The Belfast Charitable Society’s graveyard, today known as Clifton Street Cemetery, provided an important revenue stream to help run the Poor House. Whilst some plots were set aside for the burial of the poor, the majority of burial sites were sold to individuals as private graves.
On This Day (20 February) 1819 Vincenzo Guerini bought the 9th lot on the 5th platform of the ‘New Burying Ground’ as his burial place. Guerini had arrived in Belfast from Naples, first docking in Dublin back in 1806. Guerini advertised in the Belfast Newsletter that he would teach Italian, piano, singing and ‘instruct gentlemen in the art of violin playing’. He continued to develop his business interest in the town, and by 1823 he had added selling pianos. Guerini was also active in the social life of Belfast and with the formation of the Anacreontic Society in 1814 he became the leader of their band. He was involved with the Anacreontic Society for a number of years, and he lead the Society’s orchestra, when it played for the French pianist Kalkbrenner’s visit to the Exchange Rooms in 1824.
