“Robert Henry Antill made reference to Vault Hill in his 1937 will attaching a list of the people buried at the cemetery. The list has not survived and with the annihilation of the bulk of the headstones, history cannot know all the names of the people buried on the hill,’’ writes Lynnette Styles in her latest book, Death of Vault Hill.
Ms Styles, a former Wollondilly Shire councillor, and a lawyer by trade, goes on to say in the epilogue:
“Grains of information that have filtered through time suggest that there were others employed at Jarvisfield and children of residents living at neighbouring Brookside were also buried at Vault Hill, but there is no traceable evidence to establish who those souls were.’’
Sad as the subject matter Ms Styles has chosen to write about is, Death of Vault Hill is a valuable addition to the recorded history of Picton.
She has identified up to 30 people who were buried at Vault Hill, and proceeds to tell us about their lives and times.
The Antill family vault and cemetery high up on Vault Hill is in almost complete ruins courtesy of repeated acts of vandalism over the past 50-60 years.
With this book, Styles has created a wonderful record of the people whose final resting place was Vault Hill, which rises like a giant above the township founded by Major Henry Colden Antill midway through the 19th century.
Or as emeritus professor Jenny Hocking wrote in the foreword to the book: “In the Death of Vault Hill Lynette Styles has not only retrieved the Antill family from a forgotten history, she has made an unassailable argument for the urgent restoration and preservation of Vault Hill as a critical part of it. For the sake of our history, I hope it is heard.’’
As you read through the lives of the Antill clan you realise that this is more than just the history of Picton.
The Antills were an important colonial family, with the New York born Major Antill, who arrived in Port Jackson in 1809, becoming Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s right hand man.
His reward was a 2000 acre land grant which became known as Jarvisfield and include Vault Hill. He later subdivided the land, creating much of what is Picton today.
Styles weaves the individual stories of the Antills who were buried at Vault Hill to produce an excellent historical record of Picton, the Macarthur district and Sydney.
If you wish to get a copy of Death of Vault Hill, contact the author at lynettestyles3@gmail.com
Disclosure: Death of Vault Hill is dedicated to me, which I agreed with when the offer was made. However, in retrospect, I wish that I had recommended that it was dedicated to the South West Voice.
