A spot of taphophilia - visiting William Smith Williams' Grave, Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

Following a few recent trips to graves, a friend taught me a couple of new words:

'Taphophile': as in the Greek for grave / burial monument (tapho) - philological study of words/language - root also found in cenotaph and epitaph  - and phile meaning lover /enthusiast.

'Taphophile' being a person interested in cemeteries and gravestones.

'Taphophilia' = enthusiasm for cemeteries and graves!

Photo of William Smith Williams on the front cover of his great grandnephew’s excellent biography 'Charlotte Bronte's Devotee'. Philip is the great grandson of William’s brother Richard. 

 Whilst visiting my friend in London, who is also an avid Brontë fan, we decided to nip on the bus from her house to Kensal Green Cemetery to seek out the grave of William Smith Williams. Without his input, Charlotte Brontë’s life would have been very different to the one she lead as it was he who ‘spotted’ Jane Eyre.

The east gate of Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

William Smith Williams was the Reader for the publishers Smith, Elder & Co. and it was to that publisher that Charlotte Brontë sent the manuscript of her first novel ‘The Professor.' 

In July 1847, George Smith, the young publisher of the company bearing his name wandered up to William’s desk at 65 Cornhill, London with a parcel containing Charlotte’s manuscript. It had already been turned down by another publisher so would Smith, Elder & Co. be interested? 

William didn’t have time to read the manuscript at work and so took it home with him to 3 Campden Hill Terrace where his wife and eight children resided. Miraculously he must  have managed to find some quiet time, and, after reading it, with the usual care and respect he was known for, he concluded that this novel, from the pen of an unknown male author he assumed, was not really suitable for publication. However, when he discussed it with George Smith in the office, William Smith Williams determined that the author should be encouraged to write another work for their consideration. Therefore, he wrote to Currer Bell with this recommendation and she replied on 7th August 1847 to say she was approximately only a month away from finishing a novel called ‘Jane Eyre' which she would send on to him. And reader, the rest, as they say, is history!

William apparently stayed up all night to read it. Later, George Smith his boss of the publishing company, would  also become instantly gripped by the novel. In his memoirs George explains that he was supposed to meet a friend at 12 noon one Sunday when, after breakfast, he sat in his study to start reading the manuscript, only to find “the story quickly took me captive.” In the end, unable to put the tale down, he sent a note to his friend via his groom to say he was unable to meet him. By dinner time that evening George had managed to read the whole manuscript.

Jane Eyre was published on 19th October 1847 and over the next four years Charlotte Brontë and William Smith Williams would write and receive approximately two hundred letters to each other. Only one of William’s letters to her has survived; the one he wrote to her after Emily’s death in December 1848. However, William carefully kept her letters to him.

William became Charlotte’s mentor, helping her with her punctuation which she admitted was not a strength of hers! Over the years they developed a close friendship and he supported her through the worst periods of her life when her siblings died one by one. He supported her as a writer but also as a friend. Indeed she also supported him as a friend whenever he needed her advice, encouragement and sympathy. Their friendship was important to each of them. Their letters were their way of keeping in touch.

William died twenty years after Charlotte at his final home in Twickenham on 26th August 1875 of prostatic hypertrophy and senile dementia. 

My friend and I went in search of his grave to pay our respects to someone so important in Charlotte’s life. Online research via 'findagrave' told us the grave was in plot 111 number 18770

Findagrave information on William's plot.

On arriving at Kensal Green Cemetery we spotted a cemetery map divided into numbered plots. The plot 111 we were seeking appeared to be to the left of the steps of the now derelict grade one listed Anglican Chapel. Finding the chapel was easy but then locating the grave is a little like looking for the needle in the proverbial haystack. Nowadays, the older parts of cemeteries are allowed to become natural wildlife areas…basically there are probably no surviving relatives still in the vicinity visiting their forebears’ graves so the grass around isn’t mown frequently . The overgrowth makes it tricky to read the graves and also fairly hazardous to wade through as one can easily trip over the low stone plinths often surrounding a grave.

My friend, Liliana and I had booked on a tour of the cemetery which met at 2p.m. on the Anglican chapel’s steps. I asked our lovely tour guide if William’s grave would be on the tour but it was not. Indeed, she didn’t know who William Smith Williams was until we explained. Now she does and will hopefully refer to his being there to future tourists. However, she asked her husband to go and see if he could locate the grave for us. I showed him a photo of what it looks like to help him to better spot it. Here it is.

William Smith William’s grave

Prior to the tour I had about ten minutes to try and spot the grave but it wasn’t easy as there are no numbered signs advising you that you are in plot 111. You just guess based on the cemetery plan. 

Here is the grave amongst so many others! Easy to spot once you find it but just one of many when initially searching!

Fortunately, our helper found the grave and we were delighted to carefully approach it through the long grass. 

                                              

Look for this large cube shaped grave just on the path to the left of the Anglican chapel’s steps. It has two circles engraved on the side. William’s grave is opposite this and about three rows back. 

Having contacted one of the London and S.E. Brontë group we were told, 'along with the Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery and The General Cemetery Co, we got permission for a new plaque for WSW. David Kelly was the designer and sculptor of the plaque of Cumbrian green slate. This was done with the blessing of the Bronte Society who paid for the plaque. The plaque was unveiled in January 2018'.

The Cumbrian slate plaque as we found it in 2024

                                                  

The plaque when new.

                                                

Philip Hamlyn Williams - the great grandnephew of William Smith Williams - unveiling the memorial plaque to his great grand uncle in January 2018.

Liliana carefully picking her way through the long grass to William Smith William’s grave.

Mission accomplished - Joanne and Liliana paying their respects to William Smith Williams. 

Liliana is the author of a beautiful cycle of poems about Anne Brontë called 'The Third Sister Speaks' available on Amazon and EBay. 

Joanne enjoying reading Liliana’s poems whilst on a visit to the Brontë Parsonage 

Liliana will be publishing a cycle of poems in 2025 about Emily called “Living The Loss” having recently won a poetry competition run by the publisher Cinnamon Press. Well done and very much deserved Liliana!

We were very happy to have found William's grave and grateful to the tour leader's husband for searching it out for us. 

Whilst on the tour we were interested to hear that Anthony Trollope is also buried in the cemetery, but unfortunately we didn't get to see it this time. However, the tour leader did take us past the grave of another great literary giant of the 19th century and a hero of Charlotte's William Makepeace Thackeray.

His grave was totally none-descript and fairly dilapidated. We could quite easily have walked past it and never known he was resting there.

William Makepeace Thackeray's Grave in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Thackeray's House on Young Street in neighbouring Kensington.

Was this the bow window Charlotte went to sit in to chat with the family governess when she visited Thackeray's house in June 1850? She was so painfully shy at this dinner party thrown in her honour that she chose to sit quietly in the bow-window.

In one of his obituaries published in The Athenaeum, for which he had written over many years, they wrote the following:

'In reading the announcement [of his death] many will feel that they have lost the most agreeable and valued friend and a real feeling of sorrow will be felt by a wide literary circle; for in the course of his duties Mr Williams was necessarily brought into the immediate relations with very many of the literary celebrities of his time, and his well-known gentleman-like and engaging manner and obliging disposition endeared him to all who had dealings with him. His literary taste was excellent, and he had great powers of discernment. His judgement and his opinion regarding the works was very highly valued, more especially by young authors.'

I am sure Charlotte Bronte would have agreed wholeheartedly with this description of William Smith Williams had she survived him. She did truly owe this man very much. He was both her mentor and her good friend.