ground is divided into four squares: two for the single and married Sisters and two for the single and married Brethren. On the West side of the North West square, lie boys and youths. On the East side of the same square, unmarried Brethren are buried. In the North East square, girls and young Sisters lie to the West, and unmarried Sisters to the East. Married Sisters lie in the South Eastern square.
Gravestones lie flat on the ground and generally only carry a name and dates of birth and death. Separation of Brethren and Sisters and simple flat gravestones are traditional customs of Moravian Burial Grounds. Many early gravestones were cut from soft stone, and it was intended that eventually the inscriptions and the stones themselves would disintegrate and be reunited with the ground.
God’s Acre was one of the first areas laid out when the Settlement of ‘Sharon’ was planned here. The Burial Ground site was formerly partially covered in buildings, the foundations of which were occasionally exposed when digging graves.
Nunak
Why is Nunak the Inuit buried outside God’s Acre, and how had he come to England in the 1780s?
There had been earlier groups of Inuit in London. In 1769, the famous Inuit woman Mikak and her child, as well as the boy Karpik, had been taken there. Mikak, feted at Court and in London high society, later returned to Labrador. Karpik, another Inuit boy, died of smallpox in the Moravian settlement of Fulneck in Yorkshire.
Nunak was an unbaptised Inuit. It was during the annual voyage of the mission ship “Harmony’ in 1787 that Nunak was taken to Europe by Captain James Fraser (1746-1808 buried in God’s Acre). The Harmony supplied the Moravian missionaries in Labrador with materials, trading goods, and returned with whalebone and pelts as well as missionary families.​
The Fetter Lane Congregation Diary tells us of Nunak’s arrival. ‘We were also glad to see an Esquimaux, who came hither from Labrador on board the Harmony. He is a Youth of about 18 years of age, who tho’ not Baptized used to frequent the meetings in Labrador. He behaved here in the publick preaching & at a Lovefeast of the S[ing]le Brethren in a very orderly manner, and is very confidently & affectionate in his way. Were we but able to tell him in his own language that his Maker & Redeemer purchased him by his Blood.’ While in England, Nunak stayed with Br Wheeler, a member of the Congregation, but he had very little resistance to European diseases and contracted smallpox.
The Congregation diary reported on Sunday, 1 June 1788: ‘This Day about noon the Youth Nunâck, an Esquimaux who came hither in the Harmony last year, having been ill some Days with the Small Pox; departed this life.’ Nunak was buried the following day. ‘This afternoon the Corpse of Nunack the Esquimaux, was interred in a corner [south-west] of our burying ground. Br[other] Swertner kept a brief but suitable discourse on the occasion. He was 18 years of age, attended the meetings at Nain*, but was not baptized, nor could we with any propriety have administered this Sacrament to him whilst here, for his sickness was very violent, & he was not sufficiently acquainted with the English Language. His walk and conduct, ever since he came, was truly pleasing & edifying, and much more like that of a Christian than the walk of most, who are baptized. Our Br Wheeler, who took him into his house, he loved and respected as a father; He was very contented cheerful & solid and glad to serve where he could, & remarkably fond of attending the public meetings, the time for which he knew exceeding well and would signify by taking his hat, & making signs to go. We could therefore give him a good testimony at his funeral nor can we doubt of our Saviours willingness to save him for the sake of his atoning blood.’
