Category: Friends’ Burial Ground, Warminster

Extract from The Changing Face Of Warminster by Wilfred Middlebrook, published in 1971:

By the side of this lane [from Bugley to Cley Hill], well up beneath the shadow of Cley Hill, and now ploughed up into oblivion, was an old Quaker burial ground.

There were several Quakers in Warminster in the hey-day of the clothing industry, with a Meeting House in Common Close that was afterwards a malthouse.

The last Quaker in the town was George Gardiner who died in 1795, but two other Quakers were brought some distance in the nineteenth century and buried in this tiny graveyard at Leynes, near Bugley; a graveyard some fifteen yards long and seven wide, enclosed with a low stone wall, near a few trees. No trace now remains.

The Rev. John J. Daniell, in his book The History Of Warminster, published in 1879, noted:

Quakers
Several quakers lived in the town during the active times of the clothing trade. Some of the Whittuck, Buckler, and Butler families were of that persuasion. They had a meeting-house in Common Close, afterwards a malt-house. William Penn preached in Warminster, and George Wansey became a convert on the spot. The last Quaker in the town was George Gardiner, who died 1795, but two persons were brought from a distance, and buried in the little lonely grave-yard at Leynes [Laynes], near Bugley within the memory of men yet living. The grave-yard is fifteen yards long, and seven wide, enclosed within a low wall, near a few trees, beside the old pack-horse track from Bugley to Cley Hill. Two mounds alone remain. George Wansey was buried there in 1699. The register of Quaker burials extends from 10 May, 1696 to 1727. Many burials of Quakers are entered in the Church Register also. £100 are left on trust for the support of the Quaker interest in Warminster.