The Ancient English Cemetery

With the Livornine laws, promulgated by Grand Duke Ferdinando I, starting from 1590, to favor the economy and the repopulation of an unhealthy and malarial zone, the Jewish communities were allowed first, and then all the others, to settle in Livorno. The main purpose was to attract the rich Sephardic communities.

The Holy Inquisition of Pisa, however, was not far away, and those who professed another faith, even if protected by special laws, had to do so with caution and without ostentation. Non-Catholic places of worship and even cemeteries were prohibited. Before the construction of the English cemetery, those who died strangers in Italy ended up buried outside the walls, together with the animals.

The studies carried out by the Livorno delle Nazioni Association have led to new discoveries and to overturn many theories about the English cemetery in via Verdi in Livorno. The date written on the sign is at least a hundred years wrong. The will of an English merchant drawn up in 1643 was discovered in London. He leaves £ 150 for the purchase of burial ground for the English nation in Livorno. The first and oldest burial in the upper left corner of the cemetery dates back to three years later, 1646, belonging, coincidentally, to Daniel Oxenbridge, a friend of those who drafted the will.